Hello stranger!

Here she is! Okaasan is BACK, in person, in the blog named after her :-)

First meeting with loving family after 4 months of care home lock down...got the lock down hair syndrome, and a bit uncertain about all this social excitement...

But back.

She was happy to see us, knew who we were and said a few words...laughed. Looked from him to me, smiling. Wasn't so communicative, but not bad. Pulled some funny faces for us and WAVED us "Goodbye!" right until she lost sight of us near the elevator doors.

A good visit.

The care home had it all set up:
Temperature checks
Facemasks
Spray down with some kind of sanitizer
Health questions about our recent condition.
Rules: no presents, no visit to private room, 30 mins only.

Slightly surprisingly, we were allowed to wear out outside shoes into the care home. 

It was strange to be back. Take the elevator upstairs to the lounge area and there was Okaasan, in her wheelchair at a table. We sat and prattled on about a world-wide pandemic, and masks, and summer and flowers, and hair and stuff...

I think she found the mask communication hard - she couldn't see our mouths moving to KNOW we were talking...and obviously it was a bit muffled. So her focus slipped off to the TV. But when the staff came over to chat, she looked from person to person.
They said she is fine...but recently isn't good at feeding herself. They feed her, and still there are lots of food drops and slips. They asked us to get a plastic bib apron for her. Walking also...not so good now.

But we MET her and could see her!
This summer she will be 90 years old....hopefully we can take her OUT of the building by then...out to enjoy fresh air and some kind of birthday celebration.

Visitation !!!!

We are going to MEET Okaasan! 🙋🙋

Letter came from the care home: family members can make a reservation to visit for half an hour only, only to the lounge area, wearing a mask etc

GREAT news!

I am guessing, that after the last letter about the continued-lock-down-till-mid-July, that some families complained and now they have relaxed things a bit.
There have also been some reports on Japanese tv about care homes using ipads and plastic screens to allow family visits.

So. We hope to get a reservation and go in next week.

How will Okaasan be? I hope ok...I hope she knows Dear Son and is perked up by our visit.

Watch this space. 

:-)

Dementia deaths

THIS is what I am worried about.

For Okaasan...and millions of others.

We hope she isn't really aware of the huge changes in life around her. But we don't know. And maybe it's a kind of comforting lie, the throw away joke..."well, at least she doesn't know whether we've been to see her, or not".

But I do believe, that at some level, she knows.
Knows that there have been less smiley faces.
Knows that there has been less variety in a day.
Knows that life is quieter.

If you have time, I recommend this read from the BBC News website

Dementia deaths up during pandemic

Care Home prison....

Hokkaido opens up again - shops - schools - art galleries - here we go!

Of course masked up and meeting everyone from the other side of a plastic screen. Washing our hands and spraying fingers and palms at buildings entrances.

Local governor still asking people to NOT travel between areas. So, I'm still doing little local trips. I feel the frustration of seeing people I know go beyond the city limits - this week even a very respectable, kinda famous tour guide shared her pictures on Facebook of a trip she made two hours out of Sapporo! I am sticking with what the governor has recommended, to protect local communities with less health care facilities.

But many people aren't.

 However, my Achilles tendon played up, so I really can't walk more than a few hundred steps a day. Stuck doing stretch exercises. I overwalked - 3 plus miles a day on city streets in my old trainers. And I don't want to go to a hospital at the moment...so being very very careful. Dear Son helped me go for a gentle local paddle in the kayak one day, he came with me to help load and unload the kayak from the car - then dozed in the car while I enjoyed greenery and solitude. He is a good man.

One of my English teaching jobs will start up again this month. The other, at a local hospital, looked likely to restart - lots of happy messages from students in the LINE group - and then 24 hours before the class start somebody in the hospital management realized this wasn't an "essential" activity with a non-staffer. And it got cancelled til next month.

It's ok. Hospitals are places that should be extra careful. in my city, Sapporo, there have been clusters at the big cancer hospital, a local hospital...and care homes...

Care Homes.

One infamous cluster here has 80-90 cases now. Deaths among staff and residents. A horrible case where nobody in the two floor building was safe from COVID-19. I CAN imagine the distress of families.

So, we weren't really very surprised when we got a letter from Okaasan's care home.

They are not planning to lift their lock-down until mid-July.

Mid-July!

If the situation in the city improves, they may review this. But basically that is what they are planning.

So, we can go shopping downtown and eat out in a restaurant, have a hair cut, even go to a karaoke box and sing.

But we can't visit our old lady.

Those February karaoke parties with Okaasan and her pals seem SO long ago now. The snow has melted, spring came and went...summer is arriving. And still Okaasan is stuck inside that building. Her bedroom, the lounge room, the toilet.

One of my students works at a hospital for head/brain injuries. There it has been locked down to family members etc But they are investigating ways of using an online "visit" system with Zoom or Skype. Allowing families to come into the ground floor of the building and screen-talk on a big computer with their loved one upstairs in bed. However, even the planning of it has thrown up all sorts of problems, to do with scheduling and staff time - even privacy for patients.

Two main problems: 

a) Patients aren't always awake or mentally able to do an online visit, when their families are waiting downstairs on schedule.

b) Families didn't understand HOW to use the technologist, so two staff members had to assist every time - one for the the patient and the other for the family.

So. We won't be seeing Okaasan until July.

Maybe.

.

Maybe

Stay safe and take care (if you can) of your loved ones.