Visits off the table...again...

 AND....Covid derails our visit plans again.😑

Care home called and said all family visits are cancelled while Omicron rampages around our community.

Since the winter holidays and all the travelling that so many people did to finally see families - and a really ridiculous spike in cases connected to US military bases in Japan (arriving personnel and their families faced very relaxed testing and quarantining) - Covid is up and running here again.

Our area went from under 10 new cases a day in December to 300-400 a day this week. Tokyo had 900 a week ago, and over 4,000 yesterday.

And so. We won't get to see Okaasan for another...month? Two months???

I REALLY hope they give family's like us priority reservations when they reopen, because when we entered that care home in mid-December the earliest reservation slot was February 2. So we should be given priority when it all starts again.

Meanwhile we are battling a massive winter storm that's hung around for 4 days now. So much snow. So much wind. People killed under roof snowfalls, Car crashes. Famous trees crashing under the weight of snow. Endless. We are all so tired of the snow.  Below is the neighbor's house....

Happy? New Year

 

Is it? Really? A Happy New Year?

Really, you have to wonder...for Okaasan.

Yesterday we drove to the hospital thru a snow storm and delivered our New Year card and this small flower display. Of course, not TO Okaasan herself. But via the hospital side door, and the security guard called up to the ward. Handed it over to the nurse who came downstairs.

We hope it will give Okaasan some happiness. Give the staff something to chat to her about, when they come bedside to change tubes.

I believe Okaasan will understand what this is. What time of year this is. Will it bring back memories of her mammoth New Year cooking for husband's office staff 60 plus years ago? Or, my not so gorgeous attempts in recent years? My Facebook feed reminded me of the latter, with photos of my creations and shop-bought celebration food in the years when Dear Son was away skiing and Okaasan and I were Home Alone together.

I hope this small arrangement and the card with a picture of her dearest son will bring some happy memories to her. We can't see her until February, because of Covid visit limits. About two weeks ago I took in a small photo album of memories too - handed it over to the nurse. More hoping.

Dear Son and I are having a very low key holidays, at home with the TV and food and alcohol. Skiing and snow shoeing. Attending to the digestion problems of one of the cats. Putting off the diet plans...until later....

2022 has GOT to be better. Hasn't it! Is Omicron this viruses last hurrah? Japan is very strictly limiting access, still - and I have several friends who ventured out to see family abroad for the holidays - when they return it'll be thru a slew of tests, retests and quarantine. The government is running out of space to put the quarantining people, so passengers arriving in Tokyo have even been bussed or FLOWN to hotels in other cities around the country. Actually flown! Come off a long international flight, go thru all the checks etc at the airport and then herded onto another flight and taken off somewhere else.

If you live within taxi or private car reach of Tokyo or Osaka's airports, you might be able to get home to quarantine. But for thousands it has meant a 3 to 14 day stay in a hotel. At least you don't have to pay....the government is funding it. 

And if someone on your international flight later tests positive - you are called up at home and asked to go back into a hotel...

So relieved I don't have any pressing family need to go to the UK now. Maybe this year? Will travel become easier? Hope so.

And HOPE visiting an old lady at the end of her life in a hospital bed 10 mins away from here will become easier. Of course. 

Here we are!

 

Okaasan and Dear Son - together again!

For a brief moment in time - thanks to Covid.

This is Okaasan about to enter her forever care hospital - just 10 mins drive from our home. She dressed in her fave red cardigan, with newly washed and brushed hair. She was awake and responsive to all the old hospital staff farewells, and us, and the special taxi driver, and the new hospital welcomes. Dear Son got to ride in the taxi with her for the 20 mins between hospitals, and all in all it was a positive transfer.

So, now she is there. Attached to three lots of tubes: food and medicine tubes going in - and pee going out. Big mittens on her hands,  and straps across her body and from her wrists to the bed to make sure she doesn't pull it all out and run screaming from the building. Like I would.

Such is this kind of care in Japan. One of my students who works in a hospital said she and her colleagues are holding a working group in her place of work to try and rethink if the bed restraints are necessary in all cases - because she said it's just so automatic and many of the staff don't like it. She asked me about the UK. But I don't know. Maybe calming down drugs are used more? Do we actually tie elderly demented patients to beds?

Anyway.

Okaasan's new home.

We had a meeting with the admin staff, then the doctor, then the nurse, then the admin staff again. All super efficient.

The doctor, a straight-talking older man, went on and on about how the blood pressure meds were not a good idea. My Japanese isn't good enough to catch the full detail - but he strongly advised that there were inherent dangers in trying to control the blood pressure at this age/stage of life, and THEN went on to explain that if Okaasan's heart failed - resuscitation involving chest pressure etc was equally risky.

Basically, he was telling us to face up to the realities of an over 90 year old whose body organs are beginning to weaken. We understood and accepted. It's the truth. Brutal, but true. And she wouldn't want any different.

So the blood pressure meds will stop. And we'll all hope her condition will stabilize.

The head nurse was equally realistic about Okaasan's clothing: don't need it now. Can take it all home. Unless she makes a great improvement and can move to a wheelchair and physical therapy room - from now her therapy will be bedside in her pajamas. We guessed so.

Visiting rights in Covid times? The hospital has, of course, a reservation system. For once a month family visits. But AMAZINGLY - they have the option of an online visit via iPad!! First time we've been offered that. Not that it's any use for us, as Okaasan can't talk and may not understand our faces on a small screen.

But we can make up a small photo album so that staff can show her photos and talk about it.

Best of all: the head nurse actually asked us about Okaasan as a person. What job did she used to do? What are her hobbies? So refreshing! This isn't just a medical case to be processed thru the system. This is a human being who can't communicate much, but she has a whole life of experiences/likes.

So we told her: book keeper a long time ago, super housewife, great cook, flower arrangement, Hawaiian dance, travel, funny...

We left out the part about a healthy distrust of doctors and nurses. ;- )👀

And our next meeting.....the admin staff checked the calendar and came back all apologetic.

We can next meet Okaasan on February 2. Next year. 7 weeks from now!!!

Thanks Covid.

A choice of...one

 Okasan's next move in the works - to a long term care hospital near us.

Social services sent the info about our options. Option.

There were 3 options for the suitable facility in our requested area. But two of them can't take an elderly person with fluctuating blood pressure. So, we got the small brochure for the third offering.

I thought MOST old people have fluctuating blood pressure? Is that really a reason to refuse a potential customer?

Anyway, Dear Son looked at the brochure, which has a stock image photo and general info arranged in colorful boxes. Could be any care hospital anywhere in Japan. We are not allowed to visit because of COVID. And anyway - as Okaasan's life is now a bed and tubes...does it really matter what lovely facilities are elsewhere in the building?

Sorry. My bitterness is showing.

It of course matters very much that the people coming to her bedside are kind and caring, professional and humane. It matters that they have a proactive policy in allowing family visits during a pandemic.

We can only hope. Dear Son is talking to the social worker and the move is in motion.