Hello everybody. There will be no "Words of the Week" while i am gone. Instead, I will post my "what's new" here. Here is the first:

September 11, 2024

Good morning!

First, I just noticed the date “9/11” I will never forget what happened on this day in 2001.

I visited the Pulmonary doctor (a.k.a. lung doctor) yesterday. She gave me a lot of information, but they are still not sure what the nodule is. (A nodule is a growth inside the body. In my case, the nodule is in my lung.) To get more information, they must take out a piece of the nodule and look at it under a microscope. This is called a “biopsy.” There are three ways to get the biopsy. First, a long needle goes in and takes a small piece. Second, a camera goes in the mouth down to the lung, and third, they will perform a minor surgery to cut through the skin to get a sample.

The lung doctor and two other doctors will discuss which treatment is best while I am on vacation. Using a long needle is usually the easiest method, but since the nodule is in the lung near the diaphragm, the lung is always moving as I breathe. It takes a highly skilled doctor to use this method. Using a camera is the second choice, but the nodule is deep inside the lung and difficult to reach. Performing surgery is probably the easiest. It is minor surgery, but I would have to stay in the hospital for two or three days. (I always ask to leave the hospital early, so maybe one or two days.)

The good news is that lung nodules are usually not cancer. They are usually some types of infection such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, or a few other diseases. These can all be treated with medicines.

I will meet with the doctors on October 21 to discuss which treatments they will perform.

I will occasionally leave messages here while I am in Anacortes. I will depart Japan from Haneda tomorrow, Thursday 12 September, and arrive in Seattle at about 2:30 pm same day. Marlo has a soccer game that evening at 7 pm. Tyler has his second game of the season on Friday (Saturday in Japan). They won their first game of the season by a score of 66-0. The other team was from Vancouver, Canada. They have very little experience playing, so that’s why the score was so big.

Nick will be teaching most of my lessons while I am gone. For those who will not have lessons with Nick, please study “My Notes.”