Long flight, hot weather, bright lights, and diarrhoea.
We have had a week of acclimatising to the shock of what Tokyo throws our way; the heat, the crowds, the skyline, the transit system! Long walks with too much luggage and broken wheels to get our lives in order. All in all we’ve done a great job setting up our life here for the next 2 months. It's taking time to get used to this heat though, Japanese summers are like their cicadas - relentless. Whats also taking time to get used to are these door frames, I've lost count the amount of times I've hit my head walking through our house, so I've decided to keep count until it stops happening, or I forget from concussion (one serious knock has left me with quite the bruise and headache).
Rather than complain about everything though (despite the whinging above, it has been an absolutely fantastic time so far!) I will instead journal about my time about the ups and downs of being at the coal face of the Japanese medical system and our adventures outside of Tokyo. I see it as a way to catalogue my experiences, as Elective placements like this require a large written report to be submitted on returning to New Zealand. So this will serve as a data mine if you will for that behemoth later on.
So, to start, today was the official start of my 8 week stint at Tokyo Medical University Hospital! Starting at the same time as me is a young man from the Netherlands, spending 6 weeks here so we are not alone in being the only complete novices at the language and the system.
We were orientated and shown through the 20 storey complex by the staff of the Center for International Relations, who have been absolutely amazing in getting Holly and I set up here. The hospital is very new (pictures soon), revamped and renovated to accommodate the influx of people expected with the 2020 Olympics. Most surprising were the 9th and 19th floors.
The entire 9th floor is dedicated to food and functions, holding within it a very large konbini (Japanese convenience stores are mad and I love them), a full restaurant for patients and their visitors, and the staff canteen. The 19th is a floor dedicated to V.I.Ps. I’ll go into further detail on the Japanese model of healthcare in a later post, but in essence it is an interesting blend of socialized healthcare and fee-for-service provision. The 19th floor takes this fee-for-service provision to strange new places and is essentially an executive floor of an hotel, with luxurious rooms the size of our apartment, concierge service, top floor views of the Tokyo skyline and vending machines offering free food and drinks. Bonkers.
We met our teams soon after our lunch at the aforementioned patient restaurant. For the next four weeks I am placed with the Neurology team. From who I was introduced to my worries of being isolated by language barrier are gone, each seem very happy and comfortable communicating in English, as long as I speak slowly and keep the syllables down. I’ll be under the team that specializes in stroke but currently under our care are patients with Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple System Atrophy. I think it's safe to say I am very interested to see what the next few week have in store, how patients with these neurological conditions are treated and cared for, starting tomorrow with the Professor's Round.
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