Yup.
Okaasan is back. Or, appears to be.
Still in the room near the nurse station, but back on the once a week bath schedule. And then oxygen supply is down to 1 lt level.
Yesterday we went. She seemed ok. However she did have a few moments of extreme something - mouth opening and wincing/body clenching that didn't look so content.
One of the nose tubes had got into a strange angle and we asked a nurse to correct it.
We sat. Hand held. Chatted. Came home.
I realised this week in one of my adult English classes, that 4 of us had parents/in laws who are over 90 years old. Some of them in care homes/hospitals, and others who are still in the family home and still walking/talking/eating etc. We all know what we should be doing for a long and healthy life - but the fact is: it's random. Probably down to our DNA.
Okaasan led a healthy eating and active life - the dance, the socialising, using her brain power. But still, by her late 70s dementia was setting in. And by her late 80s she needed a lot of care from others.
Dear Son turned 67 this week. We celebrated with beer and pizza.
I hope to get a few more healthy years out of him :-)
I've been thinking of you lately and hoping things are "keeping steady." I'm much older than you and your husband and I often think about end of life. Just trying to stay healthy and busy. Take care.
ReplyDeleteHey there! Thankyou for your comment - nice to know real people are still out there reading this! I sometimes look at the "view counts" and wonder if they are mostly spamming Russian accounts bouncing around to gather IPS data...
DeleteHi, I am the same age as Dear Son, older by a few weeks. Still working and n the corporate world. Hope to stop work in 9 years and retire in Sapporo with my Japanese wife.
ReplyDeleteHang in there, you have been a great DIL.
Hi there! Thanks for reading and commenting! Sapporo is a wonderful place...although the snow and ice DOES get a bit old after a while - beautiful at first and then, by late February, so exhausting.
DeleteI’m a long time reader but have seldom commented. So chalk another of your views up as not a spambot. I started reading your blog out of interest in Japan (I was a JET many moons ago). Now it has additional poignancy for me: my father had Alzheimer’s and my mother has dementia. It’s hard. You and DS have done an amazing job.
ReplyDeleteI’m a long-time reader but have seldom commented. Count one more of your views as other than a spambot. I started reading out of interest in Japan (I was a JET many moons ago). Now I your bog has extra poignancy: my father, who had Alzheimer’s, passed away last month, and my mother has dementia. I was interested and slightly horrified to read about end-of-life scenarios in Japan, having had hospice for my father. You and DS are doing a terrific job.
ReplyDelete