The window....closed again.

 AND....family visits are stopped again.

Got the care home call last week: they have COVID rampant again and all family visits are off. It was a 6 week window of "quality" time bedside.

And then today they called and said Okaasan is one of the positive cases, Dear Son gave permission for the necessary meds to be piped in via the tubes.

I think it's the same elsewhere in the world this summer - the virus is back. While most of us healthy bods are going about regular life (beer festivals and events with friends for us)...the sick and the elderly have a new challenge.

In the mood?

 Playlist for bedside visits...

In the mood by Glenn Miller...Dionne Warwick...Herb Alpert...kind of unusual sounds for a Japanese hospital room!

But, finally we can get in to see Okaasan and sit bedside playing her music from our smartphones. We THINK she likes it, there is head movement/shaking and not too many grimaces and tooth grinding. The occasional open eye and look.

It may be pleasure. It doesn't look like distaste or anger.

But, hard to know.

We went last week and again this week. Stayed about 20-25 mins. The dopamine drips in, the sounds waft around...and so another visit goes. Occasionally she opens her eyes and appears to look at us - and know who we are? Maybe.

But Summer of 2024 we are doing these regular visits.

FINALLY!!! Visits!!!

 

We are here!!!

Anytime (well, almost) we want!

The care home has relaxed the family visit rules and from June we can go any afternoon, apart from bath-time on Fridays, we can stay up to half an hour and we can be a maximum of a 3-person group.

All great. Finally. A chance to do more quality visits. Once a week. Try to catch Okaasan when she is awake. Play some music via the smart phone. Take in flowers to show her. Prattle on about stuff.

30 mins is more than enough time. The care home is 10 mins drive from home, so once a week is very doable...or more times, if we chose.

This week we had bedside time. Okaasan sometime opening her eyes to look at us, and then drifting away into a gently snoring sleep. The nurses said we can quietly play music from our smartphone - Dear Son says Glenn Miller would be Okaasan's choice.

More regular visits can resume :-)

May Visit

 Gonna be struck off the Care Home Visit List soon!

This time we actually got the time wrong and almost missed our 15 mins of valuable communication time (heavy sarcasm intended...)

He wrote it down as 3:30 pm. I had it at 3 pm.

3.01 pm the care home called to remind us we had a dearly loved relative in its care. So we rushed to go visit, grabbing the little pot of fake flowers that were a sad offering for Mother's Day.

Made it in time and sat bedside.

Okaasan was peaceful/doped up. She opened her eyes a little, shook her head a bit. Didn't make any of the awful sounds of before. We sat and tried to fill in the silence with our voices talking about the weather, flowers, recent news...

Then a nurse came up with a large plastic bag of stuff! "We found this, maybe you should take it home?" - "this" was Okaasan's old red cardigan (one of several), a T shirt, socks, underwear, hospital slippers...

It was probably transferred with her when she came to this care home 2? years ago, stashed away in the bedside closet and forgotten. Okaasan doesn't and will never again wear these clothes because now she is in pajamas and with pillows to prop her up in the best position for the tubes in and out.

So it all came home for the trash bin. We still have some of her clothes here, just because it actually feels somehow wrong to completely throw them away...I've kept the good stuff. I kind of think she might wear them in her coffin? Or, do bodies in Japan get dressed in special white clothing? My Dad went out wearing his brightest shirt and socks. I feel Okaasan might prefer to go out wearing her favorite blouse and scarf.