Closer to home

 Okaasan is back in her care home - kind of.

She was moved Monday this week from the big city hospital, back to the hospital of the care home. Dear Son got to see her again, briefly, before the transfer and said she maybe recognized him, but looked very weak.

Two weeks in a hospital bed, no cheerful day care people making her walk around a bit.  Her muscles aren't strong anyway, and two weeks in bed will have really had a bad impact.

Guess she will stay in the hospital section for this week, and then move finally back to her floor and her own room again? We hope so.

And the cause of the sudden coughing up blood is still unknown. It only happened once. It wasn't from the stomach. And that's all we know.

And Covid.

The care home hospital will have vaccines for its residents - so we hope Okaasan will be deemed healthy enough to receive hers, on schedule.

You may have read in the media, Japan's vaccine roll out has been painfully slow. Getting a little better now - but it seems the central government didn't plan early enough for things like mass vaccination sites, training up staff to administer the shots and HOW to clearly inform people. Actually, a lot is left to local government.

Seniors in my city are just now getting vaccinated with their first shots - only started June 24. Friends living in small towns fare better, because the authorities plan for the whole community and order up enough doses.

My age group will probably be reservations in July or August - for shots in August or September...at this rate. Sigh. My Facebook is full of happy, strangely jarring pictures of families and friends meeting up, unmasked, sharing beers, attending concerts, hugging.

I'm delighted for them. Really. But it is a head-shaker that I live in one of the richest countries in the world, with a good health care system and yet we are SO far behind on this public health situation.