Canon's Diary

Today, my father said he had stomach pain and was going to the hospital. I asked, “Do you want me to take you by car?” but he replied, “I’ll take a taxi.”

In March of last year, my father was hospitalized in an emergency due to severe abdominal pain. He was diagnosed with duodenal papillary cancer. If surgery were to be performed, it would require a procedure called pancreaticoduodenectomy (Whipple procedure). This is a major surgery that involves removing the head of the pancreas (right side of the pancreas), duodenum, part of the bile duct, gallbladder, and sometimes part of the stomach, followed by reconstructing the digestive tract. The surgeon at the municipal hospital, considering my father’s age and physical condition, advised against surgery.

Instead, a stent, a metal tube, was placed in the duodenum to prevent bile from accumulating. However, this sometimes causes inflammation in the affected area, requiring the stent to be replaced periodically. Fortunately, due to his advanced age, the cancer has progressed slowly, and for the past year, he has been quietly recuperating at home under my mother’s care.

After completing a series of tests today, he returned home before noon. However, he will have to visit the hospital again next Tuesday to receive the test results.

Starting in April, I will officially belong to the Osaka headquarters, so I have to go to Osaka from next week. Since my moving date is set for April 26, I will initially be traveling on business trips, but as my new duties begin, I expect to spend longer periods in Osaka. Even though my father’s condition is stable, I can’t help but feel uneasy about staying far away for an extended period—it takes three and a half hours by Shinkansen.

Today, I also received an inquiry from my new boss about my tasks for the next fiscal year. At the same time, I started organizing my room in preparation for the move, so it turned out to be a rather busy day. The plastic storage containersI ordered arrived as scheduled. The rubber bands I bought to secure the cover on my motorcycle also arrived, but they were too short, so I had to buy new ones. As the temperature rose during the day, I turned on the air conditioner for the first time this year.