Tales of the summer that wasn't...... Part 2

Into the very beginning of August, and Mina is on the phone with her sister. She and her husband have apparently been feeling a bit 'under the weather' for a few days, and decided to go see their 'GP' (general practitioner - or simply 'family doctor'). Low grade fevers, fatigue and diarrhea...his verdict was that they had picked up some kind of errant 'summer cold' that had made it's way into their gastro-intestinal tracts. "No need for too much concern...", just a round of gut flora re-generating probiotics, plenty of fluids, some rest...and a bit of patience.

Still, they had decided to re-locate to their second house out in the sticks to get some peace and quiet from 'the tribe' at home in Nagoya, and recover properly. Sounded like they had picked up a touch of what I had suffered through about a month earlier. That had taken almost three weeks to shake off completely. No fun at all. These seasonal things usually make the rounds out here, no matter how effectively you wash your hands, mask up and attempt to socially distance. I wondered if they might have picked up a bit of food poisoning? There had been a lot of that going around. Nice to have the option to change venues... though it seemed like a bit of a drastic measure for rot gut, or a couple of 'summer colds'.

The main point of the call seemed to be the ongoing debate over what to do about the Obon situation the second week of August. At this point, we had all decided to pull out of driving in to Shiga - but there was still the matter of the priest's visit. The infection rates were spiking up pretty drastically just about everywhere. Our position was that it was a bad idea, and just increased the chance of 'exposing' mother to something nasty.

(At this point, it's probably worth noting that regardless of the issues being addressed at any given time, Mina's sister and I are basically always at odds. Though we both make a good effort to find the middle ground, and maintain at least a semblance of familial 'harmony', we essentially despise each other.)

After a considerable amount of back and forth, it was finally agreed that minimizing risk should be the first priority, and that a third, 'remote prayer' option be tabled. Should my wife's mother concur, we would have her send the usual amount of money to the priest, in return for a remote service at the temple, with no one else present.

After some discussion, mother ultimately went along with this idea - though there was no doubt that she was slightly disappointed. We were more than a bit relieved to have that sorted and dealt with. My opinion is that the whole thing is a massive waste of money, and that simple prayers can be said without lining the priest's pockets. While I've read and can appreciate a lot of Buddhist philosophy, I'm not by any means indoctrinated, and basically reject all organized 'pay-to-pray' religions. I'm not a huge fan of this particular priest, either. As with most of my unsolicited 'opinions', this one was promptly dismissed. It didn't actually make it any further than my wife, truth be told. Concerning matters of the native's archaic religious practices, I'm consistently pretty far out of my depth.

Old people and religion. It's like catnip to them. Under normal circumstances, they go nuts over it. Add a dash of pandemic virus to the seasonal equation, though...and what you have is a quick recipe for death and disaster in the making.

Back in February, minor denomination 'cult' churches in South Korea became early viral epicentres. While the government over there was pretty quick to start mandating closures, the damage was basically done before anyone really knew what was up. A week on, the fever wracked 'faithful' had infected their families and neighbourhoods, were gasping for air, vying for beds in the ICU, and being put in queues for ventilators.

None of this ever seems to sink in, though.

Fortunately, there aren't the fringe Christian sects over here; regarding matters of faith, the Japanese aren't nearly as fervent as the South Koreans. They do love them some seasonal grouping and virtue signaling, though.

Crack it up to national character?

I shudder to think of what will go down over here over come the Shogatsu New Year's holiday period. We live within 10 minutes of Atsuta Jingu, one of Japan's three key Shinto shrines.

From New Year's Eve, on until around the second week of January, it's a literal sea of humanity over there. People that don't give a rat's arse about religion or faith at any other time, are suddenly crawling over each other like dung beetles to pray and chuck their mostly meagre, coin based cash offerings to the Sun Goddess Amaterasu-omikami.

(It all adds up, though. It must take them weeks to count.)

Social distancing? Not a chance.

I wonder if they'll do the responsible thing this year, and cancel it? The huge annual late spring Jingu Matsuri (festival), customarily held the first week of June, got the axe in May. Canceling the massive New Year's cash grab would no doubt hit the Shrine hard right where they live. Missing out on that payday would be a very big deal.

As with every other latter day, highfalutin capitalist juggernaut, decisions here in the world's third largest economy seem to be dictated by finances.

Money.

Enough of that has been 'lost' already this year, and, come what may, it really doesn't look like the men in grey at the top of Planet japan Inc. have much of an appetite to apply the economic breaks again in any meaningful way. While the 'official' rate of daily infections finally seem to be ebbing, no one knows what the situation will look like come November or December. With so many in the grips of all the current travel discount mania assholery, things aren't looking very hopeful.

Almost a week passes, and my wife's sister calls again. I think it was a Friday evening, around the beginning of Mina's week off. Mayumi and her husband are still out at their second place...and not feeling any better.

(alarm bells start ringing)

Based on the attending GP's diagnosis at their initial examination, she's still pretty insistent that they don't have COVID; yet apparently thinking that a second opinion might be in order. From where they're at, it's a roughly 30 minute drive to the nearest 'big' hospital, so she's thinking of just making the drive back into town, to seek consultation over here - likely at the same clinic they visited the week earlier. My wife offered some alternate suggestions - like to go to the nearest large hospital SOON (as in the next day - Saturday), and not 'wait until after the long weekend', like they were planning; but it seemed that her sister had already made up her mind about what she wanted to do - which was to suffer for another couple of days, make the longer drive back into town on Monday, then - first thing Tuesday morning - go see the same GP they had received the initial diagnosis from the previous week.

She didn't seem to be in any rush. After all...they didn't have COVID.

Apparently, the purpose of the phone call was more to make some kind of proclamation, than seek any real advice. Typical.

Mina told me what was up, and it seemed pretty obvious that they had been mis-diagnosed, and were more than likely infected.

Not good.

Why on earth weren't they moving faster on all of this?

Japanese people basically take the word of their physicians as gospel. Doctors are respected, and elevated in this society. They are thought to have been bestowed with some level of divine 'authority' that regular people are conditioned not to question or challenge.

That isn't to say that they don't make mistakes.

They are, naturally, as imperfect as everyone else.

Of course, no one wants to be diagnosed COVID-19 positive. At their own peril, I imagine that they were hanging on to the 'stomach cold' assessment until it finally seemed that something a bit more serious may be afoot.

Saturday, and Mina and I were over at Sappore (the specialty supermarket up the road) trying to sort out lunch after my morning kid's class. We were in the shark-obasan feeding frenzy strike zone (see my June solstice blog) in front of the bento boxes, when her phone rang. Mayumi had apparently reconsidered, and she and her husband were in town at her GP's clinic, not getting any straight answers.

A week had lapsed...and while her fever had cleared, her husband's hadn't. Their diarrhea hadn't abated, and both were still suffering from fatigue...from appearances, Mayumi more so than her husband.

The GP's follow on evaluation?

"Hmmmm. It appears that you're both suffering from symptoms consistent with heat stroke. In addition, Mayumi also seems to be displaying symptoms of some kind of neurological (?!?) disorder. Very curious".

"Heatstroke"

"Neurological disorder"

Could he be any more evasive about the massive elephant in room?

Never mind the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, or the plethora of symptoms that both patients had been enduring for a week.

Nope.

"Heatstroke"

Upon request, he seemed reluctant to back down and refer them for PCR tests - apparently being 'unsure' how to go about doing so - HENCE, the prompted third person call to my wife, who was more than a little taken aback when her sister passed the phone to her so-called 'doctor', who then proceeded to ask Mina if she thought it would be '...alright for the hospital she works at to accept Mayumi and her husband for further consultation'?

For real?

Never mind that we're standing in the shark-obasan feeding frenzy strike zone of a busy supermarket at midday, or that my wife is simply a nurse, not an expert or consultant on her employer's COVID policy...

She was suitably dumbfounded.

What the actual fuck? Was this guy for real?

She shrugged him off, had him put Mayumi back on the phone, and recommended that she and her husband get out of there, take themselves over to 'her' hospital, and get in line at the ER intake area.

She wrapped up the call, looked at me,

"Unbelievable".

Indeed.

We finished our shopping, more than a bit distracted by this sudden turn of events.

From here on out, things started moving pretty fast, with the details being passed back and forth becoming patchy, at best...

It seems that said GP decided to put Mayumi in an ambulance, and send her over to the hospital, where she was immediately checked in at the ER receiving area. Her husband, who had been running a fever, and had diarrhea for a week, had been told by their dubious GP to simply 'go home' (?!?) and 'wait'... which he promptly did.

Mayumi was checked into a private room, and a PCR test was administered. Depending on her results, there would be a testing crew sent over to the family residence in short order, to administer PCR's to her husband and the four other resident family members.

Mina got a call from her sister again that evening, with a run down of the day's events...and an additional caution not to go near the 'tribe' at their residence, as her eldest adult son was apparently now complaining of having lost his senses of taste and smell.

She told Mina that she thought that 'they' might have COVID.

Shortly thereafter, her test results came back positive. She was in rough shape; and so fatigued that even minor physical activities were a strain.

The hospital immediately started her on a course of the anti-viral drug Abigan, which, while not a cure-all, has shown some therapeutic efficacy in treating the virus. From this point, there was nothing to do but wait and see.

The following day, everyone at their residence tested COVID positive, with the mysterious exception of her eldest's 10 year old step son. How he managed to avoid it remains a mystery.

Of the four adults and 5 year-old that had tested positive, everyone seemed to be either mild or asymptomatic...with the exception of Mayumi's husband. His condition suddenly seemed to be deteriorating to the point that the testing crew determined to have him picked up and sent to the Red Cross Hospital, over at Yagoto Nisseki. This is one of only a few hospitals in the Nagoya area that actually 'specializes' in treating infectious diseases...and where the most serious cases are sent.

He was whisked off by ambulance, and the remaining members of the COVID positive resident tribe were placed under house quarantine orders for 10 days.

The speed that all of this started unfolding was scary, to say the least...and particularly upsetting was how quickly my brother-in-law's condition turned the corner, and started to go south. The day before all of this, the criminally incompetent GP didn't even want to look at him to look at him.

The spotlight had been on Mayumi.

Now, he was being sequestered at the Red Cross Hospital, in serious condition.

TO BE CONTINUED...