Mark Twain

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do ...
Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

Thursday, June 30, 2011

The Hair Cut



Yesterday my mother took her first voluntary, self propelled trip out of the house and back .,. the first trip since mid-April.

The time in between has not been boring. Three hospitalizations, many ambulance transports, and ongoing home care visits!

But the final result was ... ta-da ... a trip to get her hair cut!!

The trip itself was a bit of an adventure - not a nail biter - but a sincere effort for us both.
  1. I determined that the temperature, air quality and general weather conditions were good enough. Her oxygen ran low earlier in the week with walking so I wanted near perfect external conditions for this trip. We had it. Check!!
  2. Getting that darn wheel chair up from the basement, and then down my outside steps and then shoved into my trunk made me break out in a sweat. But I did it. Check.
  3. She descended the 20 outside steps to the car with only one rest period. Oxygen was pretty good. Check.
  4. She took the 5 minute car ride to my shopping center. Check.
  5. She sat in the wheel chair from the car to the salon and surviving my wheel chair driving. Her blood pressure probably went up when I almost dumped her on the floor of the salon. The wheel chair wouldn't roll over the salon door sill - but she arrived safely, mostly, so I count it is a Check!! :-)
  6. She got her hair cut. The salon chair had a foot rest that proved to be an obstacle but with the help of 3 people she surmounted it. Check.
  7. I thought she looked tired so we sat outside and enjoyed a Rita's icy treat - the temperature was perfect and we were sitting in the shade. A social moment. Check.
  8. The 5 minute ride home was uneventful! Check.
  9. The trip up the stairs to the house was a bit more than she could do without several rest periods, but she did it. Check.
  10. We arrived home and she was exhausted!
  11. Me Too. It took 3 hours to do that round trip. But she looks better. Check, check, and check.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well God bless her. She won't want to do that again any time soon I'll wager.

happyone said...

Sounds like a challenge but it was met with success. : ) You both deserved a stop at Rita.'s!!

unnamed lad said...

i never gave it a thought till you mentioned it. guess that's the advantages of grocery stores with their radar doors. no door sills! am thankful that you didn't dump her on the salon floor. you handled everything very well. it's very time consuming, isn't it!

Anita said...

May you never drop the wheelchair on your foot (been there, done that)

Noofy said...

What an accomplishment! You certainly broke it down step by step, you almost have to. You met each challenge and defeated it, way to go! I bet somewhere there are hair stylists that do house calls.

Chatty Crone said...

God Bless You - you will never be sorry. (HUGS)

betty said...

good for you both!! I'm sure it was well worth all the effort to do this, but I'm sure your mom enjoyed getting her hair cut and the adventure out!

betty

Linda said...

Yea Elaine! Yea Aunt Elaine!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Good for your mom! May his be the 1st of many new adventures :-)

Carolyn said...

Great job, both of you! Sounds like a good way to spend three hours.