Writing from Hong Kong

I’m in Hong Kong! I’m living in a room the length and width of this window. To get to my loft bed, I climb on my chair, my desk, and my shelves. There’s plenty of light and vertical space–no floor space to do yoga though.

The good news is my mom is eating more and is able to take a few steps using a walker or holding onto a railing. She was hospitalized for a month or so. A friend told me for every day we spend in the hospital, it takes us a week to recover. When my mom was first released last December, she went from being able to take a few steps on her own to not being able to move her feet at all. She wasn’t even able to place her feet on the foot rests of her wheelchair. I questioned whether she’d be able to walk again. I had to return to the Bay Area to pack up and put my things in storage. When I came back to see her in mid-January, she was refusing food. I bought her some pasta she’d eaten before. She took a couple of bites and lost interest. I bought her a smoothie, which she finished, and gave her some ice cream, which she ate. For the next month or so, she would refuse to eat most things her nursing home served. She would sometimes eat custard, dim sum, and other restaurant food. The only thing she consistently liked was smoothies and dim sum from a particular Chau Zhou restaurant.

I’d like to think visiting my mom every day has made a difference. Now, she’s eating a wider range of foods, even what the nursing home serves. The physical therapy (or physiotherapy in Brit Speak) she’s been getting at her nursing home has helped, along with occupational therapy and exercises she’s been doing as an outpatient at a hospital. She’s eager to take a few steps with my help every time I see her.

I’ve been taking her to Kowloon Park and Hong Kong Park to see turtles, birds, flowers–small, cultivated doses of nature. My next goal is to see a movie with her once the rain stops. We’ve had London-like weather in the past week or so, reminiscent of our colonial history.