The final countdown...yeah!

Ok. NOW going-to-the-city-office-to-ask-for-assessment is on the schedule for this Friday.
So it might actually happen.
Come typhoon or earthquake, bubonic plague or meteorite ...he and I will finally ask for help.
He was still doing nothing, and I am despairing of a rainy day forcing him off-work so he'll go to the city office. Last night I told him to TAKE time off work and let's do this thing - get the wheels turning. He agreed and said today, then rescheduled for Friday.
Friday it is then.

I seem to be seeing wispy/vacant old people everywhere at the moment - and comparing them to Okaasan, who trots off happily alone most afternoons for a walk and shop, and comes home to sort of particpate in dinner conversations. Am I over reacting? Is it too early for day care? I guess this is guilt setting in. This will happen (assuming it WILL happen) because of me: I can't cope with Okaasan in the winter. Seeing Okaasan now - when the weather is good and she goes out most days - gives me uncertainty.

She is still pretty able in all things, and our care for her is doable. Frustrating often and funny often, but doable.
I really have to remind myself of the change in winter. When he is away for weeks working and I come home late afternoon to find she hasn't ventured out again. And her mood goes down and down, and the shitty toilet accidents come back, and the hamster wheel conversations.
I need to remind myself of those times.
She needs mental stimulation and physical exercise. She really does. And I need carer support. I really do.

Okaasan DID finally use the found subway card and go downtown again. Sunday afternoon, I was going to the supermarket which is next to the station, just after she'd left the house (okay, so I was kinda following her :-)))
and she trotted into the subway station and thru the ticket gate and off she went.
Later, at dinner, I mentioned downtown: "Did you go downtown today?"
"Downtown? No, I don't think so. I forget. I went to Macdonald's...."
But I'm glad she went and returned ok. There's been a 3 weeks gap since she was there and I wondered if she would be ok about going and returning, whether she would remember it all - but she seemed ok.

In other news: our cats are turning this house into the Horror House of Death. Birds...mice..insects...oh god, it's horrible. I love cats, I really do...but...oh....horrible.
Yesterday Chichi brought a piegon home. A whole pigeon. Yujiro followed the trail of blood upstairs to the corpse at the top. At 5 am Popo got us all awake by growling over his dieing sparrow...and then in the minutes before I went to work 5 hours later - he reappeared with a still squeaking mouse.
I really had to go to work, so I closed all the interior doors and left the chase-to-the-death happening in our utility room.
Came back 4 hours later...and there is NO trace of the mouse! None! No tail, no guts. Nothing. I've looked everwhere. Found two toy mice and a lot of dust. I fear the remains will turn up in my ski boots bag in December, or in the cleaning equipment box when I clean on a Blue Moon.

And my knee. It's back. Bugger.
Three years ago, two years ago - this blog was full of my left knee and its cartilage. I thought it was almost ok now. I ski (slowly), I walk in parks, I can even trot across roads when the lights are about to change. I go to the gym 3 times a week and don't wear knee support so much. Still take a Glucosamine tablet daily.
Two weeks ago I went away for a wonderful weekend trip with my friend and her cute 9 kg plus baby.....obviously I carried him too much. My knee/thigh started aching and aching. I've tried taking it easy....but the is no escaping the fact: it hurts and I am starting to curtail activity again.
Bugger. Oh bugger. Bugger.
I hate this. I am only 51 years old. Will I never get this thing better? It doesn't bode well for me as an old lady...
I'm looking around for a recommended orthopedic doc. An MRI maybe? More of those awful injections??
I hate getting old.

Physical aging problems, like gammy knees, are one thing. Getting dementia is another.
This week a friend who is a big fan of the TEDX lectures sent me a link to this video: a woman describing the steps she is taking to prepare for life if she gets dementia. Have a look, it's very moving and thought-provoking.

Alanna Shaikh talks about Alzheimer's Disease Preparations.