Hospital Visit

 Yesterday was my 3-month check-up for diabetes.

This appointment is not invasive; it's just a blood test. Nice and easy but I still dread going!

The hospital is not overly large but has its own lab, so you don't have to wait for a week for results. It also has a CT scan, X-ray, and MRI machines available plus to state of the art operating rooms.

I've been going there for about 6 years now and have gotten to know some of the nurses, they know to use simple Japanese with me.

But every time I have an appointment I dread it. It's the waiting that does me!  Yesterday I waited for two and a half hours to talk to the doctor for about 2 minutes!

I know that I'm lucky, this was just to check on my A1C number for diabetes. The good news is that it has gone down a bit, this time was 6.1, normal range is between 4.6 and 6.2.  I am still taking medicines but am heading in the right direction.  At my last appointment, I was asked to check my blood pressure every day, turns out that it is a bit high, about 140 over 85. So I was given medicine for that as well.

So I waited for most of the morning just to get a prescription. I shouldn't complain as I know that in some countries just getting to see a doctor is impossible.

The one problem I have is seeing all the old people who are there. It makes me so sad to see some of them, they are barely alive and I wonder what quality of life do they have.  I wonder if that will be me if a few years time. I hope not and I know that the only way to have a good quality of life as I get older is to take responsibility for my health now.  Not just my physical body but my mind as well.

So I have to try and reduce stress in my life, be more focused on the good that I have and stop with the moaning and victim mentality, easier said than done.  Find things to be grateful for, find humor in situations, learn to laugh at myself and all the dumb things I do. Keep my mind active by studying and reading. Find hobbies that relax me. 

At the moment my stress is high because of moving, just the logistics of that is driving me crazy. I would love to have a week or so where nobody has any commitments, no work, no classes so we could just go and get every thing finished but that isn't go to happen, so we have to work around other commitments and try to get things finished in the short time we have.

A few photos of the area near the hospital. Opposite is the Coke Cola factory!

It was another hot day!  One city, about 20 minutes drive from here ,recorded 60 days of temperatures over 37C! That's crazy!