Drummer, pianist and X JAPAN band leader, Yoshiki, will undergo neck surgery on Monday, July 27, 2009 at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Beverly Hills, CA. Dr. Neel Anand, Director of the Cedars-Sinai Spine Center, will perform a cervical foraminotomy.
Due to his intense drumming style, Yoshiki developed a worsening of his neck pain and left hand numbness over the past month, affecting his music performance. His condition has been evaluated by doctors in the U.S. and Japan. Yoshiki underwent a spinal x-ray series, an MRI of the spine, and an EMG. After seeking second and third opinions on the diagnosis and treatment, he concluded that the foraminotomy was necessary for the cervical foraminal stenosis.
Yoshiki's primary physician at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Dr. Tommy H. Tomizawa (UCLA Assistant Professor), states that he will need a few weeks to recover from the surgery and a month or more of rehabilitation. If his condition does not improve over the next several months, laminectomy, discectomy and spinal fusion would be considered. Artificial disc placement would be another treatment of choice.
Just a recap, in case you didn't know yet, I got this type of skin disease/allergy without a definite cause and treatment that takes 2-8 weeks to heal, or so I was told. As far as last 2 weeks is concerned, I was relying on some antihistamine and 2 lotion-based solutions given by my dermatologist. And yes, I do have a dermatologist. In fact, I visit my dermatologist more often than I visit a physician. I get allergic reaction to random stuffs more often than I get sick.
So I was scheduled to go back to the doctor this afternoon. And I got a new batch of prescription from her. This time, my medications are scheduled. For example tonight, I have to take 5 tablets, tomorrow morning, after breakfast, I need to take 5, 2 after lunch and 2 after dinner. Then the next day is the same amount of medicines, and on the next day after that, it's 5-2-1, and so on... She also changed one of the other lotion-based medicine she gave me. So all in all, I'll be taking 2 types of medicine tablets now and apply 2 solutions 5-10 times a day, at the same time.
Once upon a time, I used to dream of a land with different colors like that of candies and wished to live in a house made of cookies. I started a journey to find this land with eyes fixed on caramel-flavored road and heart warmed by hot choco. But as I travel along this bitter sweet chocolate bar road, I became too tired to continue on. So I stopped here and there to eat berries. I went on until I lost the will to go on and just gave up on finding that house made of cookies. I probably got tempted too much by the sweet scent of the vanilla ice cream, so I remained here. Thinking of that old dream of finding the house made of cookies, I start to wonder if when I continued on with that journey, would I be able to find it? But then, finding the house made of cookies is just a goal I set on myself to venture on. It doesn't really mean that it does exist. If that would be the case, how am I to find something that does not exist in the first place.
As I'm sitting here now above a cheese cake, on and on, I kept wondering like that, staring at the cotton candy above, dreaming, in a far far away candy land.
