Grandma has been han­dling the chemo well. We’re try­ing to slow the growth of the major tumor so that there are no block­ages. She’s not sup­posed to eat meat, but we want her to enjoy life (along with the fact that we’re glad she’s eat­ing at all because she has no appetite) so we let her.

Most days are unplanned, just see­ing how she’s feel­ing before we decide to do anything.

I’m begin­ning to sleep a lit­tle bet­ter now. For the first week and a half, I’d still wake up in the mid­dle of the night, unable to fall asleep again even though I’d be com­pletely exhausted from jet lag and walk­ing around all day. I’m not sure if I’m just get­ting used to the day/night pat­tern, or the fact that I’m taper­ing off one of my col­i­tis med­ica­tions which has sleep­less­ness as one of the side effects.

So the cur­rent sched­ule is:

• Wake up around 7:30
• Eat break­fast
• Watch TV with grandma
• Fall asleep on the couch — The win­dows are left open all the time and the air is rel­a­tively cool in the morn­ing, so i’ll just let myself suc­cumb to the breeze and drowsi­ness. Normally I need to be lying down, wear­ing a sleep mask, but not in this case. These naps are awe­some.
• Eat lunch
• An activ­ity with grandma if she’s feel­ing up to it — this can be a walk to the park, get­ting her hair done and her feet mas­saged, or a walk to a restaurant
• Afternoon tea — Snacks can be sweet, salty, or both
• A chance to write, work on pic­tures, or edit videos because grandma takes a nap
• Have din­ner
• Hang out with guests/family
• Watch TV — There are two shows that seem to be big right now that my fam­ily enjoys watch­ing; an under­cover cop tele­vi­sion drama, and a Chinese fan­tasy called “Big Winter Melon”. I’m really get­ting into the for­mer because it’s well writ­ten with lots of inten­sity (although the direct­ing style is so out-dated by Hollywood stan­dards). The lat­ter is another story…I’ve tried watch­ing a few episodes and still can’t fig­ure out what’s going on, or even if it’s a com­edy or drama.
• Shower (a nice way to cool off before going to bed)
• Some more writ­ing while every­one is asleep.

It’s been an end­less cycle of peo­ple com­ing through the house, whether it’s fam­ily or friends, din­ner or tea, a chat or a visit. Spending time with them leaves me some­what lack­adaisi­cal. I don’t want to be anti-social and get up to do some­thing else, but I’m rarely involved in any of the con­ver­sa­tions, and the top­ics are often vapid.

Unfortunately, I haven’t had a chance to hang out with my Uncle Joe much because I’m try­ing spend as much time with grandma as pos­si­ble, but next week should offer a bet­ter oppor­tu­nity. I hope to do more explor­ing then.

It’s cer­tainly a bit­ter­sweet exis­tence here. Being in Hong Kong again fills me with won­der, but see­ing my poor grand­mother going through so much breaks my heart.