Big Tom

A bit camera shy, Big Tom decided to not to stick around
for a photo shoot 

Our neighbourhood is the undisputed territory of a large, threatening orange cat that I like to think of as Big Tom. If he is not caterwauling from the neighbour's empty lot for hours on end or having yowly, hissing fights with any cat unlucky enough to take a stroll through his turf, he is sitting perched high on the roof of a rusty, ramshackle shed across the street. He spends hours surveying his domain from a face crisscrossed with scars and eyes nearly squinted shut from some crusty infection. I am fairly sure that he was born with a bobtail, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to find out that he lost it in some ultra violent run in with a dog, car, or lawn mower.

He is one tough looking bruiser of a cat and I would hate to find myself accidentally in a small enclosed space with him. I am pretty sure he would come out with the upper hand.

Baikinman

Absolutely miserable

Beginning Saturday, my family has been plunged into varying degrees of sickness. It began with Theo, who almost certainly brought it home with him from kindergarten, and turned into a deep wet cough and runny nose over night. William has since contracted the rattly cough and runny nose and Dustin and I are starting to feel a bit of a throat tickle. This is actually the first time William has ever been sick so he has absolutely no idea what hit him. He has been dejectedly pawing at his face for the past few hours, stubbornly refusing my attempts to wipe his running nose, and being even more clingy and demanding than he normally is.

The last time that we were sick was in July, right before Theo was hospitalized for his kidney infection. Being sick in Japan is a new experience and thankfully we didn't have to think about it until now.

Before I came to Japan, I had only ever used a face mask when helping to install insulation in our house, and otherwise didn't really think about them much. If anything, I was under the impression that people in Asia wore them in an attempt to keep from getting sick. I think that is a small part of it, but more importantly I have found is  people wear them out of a social obligation to contain their germs and prevent sickness from spreading. It is interesting from an epidemiological standpoint, because you can much more readily identify the the sick people in your midst. Some weeks it seems that I run into tons of people wearing masks and sometimes I go a day or two without seeing anyone.

Theo's favorite antihero

The whole driving force behind the sick mask seems incredibly Japanese to me. Sacrificing your comfort and looks for the good of the whole population. I actually really admire that people would be willing to make themselves that much more uncomfortable for the common good. The Japanese perspective on germs is pretty apparent in the popular kid's show "Anpanman". The villain is Baikinman, or Bacteria Man, who tries to create confusion and dirtiness wherever he goes. Only healthy and clean Anpanman or soap has the ability to stop him. He is most definitely Theo's favorite character on the show, but I think that has more to do with  the spaceship he flies and less to do with his dastardly schemes.    

For the most part, the western culture in which I was raised holds a very "every man for himself" view of sickness. This is evidenced by declining vaccination rates and how very few people do anything to limit your exposure to them or their children when they are sick. I still remember the heavy, malodorous, humid breaths of a congested classmate sitting in the row behind me during an exam in university. It was not surprising, after 3 hours of his coughing and mouth breathing bathing my neck in disease ridden moistness, that I woke up the next morning feeling awful. I am sure his attitude was: "I am the one suffering here. If your immune system can't handle this, it's your own fault."

Even being sick can be kawaii

Obviously, I like the idea of disease prevention on a wider scale, but when it comes down to it, I am sure I will feel extremely awkward wearing a conspicuous face mask in public. I am also sure that the feeling of my sick breath trapped to my face uncomfortable and disgusting. Oh, well.


Theo is much harder to convince. At first, I thought that they couldn't possibly expect 3 year olds to keep a mask on their face, but I have since seen quite a few kids his age wearing them without complaint. He has not gone to kindergarten this week so far, but other than his lingering cough, it seems as though he is well enough to go back tomorrow. With a mask on. I found him a set of cute shinkansen face masks to try to make it seem fun, but when I tried one out on him this morning he was not too impressed. It only lasted about 30 seconds before he ripped it off. I am not so he will keep it on tomorrow, but at least his teacher will know I tried. Hopefully he won't become the class baikinman!

He ripped this off seconds after the picture was taken

In Sickness and In Health

A few of the unwelcome denizens of my body

Our last week and a bit has been crazily fast paced and busy trying to get everything sorted for leaving, the house packed, and all the little details of life squared away. In the midst of this frenzy, Dustin contracted an over the top cough and Theo woke up at three in the morning coughing, running a fever, and insisting on being held for the remainder of the night.  This weekend, as we were packing up the last of our things and moving them to my inlaws' place, I lost my voice and within an hour or two I was in the grip of a full on cough/cold. The only one of us who has been seemingly unaffected is William, which is the only bright side in the narrow world of self-focused bodily pain into which we have all been thrust.

Dustin has only two weeks remaining until he leaves Manitoba and with all of the things that still need to be done, I can't help but think our bodies have betrayed us in our final hour of need. Hopefully we can all manage to recuperate without any of the special attention and extra sleep that we don't have time for!

Vaccinations

Something else that we have put a  lot of consideration into is vaccinations for William. The US and Canada have very similar immunization schedules that start at 2 months of age. The first few shots (DTaP, Hib, IPV, Men-C, and RV) are given in 3 parts at 2, 4, and 6 months of age. The pneumococcal vaccine is given in 4 parts starting at 2 months. Since we will be leaving when William is only 5 months old, he will not be able to finish any of the series that we would start here. We have realized that we only have 3 options:

1. The boys and I will stay an extra month so that he can finish his first sets shots

2. We will leave when he is 5 months old, as originally planned, and have 1 month to figure out how to obtain the last shots he needs in Japan at an expat clinic.

3. We will not do any of his vaccinations in Canada, and begin him on the Japanese schedule once we arrive.

I really don't want to wait an extra month in Canada since that will actually be 2 months after Dustin leaves. Since our house will be sold by then, I will have to stay the extra time with my in-laws and spend every waking moment making sure that Theo does not break the multitude of knicknacks and tear their house to pieces.

I also don't relish the thought of running around trying to find Canadian vaccinations in Japan with only a one month time limit. I have read that getting imported shots at an expat clinic is super expensive, since it would not be covered by Japanese healthcare. I have no idea how expensive though, because every forum and website I have read fails to mention exactly how much they paid.

I have been reading up on the Japanese immunization schedule in the past month. There are a few differences from the Canadian schedule, the most important being the use of a non-attenuated or live polio vaccine (OPV), they do not immunize for mumps, and they immunize for tuberculosis (BCG). At first I thought it was a bit sketchy that they used the live polio vaccine compared with the inactive polio vaccine (IPV) that we use in the west. The live vaccine can actually cause someone to contract polio and there have been multiple cases of vaccine associated polio paralysis. After reading about it a bit more though, I realized that the US and Canada used the same OPV until the 1990's and only then switched to IPV. I guess if virtually everyone I know, including myself, got the live vaccine, and no one I know has contracted polio, I shouldn't worry about William. They also do not vaccinate for mumps like we do in the west. Mumps does not really affect young children too badly, but it can cause infertility if adolescent males contract it. So we can worry about that one in the future.

Japanese BCG vaccine

The last notable difference with their immunization schedule is that they vaccinate for tuberculosis instead of just testing for it with a mantoux like we do in Canada. The BCG vaccine uses a creepy looking 9 needled puncher device, leaves a scar, and makes you test positive on a mantoux. The scar isn't a big deal, I am sure William wouldn't be upset about an interesting arm scar, but testing positive for TB when you don't have it is annoying. My dad tests positive on a mantoux and has had to always have chest x-rays instead.

After thinking about our options and talking with our pediatrician, we have decided to hold off on starting any vaccinations in Canada and start him off the Japanese way. Hypothetically, he will be protected by my immunity anyway. I suppose that I will need to get my hands on  a Mother and Child Health Handbook (boshi kenko techo) when I get to Japan.

 We have not thought about this issue with Theo too much. At three years old he only needs two shots sometime between the ages of 4 and 6. We can always get them while visiting back home at some point in the next 3 years.