Outpatient surgery in Japan doesn’t have to be anxiety-inducing; knowing what to expect can help.
Most of us living in Japan have a good understanding of our health, thanks to annual check-ups. Those on National Health Insurance have until March of the following year to use the various incentives they’re given to get checked out by experts, including free or reduced-cost cancer screenings.
So say one day you’re not quite yourself. Then notice that you’re not getting better either. Maybe you have a new mole or changes in an old one, or even a cut that’s not healing. Perhaps there’s something off about you that you can’t attribute to stress or aging.
If you’re concerned enough to start asking Dr. Google for a diagnosis, it might be time to make an appointment with your doctor.
Getting Referred To & Seeing a Specialist
If you can speak Japanese or are part of a multilingual clinic, after you see your usual doctor, you’ll either be given the all-clear, a diagnosis and treatment plan or referred to a specialist.
In some regions, you may have your choice of specialists or hospitals to be referred to. Which is very helpful when you have work and/or family schedules to consider. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until there is an opening. And, make do with your symptoms (and anxiety) until the appointment arrives.
If you are given a referral, you’ll be provided with a sealed letter detailing your health concern/symptoms, your doctor’s differential diagnosis and any other pertinent details about your medical history. These forms might also be faxed to the specialist’s office. However, make sure you take your copy to the appointment anyway.
For specialists with their own clinics or in hospitals, you’ll need to sign up for them just as you did for your home clinic. In return, you’ll be given a patient card for that specialist/hospital, and have a file started there.
Once you see the specialist, they’ll examine you, consult the form from your doctor and likely order some tests. This may mean making another appointment to go over the results. Or, waiting several hours for your results to come back and be analyzed that day. In either case, you likely won’t have any procedures done the day of your first visit or even your second if you’re particularly unlucky.
Outpatient Surgery Realities
Let’s say you’ve gotten your results. Your specialist has decided that the best course of action is a minor surgical procedure. In many places overseas, this is quickly done while you’re still in your usual clothes — like at the dentist.
Not (always) the case in Japan. In some areas, you’ll have the same sort of in-and-out treatment. In others, outpatient surgery is “still surgery” and “is treated with just as much care as inpatient procedures” (General Surgeon).
Outpatient surgery in these situations is performed in surgery suites. You’re also hooked up to a blood pressure cuff and heart monitor, even if all you’re getting is local anesthesia. “It’s safer for the patient in case they have a medical issue during the procedure. Say if they faint or worse” (Surgical Nurse).
While it varies based on your procedure, there is a general list of guidelines that anyone having outpatient surgery will be given and expected to follow.
Day Before Surgery
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5 Comments
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Abe234
Anxiety this anxiety that. When did we stop using the word worry which is what most people actually have. No wonder there is an explosion in anxiety disorders. Worries are short term,and anxiety is long term and are similar but different. It seems to be a buzz word all writers/reporters are using.
virusrex
That is not true, the difference is that anxiety comes with physical manifestations (sweating, feeling a knot in the stomach, etc.) as long as this is true (and not only a mental situation) then it is perfectly valid to use it to describe the situation. Also anxiety is not automatically a disorder, for that it needs to be pathological, not a normal, expected reaction such as described in the article.
Jind
In USA, there is Urgent Care where you can be examined and may get treatment in your clothes if it is something minor.
Other Outpatient are surgeries, and everything is done properly to ensure healt and safety of the patient like in Japan.
I have had neuronal neck, lower back, hip replacement, shoulder replacement and rotator cuff surgeries all Outpatient and same day go home.
Abe234
virusrexToday 09:21 am JST
That is not true, the difference is that anxiety comes with physical manifestations (sweating, feeling a knot in the stomach, etc.) as long as this is true (and not only a mental situation) then it is perfectly valid to use it to describe the situation. Also anxiety is not automatically a disorder, for that it needs to be pathological, not a normal, expected reaction such as described in the article.
well in my experience worrying is normal, as we all have worries. Anxiety is psychological and manifests itself with physical symptoms, and may need treatment. Anxiety is a disorder if you look at the DSM v. Worry is not in the diagnostic book of psychiatry. Anxiety is. Journalists are hyper using words all the time. Causing fear was something I heard before but now we hear causing terror. Being scared of flying is one thing but having an anxiety is something else. Almost disabling to the point the person avoids the situation. I’m not dismissing some people’s anxiety but it seems that everyone is saying “I’m anxious about blah blah blah. I’m anxious about inflation, anxious about my electricity bill. It’s hardly the same as a phobia or anxiety where it impacts your sleep, social withdrawal, bowel symptoms headaches, anger and frustration etc.
virusrex
That is completely false.
Quoting from the DSM V
*Anxiety disorders include disorders that share features of excessive fear and anxiety and related behavioral disturbances.*
This makes it clear that anxiety by itself is not a disorder and by itself will not require treatment unless it is deemed pathological, excessive.
That means that your experience is the one wrong and the people that use anxiety as a normal part of life are actually right, they are correct, they are not describing a disorder.