Fw: Mom and the shower incident

[Guest guest]

This is a post I wrote to our group back in 2003. I found it this morning and

thought I would share it with you all. I am laughing through the tears.

Courage

Hi All,

Yesterday morning I woke up from a dream where my mother came to my new

house/apartment. In real life I would never have agreed to rent this disaster

as you had to go out into the common hall to get to the second floor and the

rooms where all shaped weirdly. When I noticed that mom was there the floors

began to flood with running water and the water level was rising fast. I told

mom we had to get out, which we did, and for some reason my eldest brother had

to climb up a long rope to get back in. Yes, a weird dream but as you will see

water plays a big role later on in the day.

Off I went to care for mom and things were going along just fine. Since my

daughter's wedding is next week, my sister and I decided that it was time to dye

my mother's hair. No problem, I thought. The last time I did this the solution

got all over her clothes so my sister said I should cut a hole in a plastic

garbage bag and fit it over mom's shoulders - this is workable I thought. Did

all of the above and put the solution on mom's head. 25 minutes later, mom had

somehow managed to work the garbage bag over her arms and chest so that she

could no longer move her arms and looked like a sausage in it's casing. Poor

thing kept complaining that she was hot and I can just imagine that she was. No

matter how many times I pushed the garbage bag back up to her shoulders she

would somehow manage to get it stuck on her again.

So, finally it's time to wash her hair and I thought what the heck, may as well

give her a shower at the same time. I showed mom her slicked back solutioned

hair in the bathroom mirror and she had a good laugh. Then I'm helping her onto

her shower chair when it just disappears out from underneath her and bangs off

the back wall. Mom hit the tile floor like a ton of bricks. Before I knew what

was happening her wet arms just slid out of my hands and there she was on the

floor with the shower water hitting her full in the face while she looked at me

with terrified eyes. No time to freak out, I grabbed mom's arms which where

really wet but I could barely get a good grip and she weighed a ton. I tried to

stand her up but no dice. Using the lip of cement and tile that divides the

shower area from the rest of the bathroom I tried to butt her feet up against

this to stand her up but again, no dice. Somehow, I managed to drag her out of

the shower area (over the hump I'm afraid) and into the bathroom area directly

in front of the door which is also tiled. No matter how much I tried to stand

mom up all I could manage to do was slide her along the tile floor like she was

on a water slide! My dad must of heard the commotion because he was outside the

door asking me if mom feel and trying to open the door (this is a weird folding

door). Dad was really trying hard to open the door and I screamed at him to

stop because somehow mom had managed to get her feet stuck there too.

Eventually, dad made his way in and we managed to get mom standing up. Then I

freaked out and started to examine her and ask her if anything hurt. You have

to remember that the dye solution is still on mom's head and must be washed off

25 minutes after application - 25 minutes came and went long time ago. When I

told mom that she had to go back into the shower to wash off her hair she

started moving with purpose then and said " oh no, not me " . After a lot of

effort and some hard sweating on my part I finally got mom back on her shower

chair and washed her up. My sister came home just at that moment and as I was

explaining what happened we just couldn't stop laughing. I then told mom that I

guess I wasn't being very helpful to her today and that I was better off staying

at home rather then coming over only to have her fall to which she replied

" yes " .

Oh my, I can't tell you how badly I have been feeling. I felt so bad that I

told my mom she could give me a pounding if it would make her feel better but

she thankfully declined. I called over later in the evening to see how mom was

doing and my sister told me that mom had forgotten that she even fell and was

just fine. Thanks God she isn't hurt but had mom not had a few pounds on her

I'm sure some major damage would have been done. The only good thing to come of

this is that we are now going to put in some safety features in the bathroom so

that we can cut down on the falls. I'm sure mom will have more falls in the

future but I sure hope that they aren't with me!

Courage