By Keizo Fukumoto, MD, PhD

This year I turned 60, a special age in Japan to be celebrated for one’s rebirth. This custom is called “kanreki,” and they put a red vest and hood on the old man regarded as a baby. In the traditional Japanese calendar, each year is symbolized by a combination of five major planets and twelve animals. For example, my birth year 1960 was “kanoe-ne” meaning “big brother Venus and mouse.” As this sexagenary calendar completes its cycle every 60 years, one is considered to have finished his first cycle of life and to start another as a newborn. Anyway, I felt a little embarrassed to be treated as an old man and to have my picture taken in the red costume, though it was very kind of my colleagues to hold the celebration.

The given theme “bucket list” reminds me of my own experience of several years ago, in which I faced the question, “What do I want to do before my death?” I had a strong confidence in my health until then, but an echocardiography pointed out my aortic regurgitation and I underwent surgery. I talked to a clinical fellow about my slight abnormality in blood pressure found in the annual health check, and he booked my echographic examination, as he frequented the echo laboratory at that time in order to study post-surgical PL tendon gliding of Camitz opponens plasty. I took the examination solely to appreciate his kindness; a considerable amount of regurgitation, however, was found and the surgery was required according to the diagnosis. I remembered that I had felt dizzy around that time after drinking a little bit of wine.

Soon after the year 2013 started, I underwent the surgery of aortic valve replacement. I intended to go back to work straightaway after the operation, and in fact I attended several conferences in which I was asked to give lectures. I didn’t feel well and experienced shortness of breath, nevertheless I thought my state was what I expected. My first examination after I left the hospital pointed out my complications and I had to go back there to stay. I had already arranged to postpone my schedule of operations and outpatient care, but I ended up canceling them all and I realized I should give up and go with the flow. Overall, I took 3 months off for hospitalization and fortunately my colleagues covered for me. This second hospitalization put me in fears that I might not be able to live long even though I managed to get out of hospital and I faced the possibility of inevitable death. I regretted to have thought that I would live until the age of 80s like my father did, and took it to my heart that no one can foresee one’s death. The thing I realized then as what I wanted to do for the rest of life was nothing extraordinary but rather mediocre: I wanted to cherish my family and my health, so to speak, I would give priority to my family and not to my work.

Dr. Berger kindly invited me as a lecturer for the Instructional Course of ASSH Annual Meeting in the autumn of 2013. As the meeting was held in San Francisco, I decided to take extra days off so that my wife and I would travel around California. In Los Angels we revisited the college my wife used to attend and saw by our own eyes the house where she used to stay. Cruising on the Pacific Coast Highway–I longed to drive there since I had seen the movie “Graduation”–staying at Ballard and at San Luis Obispo, we spent 3 days before entering San Francisco. This journey of recovery is still unforgettable for us.

Some 7 years passed since then and I have been luckily fit enough. As a Japanese proverb says, “We ignore the heat once the food is swallowed,” I begin to think again that I will live until the age of 80s, and furthermore I sometimes wonder what I will do if I am to live until 100.

My present bucket list contains the following:

1) I established a new institute of hand and microsurgery last year and its new building is under construction. I want to make a good team in the next ten years so that our knowledge and skill will be carried over to the coming generation.

2) I want to take my sabbatical and live in Italy while I am still energetic.

3) I want to score 70’s playing golf. This last one, however, may rather be called my dream.

What is your bucket list?