Guess this means I'll be taking her somewhere over my holiday weekend.
The ice in Sapporo has been awful. We haven't had fresh snow for over a week, and the car tires just polish every surface they touch.
The result is this:
 |
| This photo was taken by a friend in Sapporo (and I've stolen it from her Facebook page), but it's an excellent example of almost all the roads here this week! Of course, Okaasan can't go out onto these kind of streets. So she stays there, in her room - watching TV, sleeping, walking to the toilet, walking to the kitchen table for lunch and dinner, sleeping more, TV...... Does she feel bored? Or is she protected by the dementia in this situation? She knows she hasn't been out today maybe...and maybe for a day or two...does she actually realize it is 5 days? I know this is like the question: Do goldfish get bored in their bowls? I've been out working and doing all the Christmas rah-rah parties and classes, he has been out doing ski teacher training, even the cats have ventured out for a run in the snow under the subway line...but Okaasan.....sits and sits...and sits some more. I saw a Day Care Center bus in our street, picking up customers to take them off for sing-alongs/ball-catching/blood-pressure checks etc and I wished that Okaasan was in that system. I wished that Yujiro cared enough about it all to GET her into that system. But he doesn't care really - as long as she is there in the house day to day he thinks she is ok - and she is probably too proud to agree to join a Day Care system...."that's for old people who can't do anything"...I can almost hear her saying....and so...she sits, and sits in her room with the TV. I hope when I am an old person I am not too proud that I won't take the chance to surround myself with people and chat and activity. Going somewhere with other people and having conversations and activity would be good for Okaasan. She isn't an incapable person, she is still healthy enough to go walking on her own etc - but this icy weather just traps her inside. We live in Sapporo because we love it. Okaasan lives here because her son is here. But it isn't a good place for her. Two hours ago it started snowing here and the 3-day forecast is blizzard, which will cover up all the ice finally. Okaasan won't go out in the blizzard either, and he is using the car to get to the ski areas...so I guess I will be taking Okaasan out in a taxi to give her a change of scene..... It will be my Christmas good person duty. |
Granny K goes to a day service thing on Saturdays for about 4 hours - she jokes about them making the same kind of stuff as five year olds - but she actually really enjoys it. Getting okaasan into the system would be great!!
ReplyDeleteReally? Did she have to get assessed physically/mentally to get accepted? Or just sign up for it? I worry that Okaasan won't be deemed incapable enough for daycare services...and anyway...trying to get her to agree to any kind of assessment would be impossible....if the center had hula dance and she thought she could get free transport to hula dance maybe she would go...
ReplyDelete