First Week Back With Dad: Part II

On Friday, my dad had for breakfast orange-mango juice, a piece of toast and two eggs over easy, by request. For me, breakfast is the easiest meal of the day to make. I think in a previous life, we must have been farmers because my family loves to eat eggs. I once asked my sister the most she ate in one day. She said she had 8!

After breakfast, he asked for some pineapple. My mom had cut some up for him yesterday morning. About an hour later, he complained about his mouth hurting and bleeding. I put two-and-two together and I realized why he felt the liang mian the day before was spicy. His mouth was bleeding then too. He had eaten pineapple before lunch so obviously it was this fruit that was causing him so much pain. I pointed this out to him and we both agreed that he was not to eat anymore.

For lunch, I figured he wouldn't want anything hard or would require a lot of chewing, so I went out and got shui jiao from this place next door. They make great baozi and frozen dumplings for you to cook at home. I also made a kaiyang danhua soup, to balance it off. My dad had 7 jiaozi and two small bowls of soup. It seems like he was getting his appetite back.

Later that afternoon following his nap, I wanted to go to Bo Ai Lu, Taipei's camera district, to buy some black and white film. My dad said he would come along, so we took the #22 bus to Taipei Main Station and walked 3 blocks to the district. On the way there, my dad tried out a few canes, and bought a collapsible one for NT$400. It's kind of cool - it pulls apart into four pieces which you fold into a bag. Then when you take it out, it snaps together by itself.

When we got to Bo Ai Lu, my dad said he would wait for me at a place around there and have a snack. I told him that I would walk him, that way I would know where he is. He insisted that I don't, saying that I would be wasting time by going with him, and to just call when I'm done.

About an hour later, after successfully navigating about 30 shops, I called him to see where he was so that we could go eat dinner. I called about 4 times and no answer. Then on the fifth try, he picked up. I asked him where he was. He said "McDonalds." McDonalds!!!

After what happened the day before, I was really pissed off. Fuming. I got there and he was sitting reading a newspaper. I asked him, of all the places here, why did he choose McDonalds? He asked me what the big deal was.

I said, "You know it's not good for you."

He replied, "All I'm having is a snack."

An ice cream sundae, half a chicken sandwich and a drink at 5 p.m. is not really a snack, is it? I said I felt like he was trying to sneak a trip to McDonalds because he knew I wouldn't approve. And then I told him I was particularly incensed because we were supposed to go eat pizza after going to Bo Ai Lu. He said that we could still go.

So we took the MRT to the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial and I brought him to this place called Capone's. The place wasn't gangsta, but I felt like cappin' someone. We started arguing again after sitting down. I told him that if he wants to eat hamburgers, that's fine. It's his body, after all. But of all the places that he could eat at, why does he choose the place with the worst food for him?

We ordered a large seafood pizza, a soup for him and a salad for me. He had two slices of pizza and ate most of the soup. It was actually pretty decent thin-crust pizza. At around 7:30 p.m., more people started coming in. The waiter said that there was a band playing at 9:30, but we left at 8 p.m.

When we got home, I gave him his medicine, and that was a struggle. He's supposed to be taking 3 tablets of Capecitabine, 1 tablet of Tramal Retard, 2 tablets of Magnesium Oxide, and one Prometin. He just wanted to take the Capecitabine. He reasoned that he wasn't in pain, he was pooing normally, and he wasn't feeling nauseous. My dad added that the Tegafur/Uracil and Thalidomide trial didn't allow him to deviate from his prescribed regimen, but now he can.

Thinking about how he's been doing, and how his appetite has been pretty good, I told him fine. I've also seen how the drugs have been controlling him and making him feel just plain uncomfortable. We ultimately want him to be comfortable, right?

Right. And ultimately, I wanted some sleep. Because the next day, the aunties were to arrive ...