And, and , and...

I was going to write a nicely crafted blog entry about how Okaasan copes/doesn't cope with machines and equipment around the home.
How we're starting to wonder if she is understanding how to use things like taps, shampoo bottles etc

But.
Turned into a hell of a week somehow.
Luckily Dear Son finished his bike taxi summer job and is now on holiday for a month, until the ski season starts. So he is home and in control of the shopping and cooking and chatting to Okaasan.
She's fine I guess. A bit stressy yesterday about wanting to change newspapers - went on and on about it. Apparently after her morning paper was delivered all wet and wrinkly. Dear Son not so keen to change the newspaper order after similar complaints last year, which after he had arranged - Okaasan then changed BACK...because she'd forgotten, of course, why she'd wanted a different newspaper in the first place.

All of that. Life as normal. Still waiting to hear from the city office about what level of care Okaasan will qualify for. That's ok.

My week spun gently into exhaustion though.

* An old student and friend suddenly told me she'd got a job in Kyoto at one of the old hotels that caters to famous, foreign celebs - so she and I went out to dinner to say Goodbye.
* Then students from a class wanted to talk about their class structure...over dinner and drinks.
* Then Ordinary Lives, the Fukushima documentary I was involved with - that had its English subtitles premier and I went and made introductory remarks etc. Wonderful to finally see the film in translation. About 65 people for the first show and 25 people for the second. Lots of familiar faces.
* Then, Popo-chan our little, fat fighting cat - I discovered Sunday lunchtime he had an old fight injury on his back. The scab came off and revealed a nasty, gaping, going-septic hole beneath - so we had a vet rush.
He had stitches - with no anaesthetic. And is now in a plastic collar to stop him licking the wound. So he goes around the house crashing into door frames and furniture...miaowing mournfully. Last night he tried endlessly to climb into bed with me, lick my neck reassuringly etc....and then panicked when his collar caught under the sheets.
It was a long night. And there are 10 more days of this.
And we have another cat - super healthy and always out - and the whole windows-open/windows-closed/sick cat in/healthy cat out stuff to monitor.

 

** Oh, and one more thing?

The hospital sent my stomach barium test results.

It appears I may have a polyp in my stomach.

Please come in for a more detailed examination.

Endoscope camera tube thing down the throat etc.

Dr Google informing me of my chances that this will be cancerous etc etc etc.

 

So. Quite a week really.