I slept through to 8 a.m. in the morning. I went to kitchen and cooked breakfast for my parents.
After breakfast, I helped my parents to fill out a medical questionnaire sheet that was required for yesterday’s insurance application form.
***
After the medical questionnaire process, my dad asked me to take him to the local hearing aid store. He said it would not take long. We thought we could have come back within 30 minutes or so.
However, the process took them more than one hour.
After 30 minutes passed since we arrived at the store, I received a phone call from my mom. Her voice sounded very irritated. To my surprise, my mom yelled at me for our staying at the store for longer that we thought. I asked my mom to calm down. I explained her the store worker and my dad have been doing the necessary procedure without wasting any time. The store worker needed to adjust his new hearing aid into the computer program. I thought it unfair that my mom yelled at me even though the process was nothing to do with me. It was actually nobody’s fault for taking longer than we thought.
According to the house helper, after my mom ate lunch, her temper calmed down.
I should have known well at that time, that my mom easily gets irritated because of her being sick or maybe because of her taking too much medications. I admit that I am still an immature human. It was not easy for me to deal well with my mom’s emotional swing.
***
After we came back home from the hearing aid store, I had a quick lunch.
In the early afternoon, my mom asked me to take her to the bank located in the next town. She wanted to close one of her fixed-term deposit accounts. She could not do so earlier, because she was reluctant to ask the helper to go there with her due to the private bank information.
At the bank, we needed to wait for quite a long time for them to process it. I was surprised at the extremely low interest rate in Japanese bank. For example, I know the interest rate of one American bank’s 5-year term deposit account was 2.48% (0.0248) as of last year 2019. Today my mom received the interest cash that was only 0.00375% (=0.0000375). The bank teller told us they had to deduct the income tax from the bank interest. This is probably one of the examples of Japanese economy being very bad.
***
When we came back home, it was past 3 p.m. My mom went directly to bed and slept, same as yesterday.
***
I cooked some side dishes for my mom. They are steamed sweet potatoes and pumpkin. They should be helpful for my mom to easily digest.
After the cooking, I had one-hour free time for myself. I walked to the shopping area at the closest station. I wanted to buy some Japanese food to bring back to America. I also wanted to buy some gifts for my daughter.
***
My free time went by quickly. I needed to be back home in a hurry because I had an appointment with two people. One person is the representative who came to our house yesterday for my parents’ insurance appreciation. She arranged another representative who deals with the lease of nursing-care products. They were to arrive at my parents’ house at 5 p.m. to install a handrail for my mom’s bed.
***
When the two representatives arrived at my parents’ house, my mom was still sleeping on the futon mattress on the first floor.
I explained the two representatives that my mom was sick and sleeping. I invited them to my parents’ bedroom of the second floor.
The male representative installed a handrail next to my mom’s bed. We decided to add one more handrail on the other side of the bed toward the bedroom door. Then, I showed them around other house areas where my mom goes in a daily basis. We decided to install some handrails in the bathroom, one step inside the bathtub, and a walker.
My dad checked my mom several times and forced my mom to come out from bed. He insisted my mom to be in the meeting because we were talking about her nursing-care products.
My mom came out from bed and sat down in the dining table in the living room with the two representatives. My mom was still too sick to walk around the house to hear their explanations about new products that we agreed to lease.
I roughly explained my mom what we have agreed to lease in front of the two representatives. My mom agreed and thanked them for their support.
***
After the two representatives left, my mom wanted to take a bath. Previously my parents went to take a bath together. My dad said he supported my mom for taking a bath. Since today was my 4th day, I got to know better. I knew my dad was not supportive for my mom in the bath tub. So, for today’s bath time, I offered my mom a help to take a bath.
It was good that I was with my mom in the dressing room in front of bath tub. When my mom was taking off her clothes, she several times lost her conscious and almost fell down backward. I happened to be standing behind her, so that I could support her from behind. She didn’t have energy left to wash her hair and body. All she could do was to soak herself in the hot water bath tub for a short period of time. She said she has not washed her body and hair for more than one month. I offered her to wash her body and hair, but she politely turned down my offer. She said she would get sick if she stays longer in the bathroom. So, I could not help her for doing so.
I really concern about her after I leave. She needs somebody to support her taking a bath. She still sleeps in her bed of the second floor. It was so dangerous for her to climb up and down the stairs. She needs to sleep on the first floor. In that case, she will need to install a bed on the first floor. Right now she sleeps in day time on the futon mattress on the first floor. It seems so hard to her to get up from the futon mattress on the floor. There are many issues to be solved for my mom. I wonder who can be much supportive after I leave.
My dad is not supportive at all. He is stubborn and does not agree with everything I mentioned. I have thought a lot about any possible help source before I fall asleep. I could not get any good idea. I was at a loss on how I can be a help for my mom in this situation to make her life to a better situation.
three wisdom 