Mid-afternoon, Dear Son is watching TV because his summer job is finished and November is his off month. I'm away at work. Okaasan is out for a walk.
He hears the door bell.
Looks outside and sees an AMBULANCE.
???????
"Is this KN's home? We brought her home. She fell down and couldn't stand up...but she refuses to go to hospital and she doesn't appear to be seriously injured. So we brought her home."
Fall. Again. Somewhere locally, because she had only been out for an hour or so and hasn't been downtown for a month or more.
Looks like no injuries. Amazing really, to fall at 84 years old and not get injured.
But because she couldn't/wouldn't stand up somebody called at ambulance.
She doesn't seem so bad. He helps her into her room and she says she'll eat a little later.
He comes to pick me up from work because we had a discount ticket for a local curry place. We go early for dinner. It's near home.
3/4 thru dinner his phone rings. Okaasan wants to go to the toilet, but can't stand up.
He leaves the table and the restaurant and drives home quickly. Helps her. Comes back to finish his food. Then we return.
Cue evening...and now an early morning.... of DS in full-on carer mode with his mother. She says she has constipation. He actually tried to um...give her two suppositories...and helped her to and from the toilet, half carrying her...and changed her diapers twice...and kept a running monologue of kind, helpful, encouraging words.
Really he did. Is doing. Great. I am just a bystander.
Giving someone a suppository is the ultimate service.
I know. Cos I did it for him earlier this year...
She says her knee hurts. Again. She is very nervous about putting any weight on it. Can't haul herself up off the carpet really.
Same old. But at least this time she is letting him put his arms under her arms and haul her up and around.
It is good it happened this week.
Next week he goes away for 5 days to Tokyo to see old friends.
It is very good for him to experience this with her - and imagine what it would be like if he wasn't here.
So I am staying as the bystander on this. Just taking out the trash bags and making sympathetic noises.
I feel sorry for her - because the stress is never good for her condition - but I am actually glad he is dealing with her full time. I know he is a nice guy, I have been reading your blog long enough to know he is not the average male Japanese, but nonetheless it´s good he is dealing with her - suppositories included. :-)
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should take some advantage from the present situation and discuss with him about a "what to do plan if she falls and stays like that when he is away during Winter".
I assume you will not be able to haul her from the floor and take her to the toilet, for example. Are there nursing services available for hire? Will he agree that you should call an ambulance and send her to a hospital? Can you send her to the hospital against her will? Since you are not married would you need some kind of legal permission/authorization from him - being the son - to overrule her refusal to go? (because we all know she will put up a fight). You two should discuss all this before he goes away.
Francesca