So I’m a fluent speaking japanese person who just recently moved back here from America after 19 years of living there and I just got my first extreme medical issue in my entire lifetime here. For starters, I’m not a “gaijin” nor do I need to go to an english speaking hospital although I’ve considered trying St Luke’s after hearing everyone’s thoughts on it here.
I have really bad breathing/heart issues and I’m being thrown around from hospital to hospital paying bills after bills and they can’t even get me a proper diagnosis other than “it’s all in your head”.
Even after going to a specialist in lungs/heart, I’m being sent to yet another hospital now because they “dont have the ability to scan the lungs but we did a breathing test and…you MIGHT have pneumonia! :)”. So, with another vague answer and my health getting significantly worse day by day, I’m being tossed to yet another hospital today.
I was told that my breathing issues/heart pain are “all in your head/youve been in america for so long….” and was given 3 different kanpou with 6 different other medications related to allergies, throat, anxiety, pain killers. None of them work and it’s been a month now of vague diagnosis and being unsure and scared for my health and wellbeing. Some nights I’m almost unable to breathe at all and the ER can only give me painkillers and send me home; I just keep getting physically worse everyday and it’s starting to affect my mental health in actuality.
Does anyone know what to do? I feel so lost.
29 comments
Did you have that condition in the US?
if they made all breathing tests and found nothin it is could be psychological. Try look back, when did it start and in a what conditions. Google. Usually you need to find your diagnosis by yourself and then ask for more tests. This is how it works everywhere!
Interesting, my experience is to polar opposite. My care, and my families care has been way better than anything we experienced in the US. Been to 4 different hospitals and countless clinics for a variety of small to giant problems and even with me speaking nearly zero Japanese, everyone is incredibly helpful.
Are you going around to different clinics or actual hospitals? Get a referral to a university hospital. They will have every diagnostic tool as well as specialists needed to figure out what is wrong.
> breathing issues/heart pain
sound like a panic attacks ?
Go to a university hospital?
Have you ever been diagnosed with asthma? Obviously not an answer to your current situation, but your symptoms kind of sound like that (maybe not heart pain, but chest pain sometimes happens)
Other than going back to the original doctors and saying ‘it’s really not in my head and it’s getting worse’, I’m not sure what to suggest.
One advantage in Japan and especially Tokyo, of course, is that you can go to any clinic you like and get as many opinions as you like, at a reasonable cost.
If it’s some rare condition being passed around is unfortunately normal anywhere.
If they don’t know they don’t know. There’s no choice but to refer you somewhere else until someone can figure something out.
You also don’t want people with colds clogging up the world famous specialists. So there’s a ladder of referrals to climb to meet with those doctors. It’s just the way it is.
Hope you find a good doctor that can figure it out OP.
rofl all these dipshits trying to diagnose you based on 2 short paragraphs. OP, go get a second (professional) opinion, and keep doing so until you’re satidfied with the quality of care you recieve.
You definitely have to go to a university hospital stop going to clinics.
Of course no one here can say what it is. I would personally avoid clinics, despite the reviews, for anything other than a referral to a good hospital that can run proper tests. I had some health concerns a while back and clinics made the stress worse. Got to the hospital where they spoke to me like a human and ran some tests. It wasn’t long until they got to the bottom of it all and could ease my mind about it. I even got a nice little dose of valium to help.
Cause could be environmental if your symptoms started appearing after arriving in JP. It could be a reaction to dust accumulation indoors, or mold growth inside AC if isn’t being power washed twice a year. It could also be car exhausts and other various chemicals in the air when living in urban areas.
Doctor treatments are basically reactionary. So sometimes only you have access to the full picture to investigate the real cause of your conditions.
This sounds like panic attacks…
Did you do pulse oximetry measurement, is it in the normal range?
If there is no problem or unusual sign in your respiratory system, search elsewhere, mold mycotoxins poisoning maybe?
Do blood work and urine work to get some lead
It’s not a university hospital, but my wife was pleased with her experiences at [NCGM](https://www.hosp.ncgm.go.jp/index.html) in Shinjuku Ward. I believe they charge an initial fee if you’re not referred by a doctor.
Tokyo University’s hospital [is the top ranked one in the nation,](https://nlab.itmedia.co.jp/research/articles/248337/amp/) so you could also consider that one.
Best of luck getting answers, OP.
I believe you had an asthma and/or infected a Covid-19 series somewhere in a past. Autumn is something worst for an asthma light patient, it comes back unexpectedly from the unbalanced hormone things and/or seasonal allergens (rice, goldenrod, etc). These things never cast in X-rays or MRI.
I don’t trust Chinese Traditional Medicines and who prescribe it. And I don’t think the phrase “It’s all in your head” or “You’ve been in the America for so long”, these are NOT what the doctor could say. This is because the ethics of the doctor must have learned. Even if you are a murderer, prisoner, drug addict, alcoholic, lair, scammer and all of these together; they must act like a normal person and never change what they say by gender or age, social class etc. Are the doctors you met authentic?
If you have free time, try to get a few days/week sanatorium, go out and visit fresh air. Perhaps, infamous Onsen to relax and rest yourself. Get away from tourist spots. I heard so many new variations of flu and viruses coming in via tourist.
Get a pulse oximeter and measure your oxygen and pulse when you’re feeling like that, if both are normal it’s quite possible it’s anxiety/panic related.
I know you might not want to believe it at first but once you come to terms with it it’s better. It happened to me here during my second year in Japan due to stress and other issues, I went through the emergency room three times because I called the ambulance thinking I had either a heart attack or that something was wrong with my lungs, went to several different pulmonologists and heart doctors, different tests to be finally diagnosed with panic disorder when I went to the psychiatrist and once I got medicated it calmed down.
Medications are a whole other issue though, and not a permanent solution, the best way is to go to cognitive behavioral therapy which is doing wonders for me.
By the way, anxiety doesn’t only cause breathing/issues similar to heart problems but also allergies and such. I actually had 3 months of huge mysterious hives and swollen hands and face this year (went to emergency again thinking I had anaphylaxis, +several doctors, medicines and tests with no conclusive results) turned out to be anxiety causing those flare ups again as I had just started a new job and was stressed. Once I realized what it was they went away pretty much immediately, and therapy is doing wonders to keep those anxieties down as well.
Have any of the doctors referred you to a 医療センター?
I had a cough that lasted for 6 weeks, and only the emergency care center was able to get a handle on it.
A different time:
I also had chest pains and tight throat, and even a heart specialist could only tell me that it wasn’t my heart. A local doctor finally recommended a stomach camera, which found GERD-related erosion in my esophagus which was causing the whole thing. I got medicine for it, then I stopped smoking and it all went away.
Hope you find the root issue soon  sounds a bit like my GERD (I wheeze at night uncontrollably sometimes)… but don’t go googling symptoms too much, and a kind reminder the Kanpo often takes longer that a couple weeks to kick in (and works for some people, not all).
I have a lot of medical conditions, serious and not, and I’ve been to quite a few hospitals in my area, so here’s my takeaway:
1) If it’s something in the “idk” category, go to a big hospital. If you go to a smaller clinic, you’ll be sent home with no tests and some (weak) meds and be told to wait. There are some hospitals that have a walk-in fee and some that don’t, so read their webpages carefully.
2) If it’s something not-so-serious, find a clinic with good reviews and a constantly full parking lot. That’s how you can tell the community trusts the doctor there.
3) If it’s something serious or will require extensive tests, most definitely don’t waste your time clinic hopping and just go to a big hospital. You’ll end up paying less even with the walk-in fee. Or, alternatively, you can go to the doctor from 2) and, provided you’ve established a good relationship with them, ask them for a referral.
Overall, my experience has been better with big hospitals compared to clinics, as they usually have all the specialists and equipment in one place,so it saves time and money, but there’s one stark example of a clinic that stands out (to anyone who needs gastroscopy done under proper propofol sedation, I cannot recommend the Oono Clinic in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture enough).
Wishing you the best and hoping that your health issue resolves as fast as possible.
It may be extreme allergies. Typical causes include house mold spores that are just now drying and becoming airborne, and therefore more toxic to your breathing. Mold allergy is also known to cause heart arrhythmia, particularly among foreigners.
This is something that Japanese doctors would be very unfamiliar with simply because most Japanese people have a higher level of natural immunity towards the kinds of toxic molds endemic to Japan.
There is most definitely mold in your house. It doesn’t need to be a very visible infestation. It could be coming from fabrics stored in closets, from under mattresses, or really anywhere and can be mostly invisible to the naked eye. Or it can come from under floorboards or under tatami mats in older houses. But there is no such thing as a completely mold-free home in Japan.
So see an allergist and check things like pollen allergy, mold allergy, house dust allergy, etc.
The other culprit right now is Goldenrod allergy. I’ve been developing an allergy to it for the past several years, and right now it’s giving me severe cold symptoms without having a cold, as well as mild/occasional heart arrhythmia.
I had the exact same experience when I first got sick. Between my heart and my lungs, I could hardly squeak a word out. I called an ambulance and went to the hospital. It took more than an hour to get there (despite living 2 blocks from a hospital, like you can literally see if from my front door, I was taken to one a 10 minute away) and still more time to be seen. Only to be told I was having a panic attack.
Like. No. I’ve had anxiety and depression for literal years. I know what that attack feels like. It is NOTHING like this.
It took 6 months to get a doctor who listened. And while we still don’t have a diagnosis, we at least have treatment plans in place that let me exist as a human and be able to get out of bed without gasping for air.
That said, I know someone who recently recovered from covid and now is having the identical symptoms. So it’s possible you may have long covid? Apparently there’s a clinic in Shibuya with a doctor who is “specializing” in long covid (as much as one can) that you might be able to see? Apparently it’s possible to be asymptomatic when you have covid and then still windup with long covid, but it could be hard to get diagnosed maybe if that’s the case… The doctor there is pretty well know, I’m told, for it if you Google it in Japanese. (I can’t remember the name…)
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Highly recommend Jutendo University hospital. Nothing but great experiences there for my son and his surgeries.
I’m a low level speaker and have to go on my own to appointments bc my J-husband is busy working all the time. Never have been treated badly there.
If it helps you feel better, my friend living in the US just put up a gofundme because he has a condition that 5 different specialists can’t diagnose and his insurance decided to stop covering his search for a diagnosis.
So yeah… I don’t think it’s uniquely Japanese… but at least you aren’t being charged $1000 for every simple doctor visit.
I get allergies to ragweed at around this time. It does sometimes make me feel out of breath but once I knew I wasn’t dying I’ve realised it’s completely manageable,
I have had family members hospitalised with pneumonia and it was extremely clear that they were very unwell. Definitely not well enough to show up to a clinic under their own steam and argue the toss. I think you would know.
I have had good treatment at Sanno hospital when I’ve needed a second opinion. There are good doctors here, but sometimes you have to seek them out.
I can relate, and until I found a really great doctor I was treated like everything was in my head and not real. If you have any heart problems I cannot recommend this place enough, best care I have ever gotten in Japan. https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZhQSymaawk4TNm697
Tokyo btw
I live in Japan but I had similar medical experience in Australia. I don’t think it’s Japan, I got kicked around for months between doctors and specialists before I found some answers. But here’s what happened to me, if it helps at all. My symptoms were:
– Weakness, breathlessness and blackouts.
It started when I went for a run and blacked out and knocked myself out. Turned out I had a mild heart attack. I was in hospital they gave loads of tests (including sticking a camera into my heart only to find nothing.). “I was too young for a heart attack”,….“it’s all in my head.” I heard that too. But they couldn’t find a problem so they sent me home.
After about 2 months of struggle I lucked out and found a doctor who sent me for a lung X-ray and found me riddled with blood clots.
I have Pulmonary Edema and it’s treatable with blood thinners (avoid heparin if possible – there are better options now) but it can cause heart failure and pneumonia.
MY ADVICE: be your own doctor and ask the doctors for a lung scan, particularly if you have a history of asthma or leg cramps. (The clots form in the legs then come up in chunks and get caught in the lungs – at least they did for me).
Good luck, and reach out if you need more help.
I did have the symptoms of feeling hard to breathe and irregular heartbeat before. Not sure if you have similar one but It is caused by autonomic nervous system disorders. Basically I lacked vitamins at that time. It did cost me two different hospital visits in order to find out.
It is treated in a week after the doctor prescribed me canxi, magnesium, and vitamin B.
I have no advice but plenty of sympathy for your situation. I recently left Japan because the sports medicine doctors were no help with a painful condition I developed as a result of overwork. The difference in level of care I am receiving now is unbelievable, make the medical care I received in Japan look like a joke. The Japanese doctors were disinterested in how previous injuries may have contributed to my current condition, had no interest in specific tasks that triggered my pain, and were unable to explain the specific body mechanisms of my pain nor give an estimate of how long recovery would take— all things that the doctor I’m seeing now is interested in and willing to do.