Blogging when my mind is messy - Finding relief after worrying about unexpected asthma!

I have a lot to blog about this week, but unfortunately my mind is a jumbled mess. It’s no wonder, since I have been suffering from asthma symptoms for the first time in more than 10 years, and although the symptoms are mild, I am keenly aware that my body’s resistance has been weakening every day. I know that my life is only as good as my health, and I try to take good care of myself, but I can’t help but catch up on all my emails from staff members. By the way, it’s past one o’clock in the evening and I’m still up poking fun at them. I should just ignore these boring emails and just go to bed or have a drink to forget about work, but for some reason, I just can’t leave them alone. I’m a very serious person despite what others may think of me otherwise. Maybe I’m cursed, but I can feel my body start to creak.

I had never been known for having asthma. I have lived a healthy life since my youth, so I had never even thought about what could have caused my asthma. What shot an arrow into my healthy body was my sudden move to Narita, my dog Mitchie, and working in the Sound House warehouse. What on earth was going on back then? This just brought back some painful memories.

As I have written many times in my blog before, I first visited Narita in 1992 and everything I owned was packed into my car, my dog Mitchie and my guitar. After driving around Narita for the first time with no idea what to expect, I found and took residence in an old detached one-story Meiji era house that used to be the home of a former politician. The place had previously been loaned out to an American missionary for free, so I was able to take advantage of this and also live there rent-free. I was so grateful to even find a place to stay, but...

Then I had to face the health hazards. “It’s definitely coming...” I’m sure you might have seen Beat Takeshi’s TV show where you can hear the foreboding song foreshadowing that a bad omen is going to come true. The environment of that old musty house, owning a dog, along with the grueling work in the warehouse was taking a toll on my body. My big golden retriever Mitchie was always with me in the car and in the house. Because of this, I’m certain that I was constantly around dog hair and mites. To top it all off, it was extremely dangerous to live in a rundown old house from the Meiji era since I still clearly remember that the house was completely covered in mold. As a result, my body, which had been in excellent physical condition with a strong immune system, began to fray under the onslaught of the fungus.

In addition, the 90’s were the early years of Sound House’s founding, so I had to work intense 15-hour days every day to meet all the grueling demands of the job. The hardest part of the job was working for Sagawa Express, who would come at 11:00 p.m. to pick up the orders. I still remember Mr. Oshima from Sagawa. We looked forward to seeing each other every day and after 11 p.m., we loaded heavy packages onto the Sagawa Express trucks with our bare hands together. Mr. Oshima could load a speaker weighing up to 70 kg onto the truck all by himself by resting it on the top of his thighs. He was a true delivery man, the exact image of Sagawa Express. And there I was with my staff, loading the orders onto the truck along with him. It was always after midnight when we finally finished loading the truck. Those were the early days of Sound House.

I wish I had realized my mistake here, but I had no way of knowing it at the time. Looking back, I inhaled dog mite dust every day, and when I got home, my home was covered in mold. And as for the company, there was no cleaning crew, so we had to hide in a small warehouse without masks, packing and carrying goods, and we were always breathing in the dust from the warehouse. In other words, I had been breathing in mites, mold, and dust for more than three years. I was so stupid.

Then in another year, I went to the NAMM Show in Los Angeles like I had done every year, and I had gone to see a performance at the House of Blues in Hollywood the day before the convention started. At that time, I felt something strange in my body. I had a slight cough that wouldn’t stop. I thought, “What is it? Did I catch a cold?” I was going about my schedule for the NAMM Show without worrying about it. However, the coughing continued throughout the flight home, and I decided to go to the hospital immediately after my return. The doctor told me that it was probably just a cold, and I was relieved.

However, the persistent cough never stopped and grew worse and worse day after day. I began to realize that it was more than just a cold because the cough didn’t stop when I tried answering phone calls during the day. I went to hospital after hospital to have a checkup, only to never get a proper diagnosis. In the meantime, my cough worsened and the cough attacks would happen even when I came to the office. I would continue to miserably cough and wheeze all day long. The staff around me must have felt sorry for me because they would occasionally ask, “Are you all right?”

Because I was suffering so much and my symptoms were only getting worse, I decided to go get checked out at the Nippon Medical School Hokusoh Hospital. It was there that I had finally been diagnosed with asthma. Three months had already passed since I first went to the hospital. Asthma? It was an unexpected conclusion, but after much research, I found that my symptoms were exactly the same as those of a severe asthma patient. The coughing would get particularly worse after going to bed at night and I would wake up several times in a coughing fit. The lack of sleep and the stress from work also prevented me from getting enough rest so my body’s resistance to the disease must have been rapidly weakening. I was given a prescription for my asthma and my days of being overmedicated began.

After the medication was prescribed, the symptoms were supposed to gradually subside. Theodur, a bronchodilator, was my main medication. I don’t remember receiving any steroidal inhalers probably because they were not very popular at that time. I also received an inhaler spray called Berotec to open my bronchial tubes in case I had difficulty breathing. However, my lifestyle did not change, and my daily hard work continued, so I was never free from stress. I guess the neglect to my body was a result of this. Finally, I was faced with death.

By that time, I had already moved out to an apartment in the center of Narita, away from this giant mold dungeon. I should have been free from the mold but unfortunately, it was already too late. My body had reached its limit and lost any ability to resist mold. One night, I came home from work feeling exhausted. And as usual, I went to bed after midnight and fell asleep immediately. Since I was dead tired, I naturally expected to get a good night’s rest. However, about an hour after falling asleep, I was awakened by a raging cough. The cough was the worst I had ever experienced, and I got out of bed in agony.

At that moment, I was astonished! To my surprise, I couldn’t breathe! “What?! Now I can’t even breathe?” That’s right. I found myself unable to breathe at all. A close friend of mine had died of asthma in his twenties. “So this is what it feels like to die from asthma...” The nightmare flashed through my mind. Since it was the 90’s, I didn’t have a cell phone then. There was no way that I was going to die in this apartment in Narita. I was in agony and I couldn’t breathe... I was in a panic and about to give up, but then I suddenly remembered what the doctor had told me; “Use the spray.” On the verge of suffocation and unable to breathe, I looked around for the spray, screaming in my mind, “Here it is!” I grabbed the spray and shoved the container into my mouth. Not knowing whether the spray would work or not, I pushed down the pump with all of my remaining strength. Then, to my surprise, after only one push, my bronchial tubes opened up a little and I was able to breathe again! Thank you God! Thanks to the Berotec spray, I didn’t die that night. Was that what coming back from the brink of death felt like?

The next day, I went straight to the Nippon Medical School Hokusoh Hospital and told the doctor about my horrible choking experience. He gave me a prescription for a steroid pill. That night, before going to bed, I took a steroid tablet for the first time in my life. What did I think? The next day, my asthma was completely cured. I can’t describe the emotion I felt at that moment. Yes, I was completely healed with just one tablet and my coughing stopped. The air felt so much better for the first time in a year. I was able to experience the powerful effects of steroids on my body, and I have been free from asthma ever since.

Why am I writing this? Ahh yes, it’s because my head is in a jumbled mess. Recently, I’ve been experiencing mild asthma symptoms for about a week now. If I take the proper medication and live a stress-free life before my lungs also become a mess, I will soon be healthy again. To do that, I need to stay away from work. If only I could though...