Dr. Chen's Wedding Ring Came Off his Finger This Morning...

Friends of Dr. Chen know that Dr. Chen always wear his wedding ring wherever he goes. Sadly, this morning (Sept. 30, 2009), his wedding ring came off his finger and dropped on the floor. He found the ring and put the ring in a safe place. This was a heart-breaking, painful, and emotional experiences. Dr. Chen has lost substantial weight in the past few months.

Dr. Chen was sick during the last month of his sabbatical leave in Taiwan and is continuously ill after he arrived in the U.S. on July 15, 2009. He has gone through a battery of medical examination. Here are the results:

1) Blood test results: Clean.

2) CAT scan results: Clean.

3) Endoscope results: permanent damages in the lower esophagus, it is called the Barret esophagus, a pre-cancer state of esophagus but not the cancer.

Beneath this obvious gastrointestinal problems is his severe insomnia problem caused by the anxiety.

During the last two months, His doctor has prescribed several sleeping and anti-anxiety medications. These medications not only did not help; they cause severe side effects on Dr. Chen already weaken health. For example, a pill of 10 mg Lexapro caused him nausea, diarrhea, and stomach upset for three days. Due to the side effects of these medications, he has lost a lot of weight.

This past three weeks had been very difficult for me. My wife is in New York City helping out the new parent of our first grand-daughter. The professor job at UW-Green Bay is very demanding. On top of that, I also need to commute to Green Bay from Appleton every day which takes 45 minutes for each way. Meeilei will comeback home next Monday. Everything will look better then.

Meanwhile, I am take a good care of myself. No big meals after 8:00 PM. If I have evening classes, I will just eat oatmeal after the class, and nothing after the oat meal. I also put the scale away from sight to reduce my anxiety of losing weight. One positive outcome of this painful experience is that I know I have serious acid reflux problem which had been there for a long time and had done substantial damages to my esophagus. I now know I need to well-manage my acid reflux problem so that no further damages for my digestion system. I also realize I need to rely on relaxation techniques for treating my insomnia and other anxiety-related problems. The medication to treat those problems has done more damages to me than the benefit it may provided.

In the conclusion, the bad news is that I had lost a lot of weight. The good news is that I had caught the problems early enough to manage my health problem before it becomes worse. I know some day, I will be able to wear my wedding ring again.

Friends, I appreciate your concern. Your prayers are also appreciated.

The Blue Suit of A Little Dog--A Transcription of A Japanese Children Story

Once upon a time, a very little dog lived with a very kind grandpa. The dog is so little, the kind grandpa called his dog, the 'Little Mouse'.

Little Mouse loves to bark and hunt. Although he is so little, he can bark as loud as a big dog. When Little Mouse was hunting, he uses his nose in search of his prey. Most of the time, he got nothing.

One day, he was successful in finding a cave where a mother rabbit was babysitting with her four little bunny. Little Mouse came to the mother rabbit, and barked as hard as he could. Mother rabbit, however, did not move even an inch from where she was sitting.

"Why you are not afraid? Why you do not run away from me, the hunter?" asked Little Mouse.

"Why should I ? You are so little; you would not do any harm to us. Come, don't be silly. Don't bark. My babies are sleeping. You may wake up my babies. Come to see my babies. Aren't they so cute?" said the mother rabbit.

Little Mouse then stopped barking and went with mother rabbit to see her sleeping babies.

"They are so cute." said Little Mouse.

From that moment, Little Mouse had made friends with the mother rabbit and her babies. He comes to cave to visit them when there were chances.

The days become colder. The kind grandpa made a blue suit for Little Mouse to wear it.

"Isn't this blue suit handsome for you?" said the kind grandpa.

Although Little Mouse looks handsome with the blue suit, he feels uncomfortable with a suit wrapped around his fur skin. One day, he visited the cave again and asked mother rabbit to take the suit off him. Mother rabbit did exactly like that and said,

"This blue suit can be a sleeping blanket for my babies."

When Little Mouse returned home without the suit, grandpa had realized the suit was lost.

"Where is your blue suit?" asked grandpa.

"Lost on the road", said Little Mouse.

"Let's search for it. Trace where did you go and find the suit back." said the grandpa. Grandpa and Little Mouse walk to find the blue suit. Little Mouse pretended that he was searching hard; but in the end, they turned out nothing.

Now Little Mouse walked on the streets without the blue suit, but he actually see the blue suit as the blanket often in the cave where he had made new friends.

Sakura--The Cherry Tree: English Transcription of a Japanese Children Story

San-Lang was a youth of the early 20's. He lived by a river bank of a small village and had a boat which he used that to carry villagers from one side of the river bank to the other side. He always had a smile on his face. All the villagers loved him and he loved all the villagers. He was married and had one child. His wife was pregnant and was expecting another child in October.

Japan was in the war with Russia. San-Lang was enlisted. He no longer could provide villagers service. Instead, other villager took San-Lang dressed in a military uniform to the other side of the river bank and joined the army to fight against the Russian.

Japan won the war against the Russian, but San-Lang did not return. His wife waited for him, days became months, and months became year. In fact, Sang-Lang would never return because he was killed in one of the battles.

With great sadness, San-Lang's wife planted a cherry tree by the river bank. She said to herself, this cherry tree was the substitute of my husband.

Many years had passed. The cherry tree grew to a very big tree. By this time, a bridge had been raised over the river so that villagers did not need boat to cross over the river. The village also had a paved road that buses could carry villagers from one village to another village. San-Lang's wife grew very old and became a grandmother.

Japan was in another war again. This time was with American. American warships had sunk Japanese fleet one after another. To support the war, the Japanese government cut all the trees they could find.

One day, the government found this great cherry tree and was planning to cut down this cherry tree. The grandma sat at the base of the cherry tree.

"Do not touch this tree. This tree is the substitute for my husband who went to war 40 years ago and never returned."

The grandma's resolution eventually saved this great sakura, the cherry tree.

Ice Angel--Transcription from a Japanese Children Story

I got this story in one of Taiwanese Children Books that I brought back to US. They are actually Japanese children stories translated into Mandarin. As Meeilei is in New York City helping out the new parent for our first grand-daughter, I got the luxury to read those children stories and I love all of them. Here is one of the transcription--Ice Angel.

When we think of angels, they are all good looking boys or girls with the wings attached to their shoulders. Well, Ice Angel is quite a different kind of angel. In fact, he is an ugly-looking boy dressed in not-fitted shirt and pant with a sandal even in a cold, winter days. Actually, ice angel is not afraid of cold. He is made of ice. The only thing he is afraid of is fire. Because fire can melt ice angels down.

Ice Angel does not have any friend of his age. Rude city kids often pick up on him, laugh at him, even throw stone at him. Sometimes, they even beat ice angels simply because Ice Angel looks different from the other kid and Ice Angel has no parent. He is indeed an orphan.

But Ice Angel is not the only target of rude city kids. They were also rude to a middle age O-Ji-San who lived alone far away from the city. O-Ji-San lives in the countryside. He is a master of making masks, all kinds of masks. One a while, O-Ji-San will take his masks to the city to sell here and there. At the end of the day, he would buy a bottle of wine and a bag of rice and few vegetable to bring home.

One day, when he was about to go home, he saw a group of city kids harassing Ice Angels. O-Ji-San came forward to ask them to stop.

"Ma-Te, Stop". O-Ji-san yelled.

The kids retreated a little bit but then continue to harass Ice Angel. One kid even threw stone at O-Ji-san. O-Ji-san shifted his body to avoid being hit. The stone hit the wine bottle. A bottle of wine was then gone.

"Ma-Te, Stop". This time, O-Ji-San shouted even louder. The kids finally went away, leaving Ice Angel alone.

O-Ji-San came close to Ice Angel and holding his hands.

"What is your name? Do you have a place to go tonight?" O-Ji-San asked.

"My name is A-Kai. I have no place to go tonight." Ice Angel said.

"Then come to my hut tonight." O-Ji-San holding A-Kai's hands. They both came to the hut in the country side. It was getting dark and cold.

O-Ji-San gathered wood, tree branches, and paper on the mud floor and lighted a fire using a match box. With an initial fire, O-Ji-San blew the wind over carefully with a hand-fan. The fire then gathered force and burning at the center of the house.

"Come close to the fire to keep your body warm." O-Ji-San said to Ice Angel.

"That is OK. I would rather be cold." Ice Angel did not tell O-Ji-San his secret.

O-Ji-San left A-Kai alone and start working on his masks. Ice Angel turned out to be a good singer. He sang one song after another keeping O-Ji-San entertaining.

Since Ice Angel does not have other places to go, O-Ji-San decided to allow A-Kai to stay as long as he wanted. They turned to be a good company. O-Ji-San provided shelter and protection to Ice Angel while Ice Angel sang songs to entertain O-Ji-San. They happily lived together days and months.

One day, O-Ji-San said the A-Kai that he needed to go to town alone to buy few supply for the house and asking Ice Angel to watch the house. The moment O-Ji-San stepped out of the door, the sky became dark. Winds and snow followed. Then it was ice. It was a really bad snow storm rarely seen in this part of Japan.

Hours passed, and A-Kai did not see O-Ji-San returned. He got worried and decided to search for O-Ji-San in the storm.

Ice Angel followed the trail that O-Ji-San usually took to walk into town. After hours of trekking in the snow storm, Ice Angel found a man laying on the snow ground. It was O-Ji-San who had lost consciousness. Ice Angel took O-Ji-San in his back and took him into the hut. O-Ji-San still did not show any sign of life.

Ice Angel then thought about the fire. He has seen many times how O-Ji-San made fire in the past. He gathered wood, tree branched and paper. He lighted a fire with a match box then blew the wind over using a fan. He finally got the fire.

After a while, O-Ji-San finally woke up. The fire was still burning. Snow storm was gone. It was a beautiful day.

"What a dream." said O-Ji-San. Then suddenly, he found something is different. Ice Angel was gone. Actually, Ice Angel has melted away and would never return.

O-Ji-San was sad. But then, he turned sadness into work. He made thousand of Ice Angel face masks (an ugly-looking boy face masks) and gave masks free to everyone he met. He then told the story of how Ice Angel gave his life to save him.

Today, most Japanese family hang proudly this face mask on their wall to remember the life of Ice Angel. If you have one, treasure the mask because the story of Ice Angel is touching.

Americans Are Working Hard To Achieve Their Universal Health Care

After one year sabbatical leave in Taiwan, I have realized that a Taiwanese retired elders live a more secure life than the American retired elders. A Taiwanese elder who is ill at the retirement does not have to worry about his or her medical care because of the universal health care coverage in Taiwan. On the other hand, an American elder who is ill will be afraid to quit because an unemployed American will not be able to afford hefty medical cost without the health insurance coverage provided by his or her employer. One of the reasons that many American elders choose to work is to have a secure health care insurance provided by the employer. The consequence is huge. A sick employee staying at work will not help his health conditions, nor does he contribute much to the employer. Both the employee and the employer are at a loss.

President Obama gave a joint congressional session speech on September 8, 2009, the day after Labor Day. He strongly push for the overhaul of the American Health Care System. We wish that this "universal health care" program will be a success in his administration.

Meeilei and Dr. Chen Are Grandparents Now

The Chens are welcoming Kaitlyn Chen, born on September 5, 2009 to Peggy and Leo Chen in the hospital of New York City. Peggy and Leo now are mom and dad to Kaitlyn while Meeilei and Dr. Chen are grandma and grandpa to Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn weighed 5.7 lb and arrived a month earlier that Meeilei could not finish her knitting project for her.

Meeilei will fly to New York City on September 10 to help out the new parent. Dr. Chen will see his granddaughter on Christmas this year. Attached are few photos with Kaitlyn with her mom and her dad.