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.

Plans cancelled

 This should have been a positive, happy post.

But, as anyone with elderly loved ones knows, things can change suddenly.

Last week the hospital said Okaasan was ready to transfer back to the hospital section of her care home, with her feeding port fitted etc. Ready for the social services to start the hunt for a facility that can look after her with feeding port. We felt positive that the next stage was about to start.

Special taxi service was booked, care home staff ready to receive her. Our Wednesday morning (tomorrow) planned.

But, then came the call yesterday: there were problems/an infection? with the feeding port and they'd had to stop it. So she is back on tube feeding ...thru the arm? And we are going in tomorrow to talk to the doctor...

Sigh. Not good. As much as I gather from Dr Google and friends, the feeding port allows more nutritious feeding, with less chance of infection. Thru arm feeding is less...meaning she will weaken?

I guess this means she won't be transferring anywhere, and staying put in this hospital.

In a strange, sad way it IS a second chance to maybe make a decision that fits more with what Okaasan herself would want? To be allowed to gently fade away, and die? Not to have tubes and contraptions fitted into her body and kept alive? I personally think so...and although I gently mentioned this idea to Dear Son...it has to be his decision.

He isn't very pro-active on this topic....I feel he lets the doctor call the shots. But, it's his mum and his decision. I'm just the "wife" sitting alongside with my handbag, looking concerned. So...we'll see what the doctor says tomorrow, and if there is any chance to let nature take its course.

1st Vaccine completed.

 Dear Son and I got shot. Finally.

Now suffering the Moderna Arm, stiffness, soreness and pain. 

We rocked up to the community center at the district admin offices on Sunday morning and got slotted into the production line of helpful people in masks checking our paperwork and directing us thru the maze of partitioned off cubicles.

Mine was first, and I felt like a pinball machine silver ball being batted down the table with paddles and directional bars...from staff member to staff member and finally thru to the screened off area where a young woman apparently gave me an injection. I say "apparently", because it was SO quick and easy I didn't feel a thing and I'd spent every moment since waking obsessing over the pain-to-come :-)

I guess I haven't had a vaccination for many years, but blood tests aplenty, and maybe it's a different kind of needle? Or, was she like that story of the German nurse who injected saline solution into thousands of people as a protest against the whole vaccination system?

I hope not!

Anyway - spat out at the other end of the process after about 35 mins.

We went shopping, spent a quiet afternoon at home and tried to stay off the alcohol...too much alcohol. Felt a little arm stiffness and heat overnight. But no worries. The next day I actually drove out to see a friend living in the countryside to help her bottle tomatoes and devour a homemade pizza. Felt a little sore in the arm.

Come 5 pm - a full 30 hours after the injection - major change. Both Dear Son and I had painful, dead arms and taking off clothes at bedtime was like a kids' game where you have to do something with only one hand.  Sleep was patchy.

Anyway. We feel happy to have finally got the vaccination. We hope Okaasan had it too last week, Sapporo is in yet another State of Be Careful, so hospital visits are out of the question. And we wait to see when she can be released back to her care home hospital unit...and then onwards to a permanent facility.

Guess that'll be a September event.

Vaccines on the horizon...

 We might ALL get vaccinated soon :-)

And if you're an anti-vaxer you can stop reading right here and sod off.

You are wasting your energies with me. Go off and find another part of the Internet to pollute.

:-)

Dear Son and I were on standby yesterday at 9 am as this week's tiny reservation availability window opened online for our age group.

He was manning the reservation website on the computer.

I was womanning the website accessed thru the Japanese social media application LINE, after "Friending" Sapporo City.

"Website busy. Please wait".

And wait.

Dear Son makes two rushes to the toilet, leaving me, nervously, to monitor the two "Please Wait" screens. He came back on duty.

Wait.

Ping! After 25 mins the screen of my mobile phone changed and we were IN to the vaccination booking site. Frantic scrolling and stabbing fingers at the screen....and minutes later we had reservations for him and me this coming weekend at a local community center.

Yay! We are FINALLY joining the Covid 19 vaccination program.

We think. There seemed to be no system for a confirmation email. But we believe we have made a reservation...

And THEN! Phone call from Okaasan's current hospital! They have unused vaccines, can we give permission for HER to receive one soon?

Yes! Of COURSE!

Very good day. Excellent day.

Japan has been shockingly slow at vaccines. A shock to people around the world AND Japanese themselves, who have this image of Japan in the 21st century as being a high tech - high service country.

But no. A whole slew of factors destined us to a long, long wait. The country doesn't MAKE vaccines, it wanted to run domestic tests on all imported vaccines (but the tests were tiny and meaningless), then only doctors could administer the vaccines, then there weren't enough mass places to do them....then local governments expanded the program...then the government hadn't ordered enough to meet demand...then reservations were cancelled...and on and on...

There's a history of vaccine hesitancy in Japan too, after side effect debates and legal fights about mandatory vaccinations (MMR and HPV) in the past 30 years. And many people don't actually read a newspaper or watch mainstream Tv news at all, getting their information off internet sites. One of my Japanese friends - who is a bit "out there" in her beliefs about health and the search for personal happiness - shocked me with claims about vaccinated arms and magnets/spoons can stick. She'd "seen it on YouTube". I came home, stuck a teaspoon to my sweaty, non-vaccinated arm, took video and sent it to her. And distanced myself from her on Facebook and, I'm afraid to say, in person too.

Sigh. I guess, like the Friends actress Jennifer Aniston said - this Pandemic has opened up chasms in many of our relationships. Made us revalue what someone believes, and how much they attempt to push their beliefs on others. We've maybe all had run ins with family members/friends/colleagues on this subject. It's another source of stress on a never ending stressful experience.

Anyway. Dear Son, me AND Okaasan should be getting vaccinations soon. And for me that is a good thing.

AND.....went out early morning at the weekend to show my support for Team GB marathon runners as the Tokyo Olympic (but races in Sapporo) courses passed thru my neighborhood! Almost got caught out with the one hour shift in start time for the Women's race...but very fun to stand there with a scattering of locals and cheer on the runners as they streamed past.

Early morning temperatures were still 26-29 C....and wouldn't you know it...ONE DAY after the marathon races the record breaking heatwave (daytime 30-34 C) finally stopped and now we are back to daily averages here of 23-26 C.