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Happy New Year.
We will keep working hard, all of us on the team, to grow into a good eye clinic.
We wish you a wonderful 2019.
We look forward to your continued support.
New Year’s Day, 2019
Takeru Eye Clinic
Postscript:
Since becoming a physician, I have remained passionate about uveitis and ocular inflammation, and I wrote a little about it.
Please read it if you are interested.
Because I had childhood asthma, I wanted to become a pediatrician someday. I come from a family of non-physicians and did not attend a top prep school, so for a long time I had no idea how one even becomes a doctor. I am still truly grateful to Nagasaki University for admitting me, and to my classmates in the School of Medicine who studied with me through the exam years, up to graduation and the national licensing examination. In my first year after graduation I trained at Yamaguchi University Hospital Ophthalmology, mainly studying the cornea. That autumn I took care of a patient with acute retinal necrosis (Kirisawa-type uveitis), and that experience led me to specialize in uveitis. In my second year, as a resident at Kyushu University Hospital, I met Dr. Kohei Sonoda, who had just returned from studying abroad, and began learning in the uveitis clinic. Uveitis in Behçet’s disease can now be controlled with biologics (Remicade®, Humira®), but at that time I remember often going into Kyushu University Hospital on holidays to give steroid injections to patients having an attack. From my simple equation of uveitis = immunology, I wanted to go to graduate school in basic immunology, and Professor Tatsuro Ishibashi of Kyushu University Ophthalmology readily gave his permission. I entered the Division of Immune Regulation at the Medical Institute of Bioregulation, Kyushu University. I only realized after entering that it was a world-class laboratory, and I did my best among highly motivated colleagues, starting from knowing nothing about research. Just as it became certain that, thanks to my teachers’ guidance, I would publish a paper in an American immunology journal, Dr. Sonoda was selected to give the commissioned lecture (Shukudai Hokoku) for the Japanese Ophthalmological Society’s councilors. I was able to carry out a great deal of research linking immunology and basic uveitis, and to present many results under Dr. Sonoda’s guidance. At the same time I received many grants from various sources, which made it possible for me to study abroad in Boston. For me, whose head was full of immunology, Harvard University was a truly attractive place. There were many good things, but I also remember that both life and research were a real struggle. In research and in life in Boston I met many people, and I can only think of the fact that I am still in touch with many of them today as a treasure of my life. After returning to Japan I went back to Kyushu University Hospital and took part in clinical work, research, and teaching. Being able to guide two graduate students through writing their papers and earning their degrees, however modest my own contribution, became a treasure for me. After that I closed this chapter of research life and worked as the sole chief physician at the Hayashi Eye Clinic branch in Itoshima, where I broadened the range of my clinical practice. That experience too became an important treasure as I run my own eye clinic here in the Takatori shopping street in Sawara Ward.
From clinical work to basic immunology, I have kept thinking about ocular inflammation all along. Many eye diseases are known to involve inflammation. I always feel that my experience of thinking deeply from basic immunology, from the use of steroids to the way I approach various eye diseases, supports me. I am truly grateful to my teachers and to everyone who has helped me so far. Thank you, and I look forward to your continued support.
