My mom’s independent living folks and staff of CCRC will be getting vaccines 1/31 and 2/2, according to CCRC. We were able to get her vaccinated on 1/14 instead.
Our state is having mass 1000 vaccinations this weekend but all slots were taken immediately by those 75+ who were each allograft to have a +1 driver or caregiver also vaccinated.
How are you and your mom doing @compmom?
Hi @momoffour. Unbelievably, my mother, who has a few different kinds of severe heart failure, kidney failure, previous stroke, and dementia, has survived COVID and today was the first day she got dressed and went down to lunch in the dining room of her assisted living! I called to get an aide to help her. She could no longer remember where her clothes were 
She is dizzy, the main residual symptom. She has more lives than a cat.
Wonderful news! I hope you are doing well also. Thanks for the update.
I haven’t posted here in a while. My 89 year old father (survived a long hospital stay spring 2020 with Covid) is in an assisted living. They are supposed to start vaccinating this week, but they still have strict rules in place. No leaving your room, meals brought to you, no outside visits, etc. Since his return from the hospital, he tested positive twice again and they had him on 14 day quarantine (which means no companion aide in his room which he really needs).
He is in constant pain (was true before the Covid, seems worse now - has expanded from shoulder and neck to headaches). He is on pretty strong painkillers (Percocet I think - he is well enough to manage his own care so I don’t get all the details which is fine). He is so depressed lately, worse than ever. It has been a really long haul for him and I totally understand. I have no words to cheer him up except to say things will loosen up in the assisted living place soon with the vaccine.
My question is are others seeing this kind of depression in their parents who are is assisted living. Are they all still being kept under these kinds of strict rules? I don’t really want him to take any more meds (he is on so many), for his depression. What are others doing in similar situations.
Thanks for any ideas (and it did help me to vent a little here)
@kiddie My mother is in independent living and she is severely depressed. Her facility allows the residents to go out , but visitors are restricted to 20 minute visits in a public place. They have shut down all communal activities, including dining. My mom is 90 and is/was pretty good for her age. She still drives and manages to get out to do errands a few days a week. However, she had several friend groups in the facility that she dined with at least 4 days a week. That stopped in March and these groups haven’t really seen each other since then. The isolation is literally going to kill her. She sleeps a lot, mostly because there’s not much else to do. Last week she was in tears, telling me that she wanted to take some pills and die (if she wasn’t such a coward). The only positive thing is that the residents got the first vaccine on the 7th and they will be getting the second dose on the 28th. I hope they are able to lift these restrictions shortly afterwards.
@Mansfield Thanks for sharing. At least your mother has left her room. I don’t think my father has left his room in months. There was a short period of time in the summer when they were in phase 2 and he was able to be wheeled outside for an hour a day and they were serving in the dining hall instead of in the rooms. He joked that they were allowed to sit 6 feet apart and since everybody has hearing problems they couldn’t talk to each other.
Nobody has been to visit him in all of 2020. We can’t risk it as my husband is immunocompromised. Plus most of the year they have not allowed any visitors. Some of the time they didn’t even allow care givers (so that meant no PT or aides for any residents). They are following NY state health department rules (yep those some rules that had all the COVID positive patients forced back into these facilities.)
You can’t believe (or maybe you do) how grateful I am that my dad (98) is still at home. And he is lonely too. The neighbors still visit but not as often. He is a social animal and just wouldn’t last under lockdown. I see him often but knowing that wouldn’t happen if he were in a LTC is very sobering. It’s locking up some of the most frail population. If there wasn’t a light at the end of this long tunnel then we’d really have some re-thinking to do as to what our priorities are.
My mother calls several times a day, often crying, saying she is lonely, and begging to live with me. She said last night that she doesn’t have long to live and doesn’t want to spend that time alone. She has no concept of time.
Even though she has had it for 3 weeks, she does not understand COVID or the reason for all the restrictions. Her assisted living opened the dining room to socially distanced dining (two shifts to allow the spacing) last weekend.
They have been looser than many facilities, but then again, just had an outbreak with 25 residents and about the same number of staff positive.
I have been telling my mother that I will find an apartment for us. This helps her sleep. I wish I still had a house. However, I am not vaccinated and I have to remember my own safety too.
I asked this in another thread and am going to post here too. If your parent or you or family member or friend has had COVID, how long are they waiting from time of positive test to vaccine?
My mother’s assisted living is scheduling vaccines for 1/25. 2/15 and 3/8 and they want to give my mother the shot on Monday 1/25. I have talked with the nursing agency and googled and there are a lot of different opinions on how long to wait: 14 days from positive test, all the way to Fauci’s 90.
How long are you hearing as the recommended interval?
CDC guidelines: If you
Received passive antibody therapy treatment for Covid–wait 90 days after treatment
Received another vaccine in last 14 days–wait 14 days after last vaccination
Had a positive test for Covid–wait until recovery and you’ve met quarantine restrictions (but you don’t really need the vaccination for 90 days because you’re protected but you can still get it if you want).
Been exposed to someone with Covid–wait until you’re past quarantine period.
I am getting first vaccine tomorrow at work. I had Covid in Dec.
Getting at facility is a easier way to have the vaccine available and w/o hassle - as long as no active disease/complications going on.
So my work facility uses Pfizer vaccine. They had a small questionnaire about having received any other vaccines in the last 14 days, and if you have problems with particular kinds of vaccines - I didn’t keep a copy of that form so can’t be specific. However if very immuno-suppressed etc not to take the vaccine or in active Covid/symptoms.
With the Covid vaccine, you have only a 1 in 100,000 chance of having a mild allergic reaction such as a rash.
You are 73 times more likely to be infected with Covid than to have an allergic reaction to the vaccine.
@compmom if your mom is feeling fine and not having active Covid symptoms go for it Monday 1/25.
Thanks all. She is still up and down and today is not a good day. So I am going to wait. Yesterday she was great, and I ws going to change to the 1/25. I am learning not to react to the up or the down. It’s hard when my only info is her phone calls! She doesn’t even know she has had it!
My parents are supposed to get their first COVID vaccine on 2/1 . . .it’s about time. Lots of other facilities have received theirs around here.
Got a call today that dad must have stubbed his toe. They found him with it bleeding (he of course, cannot recall what happened). He is a diabetic so I am very concerned about it - the podiatrist does not come until the first week of February. The nurse said they’d check it every day but I know they are overworked. This is exactly the kind of thing I would go in every day for and check on, get a chance to see how he is doing etc.
Stupid COVID. I know my losses have not been nearly as great as many, but it’s weighing on me tonight.
If your mom just had Covid, I do not see the need of having her vaccinated right away. It is unlikely she will be infected again soon. I would wait until 2/25.
@old fort she is in assisted living with prescheduled vaccine clinics. The director was very snippy with me about this, but I delayed her vaccine anyway. The issue isn’t how long she has natural immunity. or whether she is safe from that. The issue is whether the vaccine will be effective while she is still close to active illness. Fauci even said to wait 90 days to avoid interference between natural and vaccine antibodies. But others say to grab a vaccine whenever you can. I guess I took the middle road
If one has active Covid - need to be out of that before vaccine.
I am with the camp that says grab the vaccine when you can. Fauci is talking under ‘ideal’ circumstances. I figure my own immune system will do what it does and the vaccine will do what it does.
I was able to get vaccine as a caregiver at a facility; our area hospitals had vaccine weeks earlier - my RN niece in another state (who did not have Covid as a ICU nurse) completed her 2 shot series while I just had the first shot this week. IDK when DH at age 64 will be able to get the vaccine.
It is a shame that the big second wave of Covid happened just before vaccines became available.
One’s arm (for many) is going to be sore from the vaccine (I have had Covid in Dec and had the first Pfizer Covid vaccine on Thursday). Today (Saturday) the upper arm only aches with touching it.
Sorry about snippy caretakers. I see both sides of the coin. Everyone being gracious under these new circumstances as Covid have everyone on edge.
I told our Director of Nurses that I fielded a call from a family member checking on her mother and answered her questions as a go-between with the nurse caretaker because the nurse caretaker had a snarky attitude, while I could be friendly and gracious. The feedback to DON was for the nurses to convey a customer service attitude.
My 91 YO MIL’s 70+ YO caregiver (light caregiving responsibilities but the only one MIL wanted) had a stroke, this lady’s grand-daughter died suddenly, and now the caregiver has suddenly died. H’s family is struggling with MIL having dementia at bay and having enough physical ability to be able to go home after this latest hospitalization (chronic heart issues and is about a month post-Covid) - she has resisted taking pain medication (swollen legs with sores, also diabetic, also gout, osteoarthritis etc) but they have been telling her at the hospital to take the pain medication to sleep and do better with physical therapy. Stoic German with a determined mind of her own even with dementia going on. Pharmacist SIL has often battled with his mother on taking the medications on a schedule VS having things go very bad and then wanting ‘rescue’ meds.
@surfcity what kind of facility is your dad in - if in skilled care and they have a wound nurse it should be under good care. If unit nurse is providing care. If facility NP has looked at it and provided orders for care. Key is for care so even if it is a relatively minor wound, it does heal. With calling you, they document the stubbed toe as an ‘incident report’ and nursing management has oversight on this too. If you talk to your dad and he is able to tell you what is going on with his toe as far as redressing and care. Best if toe wound heals and podiatrist can take care of the other needs (nail clipping etc).
@SOSConcern the “snippy” person was the executive director. I was getting pressure to have my mother vaccinated on their schedule, even though she is still symptomatic. I was perfectly nice about it and just asked if the ED could check with their public health expert on the timing issue, since I was getting different info from my private nurse agency.