Decisions...decisions...

 

Visited Okaasan yesterday and spent a wonderful whole 30 mins with her!

She was very alert, knew us, knew the TV cooking show was switched on, laughed, smiled...even spoke a few words. Did the goldfish gesture with her mouth. Looked from us to the nurse as we talked. Responded with her eyes and nods to conversation about her home town and the Tokyo Olympics (in 1964).

All great. When we arrived she was due to have a bath, but the staff delayed that and let us sit for ages with her. It was a good visit.

And.

The meeting with the doctor and discussions about what to do next about the feeding. Continue with medicine thru the nose pipe, and nutrition thru the arm into the vein. Or, a small operation to insert a tube direct into the stomach. And/Or wait for a few weeks to see if the infection at the chest feeding port clears, and that entry point to the vein can be used again.

If she has the stomach feeding, she wouldn't need to wear mittens to stop her pulling out tubes.

And yes, best to cancel the care home contract - because Okaasan won't ever be going back to care home life. From now on it will be hospital units. But...and this is a crazy thing about health care insurance in Japan...she WILL have to return to the hospital unit of the care home...for a short time...and then (probably) back to the current hospital (which is in the same group).

This last point has nothing to do with care. It's all to do with health insurance rules in Japan. There's a 3 month limit on stays - I guess to stop hospitals keeping patients forever for money reasons. But, like all systems, the work around it is: move the patient out and then back in again....

Anyway. The central question.😟

Dear Son decided: "No" to the stomach feeding tube, because a) Okaasan herself wouldn't support this idea and b) her problems this summer started because of stomach ulcers and bleeding, so it seems risky to start activating the stomach again.

So, that's what he hopes will happen. Back to arm/vein feeding, with the option to use the chest port again if that becomes possible. Ironically, the doctor said Okaasan has GAINED weight recently as the nutrition feeding has progressed.

It's such a hard subject. Food is a life essential, and feeding somebody you love is a given. Medical technology has created whole systems of ways to keep to body alive, but are they getting in the way of a natural course of events? I think yesterday's decision would have been easier if Okaasan had been lying in bed, unresponsive. But she wasn't. She was alert and happy.

So. That's where we are now.