My right leg has stopped responding to my needs to walk with it. My left leg can still carry my weight, and I use it to pivot my body when getting in and out of my wheelchair on my own. This chair is brought to me by a nurse, who is on-call 24/7. In principle, I could return home now, if we can provide similar circumstances, in a sustainable way.
Conditions we can observe to make my return home a success are:
- Radiation treatments have to be finished.
- Rehabilitation expert of the hospital has to observe progress in recovery of muscle functions in both legs.
- Social care workers of the local city Hall to visit our home to.support me and release my wife from that primary care burden.
- Arrangements to be made for a hospital bed on the ground floor in the house.
- Easy access to toilet and bathroom is to be provided by temporary disability equipment like. crutches, narrow wheelchair, bathroom chair etc.
This requires quite some arrangement with local City Hall, and a discussion was held with the ward nurse which support the hospital could actually provide. My wife was more or less in shock after understanding the complexly of this task, even with full support from Hospital and local City Hall.
The option at the other end of the scale of things, is to consider moving back to Holland alone, settling in as a resident over there and make use of the Dutch social insurance benefits. As per experience of my disabled aunt, all services and equipment will be provided and financing is covered by the local City Hall. This includes making necessary changes to the house.
Quite a big change it will have our lives, as we need to split up and retire completely. Part-time work for wife is is a option as she still has several years to go till the Japans.pension kicks in. Also my visa in Japan needs to be changed to Permanent Resident so that I can return in case my body recovers. This is ongoing at the moment.
Either way, arrangements need to be made for me to return home first, and study the process to shift to Holland in case the situation becomes unsustainable. The arrangements in Japan can only be coordinated by my wife, so she needs to have the time, energy and support required to complete them. For the arrangements in Holland, my brother has confirmed his support and his planned visit to Japan will help to finalize this plan.
As far as I can judge, she is ready for this task as long as she has sufficient support from all government services. An action plan needs to be made, supported by a budget. This needs to be validated with the local City Hall person in charge. This all needs to start while waiting for my release from hospital.
It’s doable, but the single point of possible failure is my wife. If she burns out at any point, or has another bike accident and breaks a bone like she did 5 weeks ago, we are back at square one. My son and/or her brother could provide a supporting role to my wife in planning. We also need to get commitment from the social services provided locally, to support and take over the coordinating role when required.
We obviously have no choice to move forward with planning all this, as my release from hospital will happen soon. We are talking about a period of 2-3 weeks. Quite a daunting challenge for the family as a team. My wife is the only person who can decide to start with this, and we have to pray that all will go as planned, and hope for the best!
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