Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Plague 2020

　　I read a nonfiction book about the pandemic of the Wuhan virus which had been published just a year ago. I've read five or six nonfiction books by the same journalist before and I believe in his ability of collecting accurate information. The process from the sparse appearance of the virus in Wuhan to June in 2020 was documented precisely and I learned much from the book.
　　Turning back all the history from the bird's view, I noticed several points which I didn't understand in real time. When Wuhan was locked out, the Japanese Government didn't mind the issue. The prevalence of the virus was underestimated in Japan. What who said then is documented in the book. I learned that the Japanese health and labor ministry was unable to control the risk.

(Vocabulary)
sparse まばらな, 少ない, 〈髪が〉 薄い
precisely 正確に, ちょうど

Bridge Closed

　　The Japanese Government asks doctors to cooperate to accelerate the public vaccination as a national policy against the pandemic. The government wants to give it to as many people as possible before the Tokyo Olympics. The local medical association sounded my opinion the other day and I decided to join the vaccination meeting in Fukuyama city.
　　Fukuyama city is located at the opposite side of my hometown across the Seto Inland Sea. A scenic route called Shimanami Kaido connects both cities. Try to google "Shimanami Kaido", you can see beautiful pictures. Read the following paragraphs please, looking at the map to understand the rough picture.
　　I started out at 6:30a.m. When I reached Ikuchijima island, I knew that Innoshima Ohashi Bridge, which connects between Innoshima and Mukaishima islands, was closed due to torrential rain which hampered the sight. I was forced to get off the highway on the first interchange on Innoshima island. If only I could get to the next island of Mukaishima island, I was able to use a ferry boat to Onomichi City on Honshu. While I was waiting for the rain to become weak, another bridge, Ikuchijima Ohashi Bridge was also closed. It meant I was confined to Innoshima island. I'd already given up arriving at the designated site on time, but I became unable to come back home.
　　I heard about a tiny ferry boat for locals in the return direction, and headed for it. The boat was continuously working and I was safely able to come back home. The pictures were shot from the ferry boat. I took on a responsibility for joining the meeting next Thursday. I want to fulfill my task next time.

Patrol of the Blast Furnace

　　I conduct the workplace patrol as one of my tasks. I take on the health care management of several business units now and I patrolled a casting workshop last night. It has some blast furnaces which are driven by electricity in the nighttime as the electricity's cost is lower in the nighttime than in the daytime.
　　The employees throw metals of various sizes into the furnace using the ceiling cranes. It was very interesting to see the metals melting gradually. On the other hand, I realized how hard their work was. Even with the doors of the workshop open to take fresh night air in, the temperature around the employees who operate the furnaces was considerably high. Some workers, who remove the foreign matter floating on the surface of the melted metal, wore protection suits which prevent the workers from the heat and getting burns by the splash of melted metal. The WBGT meter indicated the extremely dangerous score.
　　By the company rules, I wasn't allowed to take pictures of the workshop and I'm sorry not to upload pictures in this entry.

(Vocabulary)
blast furnace 高炉, 溶鉱炉
matter [U](専門) 物質; [U](専門) 膿(うみ), 目やに
organic/vegetable/waste/solid matter 有機物［植物質，老廃物，固形物］

Vaccination Leave

　　I got a vaccination yesterday. I have a general fatigue today. I'm not febrile, but I feel weary anyway. I have a regular appetite luckily and finished breakfast as usual. Then I began reading "Into the Wild", but stopped due to listlessness. I've spent meaningless hours on the sofa until noon. I did almost nothing, but I got hungry. I watched two movies on Netflix in the afternoon over a light snack. I don't like spending time like these, but I had no other way to kill time. Today was the day of no advancement.

(Vocabulary)
listless (疲れて) やる気のない, 無気力な
meaningless 意味のない, 無益な

Inoculation

　　I got the 2nd shot of the vaccination against the Wuhan virus today. As I received an e-mail from the company to inform the employees of the vaccination leave, I took a day-off tomorrow in advance. When I got the injection, I didn't feel so much pain, but as it's getting dark, my left shoulder, the deltoid muscle to be precise, started to be sore. Even turning over in bed is difficult due to the pain. It was a nice judgement to take a day-off tomorrow.

(Vocabulary)
sore (傷・かぶれなどで) 痛い ひりひりする, (筋肉痛などで) 痛い
sore eyes 痛む目

 

Morning Meeting at a Manufacturing Scene

　　One of my tasks as an occupational doctor is the patrol of workplaces. Some of them are offices for paperwork, others are for manual labors. I usually patrol workplaces between 10 to 15:00 hours, but I did it early morning today, as I'd like to see how the morning meeting is in the manual labor workplaces. Their work hours are from 8 to 16:45 including 45 minutes' lunch break. Just at 8:00 o'clock, the radio gymnastics started. I'm not sure, but this gymnastics would be Japan's distinctive custom. The scene where I was was a crane manufacturing workshop and the leader gave a short briefing about the task of the day, then the attendees started brainstorming about possible accidents. I admired their efforts to avoid industrial injuries.
　　I don't remember when exactly, but 5 or 6 years ago, when I got on board the Diamond Princess, there was a gymnastics option in the tourist attraction early in the morning. During the exercises, the radio gymnastics abruptly started. Some Americans were surprised to see the Japanese do gymnastics in the same way, saying "Are all of you the same tour group?" No, Japanese people learn radio gymnastics during compulsory education. This might become a mark indicating that he/she has grown up in Japan.

 

Navy Day

　　Today is Japan's Navy Day, which was abolished in 1945 by the order from GHQ, the Occupation Force to Japan. However, this memorial day should be celebrated even now along with the Army Day of March 10th. These two memorial days are deeply inscribed in Japanese of integrity and became an occasion that those people get together and have a feast in my hometown.
　　To my regret, the meeting was cancelled this year just like last year due to the Wuhan virus pandemic. It seems that the pandemic is being stamped out in my hometown, but some variants are still sometimes reported across Japan. The situation is still open to conjecture.

(Vocabulary)
feast [C] 祝宴, 宴会
stamp sth out ＜社会の害悪など＞を撲滅［根絶］する
conjecture [U] 推測, 憶測
be open to doubt 議論の余地がある
The fate of the bill is still open to conjecture.　この法案の運命はまだ予断を許さない

Inoculation

　　There are several kinds of COVID-19 vaccines on the market. First off, one of them, Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was delivered to Japan and they decided to give shots to health care personnel on a priority basis. I'm a doctor, but I've already retired from the clinical stage and work as an occupation doctor. That means I don't examine patients any more, so I refrained from being inoculated and passed my dose to another person. Recently, however, the government noticed the shortness of medical personnel who inject the vaccine and I was asked to join the inoculation team, and so I took a shot before the shift.
　　I felt no pain on injection. Perfectly no pain. The needle wouldn't hit the pain point simply, would it? However, the muscle pain started that night and I wasn't able to turn over in bed. I was beaten by that. I already knew about the adverse reactions, but didn't expect them to be that heavy. It continues to torture me today, even the next day. I have to receive the same shot three weeks later. Thinking of it, my stomach starts churning.

(Vocabulary)
on a priority basis 優先的に

Lift Restriction

　　My hometown of Matsuyama City has been under strong restrictions on daily activity against the coronavirus pandemic. The health care system was strained to handle a rapid hike in coronavirus cases. Big commercial facilities had been closed for two weeks and the restaurants and bars in which alcoholic drinks were served were closed during the days of restriction. People who run those places would have gone through inconceivable difficulties. However, the cooperation of citizens seems to be very effective and the number of newly infected people has been decreasing. Finally, the authorities lifted the restrictions in my hometown yesterday. The shortening of the work hours is still imposed on restaurants, bars, or some places in which they serve alcoholic drinks, but I think that the present condition of my hometown is on the right track to normal.

(Vocabulary)
inconceivable 想像を絶する, 考えも及ばない

My Present Situation

　　I've worked as a general surgeon for nearly 40 years. After retirement, I changed my jobs and now I work for a manufacturing company. I'm an occupational doctor, and I'm in charge of taking care of employees. I pay attention for employees not to get injured or ill. I'm in the Safety and Hygiene(SH) Department of the company. The SH Department works closely with the HR department. The most difficult part of my tasks is to reinstate long-absent employees especially with mental disorders. I have to arrange their workplaces for them, discussing with their doctors and coworkers. My job is challenging yet very rewarding.

(Vocabulary)
reinstate 〈人〉 を復職［復帰］させる

 

Hide-and-Seek

　　Japan, which used to be on the forefront of vaccine development only 30 years ago, seemingly would have lost the power. Currently, Japan is far behind other developed countries in the way of developing the vaccine against the coronavirus. Four to five companies are striving to develop the vaccine and one of them is said to roll out a vaccine at the end of this year. The pandemic in Japan was milder than that of other countries, so the delivery of the vaccine was apparently delayed. Consequently, the vaccination isn't going well even now in Japan.
　　First off, the vaccination started with medical personnel, then the next was elderly people. As I'm a doctor, I was sounded out about the vaccination myself, but I'm an occupational doctor now and I don't inoculate, so I refused politely to accept the vaccination and passed the vaccine for me to another who actually copes with patients.
　　After the delivery started, the government noticed that they are short of doctors who inoculate people against coronavirus. I was disgusted to know the government's inattention. The action of the government was too late. They started to look for nurses who have the license yet no job. Additionally they started to ask dentists to inoculate. It's just like locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.
　　I don't know if the government was aware of the existence of occupational doctors, but the occupational doctors were excluded from the vaccination. However, the government finally seemed to notice that there are lots of doctors in the industrial sectors, and I was asked if I can help them. I felt as if I was caught by it during hide-and-seek.

(Vocabulary)
in/at the forefront (of something) （＜…＞の）最前線で, 最先端で
sound out «…について»A〈人〉にどう考えているか打診する«about, on»
My boss sounded me out about moving to Hokkaido. 上司が北海道への転勤の打診をしてきた.
bolt [自] 〈人・動物が〉 急に駆け出す［逃げ出す］

Return Ride From A Business Trip

　　I was asked to cover the Okayama Branch from my company since April and I worked in the Okayama Branch today. I visited there by car last time, but I used a JR train this time. The reason why I chose the train is just for relaxation. It takes more than two hours from Okayama to my home by train. What did I do in the train?
　　On the return ride, I enjoyed a movie on Netflix with my small PC as you can see in the following pictures below. Time flied while I was in the movie world and the train arrived in Matsuyama City in a moment.

Lifting Emergency Declaration in Greater Tokyo Region

　　The long-awaited day comes tomorrow. The prime minister, Suga, announced that the Government is going to lift the variety of restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic on the 21st. My company requests its employees to avoid the move to the areas in which the state of emergency is declared. I admire the efforts of the government and people who work in the travel industry and endure hardship under the restriction. I just hope that the epidemic will disappear. I got a flight ticket on the first weekend of April. To where? Of course to Tokyo! I can't wait to meet my granddaughter who was born on Mar. 5th. My wife is in Tokyo now to help our daughter's chores and sends me granddaughter's pictures every day. I've refrained from stepping into downtown and the epidemic areas of the Wuhan virus in my position as an occupational doctor. Shall I go to those places soon?

 

RareJob

　　My company encourages its employees to learn English. My company is one of the representative companies in Japan and some of the employees are required to pick up English to communicate with international customers. My company tied a corporate contract with RareJob, which is an online English education company based in the Philippines, and started offering opportunities to speak English to their employees. 50% of the lesson fee is covered by the company. Additionally, the good attendance and/or the improvement of the TOEIC score being acknowledged, even employees' own expense is supposed to be refunded. All the tutors are from the Philippines and we talk concerning the offered topics for 25 minutes per lesson. The time difference is only an hour between Japan and the Philippines. I was amazed that the founder of RareJob had hit on a good idea and I'm grateful for my company's generosity.
　　I started the lesson on RareJob on March 1st. The lesson continues until the end of the August for six months. What will become of my English speaking skills?

 

Surgery Done

　　My surgery finished successfully for about an hour. I feel I'm recovering from my surgery now. I've performed myself traditional McVay Repair and Iliopubic Tract Repair on a few dozen patients of the inguinal hernia so far, but I adopted a newly developed procedure using artificial membrane for myself. I don't know yet if this decision was right or not, but my symptom has gone and I'm spending time comfortably on my bed, though I feel strong pains when moving. The traditional method leaves a stretched feeling for some time, but I've none now. This would be the most advantageous point of the new method.

(Vocabulary)
a stretched feeling　つっぱり感

 

Preparation for Annual Health Check

　　The staff members of the Safety and Health department of the company started preparation for the annual health check for the employees, which will be held in April. The items of the check would be almost the same in every developed country, but some of the items differ according to the employees' tasks. I've been thinking that I have only to check everyone on autopilot, but I was wrong.
　　The annual health check is provided by the law called Industrial Safety and Health Act and it has several detailed rules. According to employees' occupational condition, the staff members have to see if they have an unfavorable effect from dust, noise, vibration, organic solvent, weld fumes and poisonous substances which my company uses like arsenicum, and biantimony trioxide.
　　That is to say, the health check items vary person by person. This makes the health check complicated. The number of the target employees is more than 3,000. It must be held avoiding congestion as a measure against Covid-19. I'll write about this health check later after it has finished.

(Vocabulary)
Industrial Safety and Health Act　労働安全衛生法
provide that　(フォーマル) 〈法律・規則が〉 …ということを規定する
The law provides that employees have the right to join a union.　その法律は従業員が組合に加入する権利があることを規定している．
solvent 溶剤, 溶媒; (借金の) 支払い能力がある
solvency 支払い能力のある状態
arsenic ヒ素
biantimony trioxide 三酸化二アンチモン
welding fume; weld fume 溶接ヒューム
weld [他] 〈金属〉 を溶接する; (金属の) 溶接部［箇所］

 

Speaking Exercise

　　The progress of internet technology has produced a variety of new business in all kinds of sectors. My company started a program that encourages employees to learn English under a contact with an internet technology company the other day, which connects Philippine students, who live in their country, and Japanese who want to practice English conversation. I applied for this program and was accepted. The practice fee is supposed to be paid by my company for its 70% and my defrayal is only 30%. Additionally even such 30% of lesson fee is expected to be paid by the company if participants attain everyone's goal.
　　I've not so much difficulty in reading English books and papers. I feel a little hardships in writing English sentences, but not much. However, I'm not at all good at speaking English. As for listening, if you speak in clear pronunciation like trained announcers or stage actors, I can catch you, but in noisy circumstances like in the bar, railroad station or somewhere like that, my listening ability heavily deteriorates.
　　This endeavor by my company seemed to have started last year and the result was apparently ideal. That's why the company set the English-learning campaign. Taking advantage of this endeavor, I'm going to practice English conversation.

(Vocabulary)
defrayal 負担
endeavor
[C](フォーマル) 試み
in an endeavor to do something ＜…＞する試みとして
make every endeavor to do something ＜…＞するためにあらゆる試みをする
[U] 努力
scientific/creative/artistic/human endeavor 科学的［創造的，芸術的，人間の］努力

 

フィリピン人と会話練習

インターネットの発達はいろいろなビジネスを生んできたが、フィリピンの大学の学生を雇い、日本人と会話をさせることにより日本人の英語能力向上を目指す英語教育プログラムがある。学生はフィリピン在住で、オンラインでの会話練習だ。
勤務している会社がこの教育会社と契約して社員のうち希望者に英会話のレッスンを受けさせるという社内プログラムがある。去年は数十名が申し込んだらしい。案内が来たので早速申し込んだ。３月１日から開始して８月いっぱいまで。費用負担は本人が3割だが、Toeicのスコアが上がったらレッスン費用は全て会社持ちとのこと。
英語を読むことについてはあまり苦労は無くなったが、書くことには少し苦労があり、話すのは苦手である。聞くことについてはキャスターのような英語でゆっくり喋ってくれたら聞き取れるが、居酒屋で交わされる会話には入ってはいけない。これを奇貨として話すことにも力を入れていきたい。

Backup

　　Lots of countries are suffering from the prevalence of the Wuhan virus. Japan is one of those and medical personnel and other people concerned have been spending hectic days. I left the clinical field last summer and am working as an industrial physician now. That is to say, I don't take on the treatments of the patients of pneumonia any more, but today, I work in a hospital as a substitute of physicians who went out to the front line against the virus.
　　When can human beings overcome the outbreak of the Wuhan virus? I'd like to go out for trips and to have big parties with friends. I'll have my first grandchild next month, but now, my company requests employees not to move across the prefecture's border as much as you can. Only my wife is going to visit my daughter's house to help her for a couple of weeks after the delivery. I have to wait for a few months or so before meeting my grandchild.

 

My Job

　　More than five months have passed since I started my new job as an industrial physician. I'm spending every day with new findings. At present I'm learning a variety of rules concerning occupational health. The rules are called the Industrial Safety and Health Act and are difficult for me, but I have to understand them. I'm heaving a sigh again and again.

 

Inguinal Hernia

　　I suffered from a left inguinal hernia. It might be due to the recent muscle training. I was observing its progress, but I don't think I can get away without surgery.
　　I told my surgical colleagues about it and their reply was like this; "You really picked a fine time to suffer with smiling." In short words, medical personnel are busy now taking care of patients in the midst of the Wuhan virus outbreak. Inguinal hernia is not serious for surgeons and I was a kind of funny topic among them.
　　Anyway, if incarceration happens while waiting for surgery, the partial resection of my intestine might become required, so I don't want to put the surgery off for too long. I decided to undergo the surgery at my mother university though I might become a guinea pig for green doctors.
　　I've done lots of surgeries and anesthesia until now, but it's the first time for me to get surgery. I'm a little scared, but I've no choice but to do so. It takes some time to adjust my schedule and my surgery would be early March.