Child Chemo House in Osaka

Article in The Daily Yomiuri

2007-11-15T07:18:00.000+09:00

There is an article on "Chile Chemo House" in today's The Daily Yomiuri.
Click here for the online article

Leaflet for Kaekko Bazaar 2007

2007-11-12T05:58:00.000+09:00

Let's get together! Let's swap!

Kaekko Bazaar 2007 by Child Chemo House

2007-10-30T06:00:00.000+09:00

Kaekko Bazaar in Banpaku Memorial Park, Suita

Kaekko Bazaaaaar!
-Let's play with Exchanging-

Let's get together with toys! And get points and exchange them for another cool toys! It's VEEEEEEERY FUN! Kids without toys are of course very welcome. You can get points from easy games or lectures.

（日本語での案内はこちら）

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Kaekko Bazaar & Message from the NPO "Child Chemo House"

Date: November 17, 2007

Tekkokan & Kamino-Hiroba, Banpaku Memorial Park, Suita

Kaekko Bazaar
12:30 - Registration
13:00 - Kaekko Bazaar
15:30 - Auction

Symposium in commemoration of the first anniversary of the incorporated NPO, "Child Chemo House."
- Children with cancer grow up smiling! -
13:00 - Registration
13:30 - Symposium

This project has been executed with a grant from the Commemorative Organization for the Japan World Exposition(’70).

"Mom, I wanna go home!"

2007-05-15T06:49:00.000+09:00

Only two-tsubo (~7 square-meter) space. Toys and necessities without places to put.
Children with cancer, in this narrow space, have to fight the disease, play, study, and grow up physically and mentally sound.

A tiny simple bed given to an accompanying parent. Only one thin curtain separating from neighbors.
A tired parent suffering from insomnia worries over, comfort, and cheer up his or her child, concerned about neighbors.

Space where both parent and child curb their feelings and control their temper without complaining.
Space where they concern about family members away from the hospital.

A dream hospital is "house."
A house is filled with natural happy things that do not exist in this narrow space.

Hang in there!

2007-03-13T05:57:00.001+09:00

I always thought that I had hanged tough at full power and how far I shoud keep my chin up each time someone said to me, "Hang in there!" while my daughter was struggling with disease.

AND NOW, I say to my friends suffering under the same circumstances, "Hang in there!"

I say a long line: "I don't want to say "Hang in there!" and beside I know you had hanged tough. But I feel short on words and I don't have any choice but to say --- Hang in there."

To everybody, "Hang in there!"

--------
Written by Masami-sama.
Translated by H. Ohta

Mom's drawing

2007-01-24T05:26:00.000+09:00

This is a picture my mom drew as soon as my second daughter passed away.

My mom said my second daughter looked like a shaveling in the drawing. So she continued to draw a shaveling.

On her pictures my daughters are doing what they were in reality unable to do together. Such heartwarming and happy scenes in the drawings are inscribed in my memory.

My mom puts her cute grandchildren into the works imagining that they would have done like this.

My daughters in her drawings look just alike, where their gestures are very real in minute detail such as turning around, sitting, leaning their heads, and raising their hands. I always think that only my mom can draw such pictures.

In this picuture, my second daughter is eating water melon delightedly with her sister. And besides, there is a picture showing their decorating bamboo leaves on the Star Festival, "Tanabata," and so on. Too many drawings!

I always picuture my daughter; What is she doing now? Doesn't she feel lonely? Isn't she crying? Does she feel bad?

It makes me relieved looking at her joyful and happy face in the drawings. Her smile really makes me feel that my loved one still lives happily with us.

Thanks, Mom.

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Written by Masami-sama.
Translated by H. Ohta.

A heartwarming scene in a pediatric ward (Part 2)

2007-01-19T04:57:00.000+09:00

A boy on his heavy guard against medical staffs.
At a professor's round visit.

Prof: How are you today?
Boy: Get out!
Prof: You look good.
Prof was approaching him for examination.
Boy: Don't touch me!
He shook off the Prof's hands.

This is a ped's ward free of authoritarianism shown on the book "White giant tower," a social Japanese novel written by Toyoko Yamazaki.

A girl extremely reluctant to take bitter Bactramin due to severe nausea during chemotherapy.

While she was feeling bad;
Doc: Are you OK? Why don't you take a bit of Bactramin?
Girl: (silence in disregard of Doc)

After recovering from nausea;
Doc: Now you are good, could you take?
Girl: Course! You're stuuuupid!

This is reality different from fictious world on TV.

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Written by S. Kusuki.
Translated by H. Ohta.

One hundred years from now

2007-01-17T04:47:00.000+09:00

I watched with interest on the New Year's day a series of TV (Japanese national broadcasting association) programs "Proposals for the future." Dr. Lisa Randall, a leading theoretical physicist, mentioned the extra dimention or the fifth dimention. Mr. Michael Crichton is skeptical about carbon dioxide emission as a reason of global warming. Other stories include "nanorobot," which injected via vein could reach the focus and cure the disease, and genocides or ethnic conflict still existing.

Among them, I was really impressed by Mr. Crichton's comment "We can't tell what it will be like at 100 years from now." In fact, no one would have imagined today's world 100 years ago. Cars, airplanes, nuclear powers, and computers have been developed over the past 100 years. Human beings have traveled to even outer space and the moon.

And information revolution including maturing of the Internet. Information technology (IT) has developed tremendously, and will continue to forever and ever. Do you know the term "Moore's law"? Accordig to the law, the performance of semiconductor (computer) doubles every 18 months, meaning 10 to the 20th power (1E+20)-fold improvement over 100 years, unbelievable.

We can't see the earth, the world and Japan at 100 years from now. How far will the IT have developed? Will the human being have discovered an astonishing technology? Will the world have turned into one without wars, conflicts, or nuclear weapons? Will the human beings be using efficiently limited natural resources or have invented new resources? Imagining that distant future makes me excited but a bit scared.

I believe that the truth, even at 100 years from now, is that human beings procreate, nurture and leave offsprings. And parents' love for their children will not forever change at all.

I introduce a Japanese poem written nearly 1,300 years ago by Yamanoueno-Okura, a famous Japanese poet.

All shining silver
Gold or jewels in the world
Mean nothing at all
Compared to one's own child
The most precious of all treasures

[Translation: VOX POPULI VOX DEI (International Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shimbun)]

by Hide

A Happy New Year!

2007-01-09T07:05:00.000+09:00

How were your holidays?

I have been to Florida with my wife in the middle of December.

We enjoyed staying there very much.

Especially we like the Walt Disney World in Orlando.

It is really a place “where dream comes true” as they say in their logos.

This year, the staff of this new hospital project in Japan will start their fund-raising effort in earnest.

I hope their dream comes true in 2007.

by Hiro, in Memphis

Christmas Present for Pediatric Cancer Patients in Japan

2006-12-24T09:17:00.000+09:00

Hi everyone, Merry Xmas!

Last week, I met my former colleague in Japan after a long time.
He is a member of staff organizing this new hospital project.
They are going to build the first pediatric cancer hospital in Japan by donations.

We talked a lot about the project.
I realized that it is a very ambitious and hard challenge because donation is not so common in Japan.
So, I would like to support their project in US.

If you know somebody who might be interested in the project, please show this blog.
I hope many people read it.

When you click the advertising bar at the top of this blog, they can get some donation. Needless to say, you are not charged.
Please give Christmas presents to pediatric cancer patients in Japan.

I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Thank you.

by Hiro, in Memphis

I HAVE A DREAM

2006-11-21T17:46:00.000+09:00

I am a Japanese pediatric hemato-oncologist working as a research fellow at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
I worked in Japan for many years with the doctors organizing this project, and know some other staffs, whose kids were my patients.

Last weekend, I almost fell down with a chair when I read a Japanese internet-news. The news titled as “Doctors in Kinki area founded an incorporated nonprofit organization to build the first pediatric cancer hospital in Japan by donations” so surprised me.

In the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, seven Japanese pediatric hemato-oncologists are working as clinical or research fellows now. This hospital is very impressive for us, because we have never seen such a pediatric cancer hospital managed by donations in Japan. And, needless to say, it leads the development of pediatric cancer treatment in the world.
Recently, we have had a lot of news from Japan about the collapse of pediatric medical care systems there. They are facing serious difficulties mainly because pediatricians and other medical staffs are decreasing. Medical care systems for pediatric cancer patients also are not so good for the same reason. In such circumstances, we are talking to each other that we would like to build a hospital like St. Jude in Japan someday. When the then Japanese Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, decided to come to Memphis with the US President in June, we sent a mail to Japanese government asking his visit to St. Jude. We supposed that Japanese people would know this kind of hospital and it would help to realize our dream if he visited here. However, he could not visit here because of a tight schedule.
Five months later, I have got the news that some doctors are planning independently to build a hospital like St. Jude by donations in Japan. And, surprisingly, the doctors are my former colleagues! They call it “dream hospital.” I am so excited.

Now I am reading their blog far from Japan, in Memphis, and remembering a word, "I HAVE A DREAM." As you know, this is a Martin Luther King’s famous word. He died here, in Memphis.

by Hiro, in Memphis

Heart to heart - Fellow human being -

2006-11-01T05:06:00.000+09:00

Why do patients or their family still tend to stare in awe at medical doctors or nurses?

Why are they stuck in a situation where they could not say what they want to?

Both of patients and medical staffs are fellow human beings who fight the same illness, though.

Patients or their family express their thanks to medical staffs who devote themselves entirely to care of the patients; doctors or nurses give great comfort to the patients.

Heart-to-heart. Person-to-person. This must be an ideal situation!

It is a warm hospital filled with heart-to-heart relationships that must be aimed for.

-----
Written by Masami-sama.
Translated by H. Ohta.

Time Bank

2006-10-28T04:45:00.000+09:00

Dr. Masahiko Mori, who I respect, always tackles everything in earnest with being highly motivated. He introduces a story about “Time Bank” replying to a question what motivates him so much.

Imagine the following bank. Every morning the bank empties your account and transfers $86,400. Unless you use up the money, it will be gone. What would you do with it? Of course, you would withdraw all the money.

Each of us does have a similar bank. It’s a bank of time.

Every morning you receive 86,400 seconds; every night the unused time is gone, which is never added to the next day’s time.

Every morning your account is opened; every night the rest of time you left is gone. Unless you use up the time, you end up losing it.

You can not go back the past. You have to live in the present using the time given. So, make a maximum investment in your time and make a maximum effort for your health, happiness, and success.

Clock’s hands never stop running.

To understand the value of one year, ask a failed student.

To understand the value of one month, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.

To understand the value of one week, ask an editor of weekly newspaper.

To understand the value of one hour, ask a person waiting for his girlfriend or her boyfriend.

To understand the value of one minute, ask a person who has just missed a train.

To understand the value of one second, ask a person who has just escaped an accident.

To understand the value of 0.1 second, ask an Olympic silver medalist.

So, do place the importance on every second.

You do not know about tomorrow at all.
Today is given to you.

That’s why now is called “present.”

-----
Written by S. Kusuki.
Translated by H. Ohta.

Kaekko Bazaar Brochure

2006-10-26T05:12:00.000+09:00

Kaekko Bazaar Brochure (Japanese)

We have just printed out brochures on Kaekko Bazarr.
The special football autographed by a Gamba Osaka player will be at auction!
And you will be seeing a GAMBA BOY, a mascot of Gamba Osaka.

The brochures are Japanese version only. We are so sorry.

-One Month Ahead-Kaekko Bazaar in Saito, Osaka

2006-10-12T04:59:00.000+09:00

Kaekko Bazaaaaar!
- Let's Play with Exchanging -

Let's get together with toys! And get points and exchange them for another cool toys! It's VEEEEERY FUN! Of course, kids without a toy are very welcome. You can get points from easy games or lectures.

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Kaekko Bazaar
（日本語での案内はこちら）

Date: November 12, 2006

Saito-nishi elementary school
5-8-1 Asagi, Saito, Ibaraki-shi, Osaka

Kaekko Bazaar
12:30 - Registration
15:30 - Auction

Symposium in commemoration of setting up an incorporated NPO, "Child Chemo House."
13:00-14:30

ATTENTION!
1. Please bring a pair of slippers. You are not allowed to enter the venue with your shoes on.
2. No parking lot is available. You are encouraged to use public transportation. Please get on a bus bound for Saito-asagi at Senri-chuo station, and get off at the terminal.
---------------------------

Pros and cons

2006-10-10T06:21:00.000+09:00

Imagine a situation where childhood cancer survivors work for medical service. What do you think whether they should talk openly about the illness or not?

In my experience, most cancer survivors seem to hide the fact in their workplace as nurses, counselors, or doctors. Knowing the fact, often indirectly after a long while, I wonder why they didn’t let me know.

We, parents of a child with cancer, can’t consult others with ease about worries during therapy. We tend to pile up worries within ourselves, thinking that others can’t understand such a frightening story, and that, first of all, they can’t know how to answer. This sense of alienation brings about huge stress of our daily life.

I often had to make an ultimate decision about the life of our child. And besides, as soon as possible, and by myself or by my husband and me only. It was extremely daunting and painful.

We would have been relieved a lot if I had talked to medical staff in such a situation who had similar experience.

If they work speaking out of a full heart about their experience, they may have to overcome various obstacles. If they work hiding the fact, however, I apt to feel that they don’t work efficiently. It would be a waste.

What do you think?

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Written by Masami-sama.
Translated by H. Ohta.

Children in my heart

2006-10-09T05:18:00.000+09:00

Some children with cancer survived, but others passed away. I keep rather deceased ones in memory.

I recall this and that:
“He/she used to look forward to watching this program.”
“He/she loved this character.”
“This cuisine was his/her favorite.”
“His/her mother had a fierce temper.”

Falling in with cancer, I think, is out of luck, but not an unhappy incident. Children may learn something, feel others’ kindness, and get to be kind to others by experiencing a serious illness. You might think it is not so easy, but I believe that.

To share the belief with children and their family, I thought that we needed to educate staffs and build up a well-equipped hospital. This is partly why I decided to set up this project.

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Written by S. Kusuki.
Translated by H. Ohta.

A heartwarming scene in a pediatric ward

2006-10-04T17:45:00.000+09:00

A conversation between a two-year-old boy and a pediatrician.

Doc: Open your mouth wide and say aah! Good job!
Boy: What's that?
Doc: A flashlight.

Boy: What's that?
Doc: A flash-light.

Boy: What's that?
Doc: A fl-a-sh-l-igh-t.

Boy: What's that?
Doc: An electric torch.
Boy: That's a flashlight.
Doc: You're able to say the word, aren't you? – Laughter all around –

It is children that really refresh pediatricians.

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Written by S. Kusuki.
Translated by H. Ohta.

The aim of "Child Chemo House"

2006-09-27T07:01:00.000+09:00

"Child Chemo House" is an incorporated nonprofit organization aimed at setting up a hospital for children with cancer, taking into consideration quality of life (QOL) of the children and their family.

Children with cancer and their family have to bear physical, emotional, social, and financial burdens, during and following treatment. In Japan, probably all over the world, the family are stressed out with harsh environment, such as close patient's room with so many restrictions, where they are exhausted by insomnia, complaints, anxiety, and so on. All this stress, in turn, leads to emotional distress of the children themselves and other family members. This vicious circle could do harm to QOL of the whole family.

We hope to provide them with a hospital room with wide space equipped with comfortable bed for attendants and various amenities, just like home. We aim to build a warm hospital for children with cancer in Osaka, Japan. Our team consists of pediatric oncologists, nurses, pharmacists, family members, child life specialists, school teachers, project producers, and architects.

We make an appeal for contributions. Please contact us at kemohouse@canpan.info.