Balancing Love and Safety: Visiting Mom in Memory Care After a Stomach Bug Outbreak
Update on Mom (5/7/23): Last week, my mother got struck with a stomach virus in her memory care home. It's been a tough week as I’ve been balancing the need to see her with the risk of getting sick and passing it on to others. It's a delicate balance that's not easy to manage. So I stay away.
And let’s face it, I am completely phobic of the stomach bug. The struggle is REAL. No joke.
Last September, when my mother got sick with a stomach virus, we ended up in an emergency room for three days and eight family members got sick within 24 hours. It was a really difficult time for us all.
This time around, we are all taking extra precautions to keep ourselves and others safe. It's not easy, and it doesn't feel great to keep our distance from her, but we know it's the right thing to do.
This internal, emotional battle of guilt, and perhaps even shame at times for not being there with her over the past week, is something I am really working hard to honor and let pass.
I know she’s being treated with lots of TLC by the staff there, based on what I saw today, so that brings me a sense of peace. And she did seem happy when I left today because it was dinner time! Her favorite time is meal time. 🥰
Thank you for always loving my mom and supporting us in this journey.
💜🤟🏼
Video description:
A 1:16 video features MJ Grant, a white woman in her late 40s, with brown, highlighted hair pulled back. She wears a coral tank dress and multi-colored circle earrings. In the first few seconds, she wears sunglasses, but removes them in the next scene where she is shown sitting in her car signing in ASL.
Transcript:
Finally visiting my mom for the first time in a week! Because she was sick with the stomach virus, so now that she’s better I’m back and hopefully she hasn’t declined. We’ll see how it goes. Be right back. So, I had a very short visit with my mom. Mom looks ok and appears to be better. It seems today is her first day being fully recovered and has no symptoms. But there are other individuals there who are still getting sick. Which means the virus is still in there and contagious. I am not a fan of the
stomach virus. At all. That’s the one thing…I don’t mind colds or other viruses, but I’m traumatized
from the stomach virus. No thank you. Not having it. And I feel bad.
That’s the hard part, right? When you have a parent in a memory care home, inevitably you will see a lot of viruses spreading around. But Mom does seem OK and relatively happy. Much love.