Elated seniors welcome vaccination
COVID-19 shots bring wave of relief after year of living in fear, isolation
Kuljit Dheensaw, a cancer survivor with chronic asthma, has been holed up in her Vancouver home for most of this pandemic-filled year, leaving only for doctor's appointments or to grocery shop with her son-in-law.
So, when she got a phone call last Thursday saying she could get her first COVID-19 vaccine on Saturday, she felt an instant wave of relief.
“I was very excited. I was very, very fortunate that I got to get it so soon. It gives me a little bit more freedom. Even though I can't take off my mask or anything, I can't hug anybody yet,” she said, adding she hopes 2021 will bring happier times. “It should be a better year, just to get out and see people without being scared.”
Now that long-term care home residents and staff are vaccinated, Dheensaw is included in the second vaccine rollout wave that Vancouver Coastal Health began March 1: delivering first doses of vaccine to those living and working in independent living centres and seniors' supportive housing, as well as to home care support clients and staff.
Health authorities directly contact the people in this priority group to book appointments.
That, of course, is different from the process underway right now for another phase of the vaccine rollout: residents over age 90 and Indigenous elders older than 65 who live in their own residences without home support, who can start phoning Monday to schedule vaccination appointments at public clinics that begin next week.
Since having the toes on one foot amputated due to cancer, Dheensaw, 80, has received home care support in her Vancouver residence, where she lives alone.
On Saturday, she was vaccinated at the VCH COVID -19 clinic set up at Vancouver Community College, and gave the nurse an elbow touch to thank her — because she never wants to repeat what she went through in 2020.
“It was frustrating. I'm disabled. I have a walker. I couldn't go out anywhere. So it was just me, myself and my TV,” Dheensaw said. “I'm a people person. I go out here and there to the malls. And now I can go out again, although I know I can't mingle too much.”
Since March 1, VCH nurse Carole Fitzgerald has delivered from 1014 shots a day to seniors in their residences, a group of people deemed “homebound” because they can still live independently with support but are unable to travel to vaccination clinics.
Fitzgerald, a nurse for 35 years, said the seniors and their families have been elated. “It's been very, very challenging for these people to not see so much of their families and have very limited visitors, volunteers, etc. And then they are typically homebound. So it's not like you or I, who could go out at least for a walk,” she said.
“They've been very, very happy and excited. And I barely get in the door, and they've raised up their sleeve.”
Grateful patients want to give her gifts or make her tea, and that appreciation has been nice for front-line workers: “I know in my own practice, lots of times we have visits where we have to talk about difficult things. We might have to do unpleasant interventions. However, this is just all positive.”
Ann Florence Orange, who turns 100 this Monday, received many surprises over the last few days: birthday cards from Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, along with her first vaccination for COVID -19 on Sunday.
“I was very pleased,” said Orange, adding that she was impressed that the vaccination didn't hurt at all.
Orange, who lived alone in her Richmond townhouse until age 98 when she moved in with her son David, now receives home care support once a week. She's a stoic woman who tried not to worry about living through a pandemic, but does look forward to life becoming more normal again this year.
The vaccination, though, brought relief to David Orange, who did all the shopping for their household.
“The last thing I wanted to do was be responsible for coming in and bringing her the virus, with all the possible effects that could have at her age. So by virtue of the fact that she's now had the vaccination, it lifts that certain degree of worry off my shoulders. I feel more comfortable and she's safer.”
His mother got the vaccine at a VCH clinic near Vancouver airport, a process that he said seemed well-organized and safe.
“There were people waiting at the gate. It was clearly signposted.
There was literally a person standing with a reflective vest, telling us where to go,” David Orange said.
“When we got to parking, the young man came up and said, `Please stay in your car, sir. You're just a little bit early, but I'll let you know as soon as we're ready for you to come in,' which he did. People there just absolutely could not have been better set up or nicer.”
For patients who aren't as spry as his spunky centenarian mother, vaccinations are being delivered in homes by nurses like Fitzgerald.
“It's such a needed service to be able to help people where they're at because the whole system doesn't work the best for frail elders, in terms of getting out to attain services,” she said.
If the seniors receiving home care or living independently in a supported centre have a spouse or roommate who is older than 70, than that person will also get a vaccination during this rollout, Fitzgerald said.