October 5, 2022

As most of you know, I’ve had a pain and swelling behind my left ear. I visited a specialist doctor at Yokota yesterday. I explained the history of the swelling. Several years ago, I had a swelling in the same location. They removed the liquid from the swelling and checked for cancer. It was benign, or not cancerous. A few weeks ago, the swelling came back, and it was painful when I first start chewing on food. After a few chews, the pain goes away.

Yesterday, after listening to my explanation, he diagnosed the problem and them read the report on what the doctor diagnosed on the problem from several years ago. His diagnosis was the same and the previous doctor’s. He said that the pain is being caused by a different problem. It is possible that I have arthritis of the jaw (顎関節症 Agokansetsushō). The basic treatment is to apply heat to the jaw joint, drink much water and take so-so strong pain medication. I started the treatment and I feel slightly better. I will continue for one month and then see the doctor again. Hopefully by then I will be pain-free. Getting old is so much fun, hip joint problems, foot problems, jaw joint problems, etc. What’s next? Knee joints? Oh well, that’s life. I know that there are so many more people with worse problems than me, so I should be happy and appreciate what I have.

There is an old proverb, “I cried because I had no shoes, then I met a man with no feet.” Whenever I feel down because of a problem that I have, I think of this proverb. I am a very lucky person. Always think positive!

As I mentioned to some of you, my grandson, Tyler, was promoted to the varsity high school football team. He is now on the same team as his older brother, Maxwell. Varsity athletes are usually older and have more experience. Tyler has great abilities, so he was promoted, but because he is a few years younger than his teammate, he doesn’t get much play time. Just the fact that he was promoted is a great honor. He only plays about ten minutes in the varsity (one-hour) games, but he continues to play both offense and defense on the junior varsity team. So, he practices everyday and plays in two games a week. Here is a photo of Max (64) and Tyler (25). Last year the varsity team lost one game. This year they have won all games so far with scores of 35-7, 57-0, 21-2, 47-6 and 42-20.