Caring for the afflicted.

A sloooow weekend at home as the slowest typhoon ever edged sloooowly toward Japan.....and the rain went on and on and on and on and on......


Just as well really. Needed a quiet weekend to be home and take care of things.


Popo - Yujiro and I took him to the vet again and this time got to see the bite wound that is causing all the trouble. The vet gently peeled and clipped away the sumo belt to reveal a hairless flank and three bite punctures. Redressed it all and sent us home with Recuperation Food and medicine.
We are all sleeping better and our daytime is spent monitoring our little neko-chan (cat) as he sloooowly eases himself around the house.
"He's drinking water!" "He's looking out the window!" "He's eaten two dried pellets!" "He's climbed down the stairs!" "He's walked onto the front door step!"


I had flashbacks to myself in hospital last September - when just sitting up, then swinging my legs down from the bed, walking to the ward toilet, walking to the hallway toilet, walking to the dayroom - everything seemed a "first".


Anyway - Popo does seem to be slowly making a recovery. But nightime open windows will be thing of the past from now on. We must make sure that both cats are home and safe from the local stray. I have learnt that lesson very well this week, seeing this baby so hurt and sad.
Thankgoodness this happened now and not near my Australian holiday - it would be very hard to leave Yujiro with a sick cat...

Maybe I feel ok...

Okaasan - caring for the Okaasan too. Days of rain meant she hasn't been out  either. So yesterday we did another Family Outting. Stimulate her brain and legs.

Took her to one of the big shopping malls - walked around the shops a bit and ate sushi for lunch.

Okaasan brought some Tshirts for dry cleaning - because she always wants to go to the dry cleaning shop near the old apartment. 

So we made a detour round to that neighborhood...as we pulled up outside the drycleaning shop: "Oh, we used to live here! I used to come to this shop!"

"Err, yes, you ASKED to come to this shop today. That's why we are here!"

"Did I? We came here for me? Oh yes, this cleaning!"

And in she went.....

Later at the sushi bar, Okaasan and Yujiro ordered and ate their way through huge bowls of crab miso soup, picking out the crab meat and chatting happily about it all. We sat at the counter eating plates of sushi.

"The crab soup hasn't come has it? Did we order it yet?"

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"Did I eat it already? I did didn't I?!"

While I was sitting on the doorstep monitoring Popo's garden chair adventure I started rereading one of my books about dementia - "And Still the Music Plays" by Graham Stokes, personal stories of patients from a clinical psychologist. He writes interestingly about how early stage dementia patients cope with their failings and inabilities - the list making, the excuses for forgetting, the withdrawing from social interaction, the fixed, safe routines.....how disturbing those patterns that sufferers create for themselves can worsen the condition.

I thought about Okaasan's table full of bits of paper and notes, the comments about weather and shopping and food, the reluctance to engage with visitors and the routine of Going to Seicomart and Drinking a Coffee at 5 pm.

We have created a very safe life for Okaasan here - and that's good.

Do I feel well?