Last week I went up to Ohio to help my parents again. My dad needed to have cataract surgery, and needed someone to drive him around for a few days after surgery. Plus he was starting radiation, and I wanted to be there for that. My mom’s dementia is quite severe and she is unable to drive or be responsible for him in these environments, so it was time for me to step in.
Brad dropped Felix and me off at the airport 2 hours before our flight. They won’t let me check in online anymore due to my wheelchair having a lithium ion battery, so I had to wait until I got there to do it. Luckily it was easy! I got checked in and through security in a jiffy.
Starbucks had sent me a coupon for a $3 coffee of any kind, so I decided to use that in the airport. What a savings from airport coffee which is usually $9 or so!!!! I still have Starbucks gift cards, so it didn’t cost me anything, either! I found a counter where I could rest my coffee, and Felix hung out on my lap while I drank it. I got a couple of pictures of him and me and my coffee. In the first one, he’s licking his lips like he knows it would taste good if only I would give it to him!
We also had the time to check out the service animal relief area in Concourse E. I’ve checked out the ones in A and D before, but Concourse E is really far away and I don’t usually fly out of there so I’d never seen it before. It was the best service animal relief area I’ve been to that is indoors! Of course outdoors ones are better, but for an indoors one this was great!
It had two stalls, so two dogs could go at the same time. There were cute murals of dogs using the bathroom on the wall, it had a sink, poop bags, trash can, and was generally really great. I got a video!
I was able to board early and got Main Cabin Extra seating, which was great! I had room to have Felix on my lap and my tray table down at the same time! What a luxury! I was nervous about my wheelchair, but the guy who took it said he had a disabled brother who was looking at getting a Whill wheelchair and he would take good care of it for me. So that made me feel better.
I got a video of Felix resting in my arms during the flight while the pilot was making announcements.
On our way home from the airport, we had to stop at Kroger’s to get some cold cuts for dinner and a few other things. I elected to leave my wheelchair in the car and just use the store carts, but none of them were working! So I had to walk, but luckily we were quick so I wasn’t in too much pain.
The next morning we woke up bright and early to take my dad to a physical exam and then to his cataract surgery. Did I mention it was FREEZING cold there? It never got above freezing the whole time I was in Ohio. It was even snowing a bit! I hadn’t driven in the snow since high school!
We made it to the cataract surgery site successfully, but they wouldn’t let me go back with my dad to pre-op because it was “sterile”. We all know that it was not truly sterile as they allowed regular street shoes back there, but I didn’t want to make things harder for my dad so I agreed to stay in the waiting room. My mom wanted to go, so I tried to impress on the nurse that my mom had dementia and might not be able to find her way back to the waiting room and would need an escort.
Well, about a half hour later, my mom shows up with no escort! I was pissed! Luckily she found me, though! The surgery was quick, and they did let me in post-op, though they weren’t happy about it. They had to let me in there because I was the responsible party and needed to get all the post-op instructions.
We took it easy that afternoon and evening. But the next day my dad had to start radiation. We hung out at the house in the morning, then headed out to his check up for his cataract surgery. Then we went to lunch, then radiation. Everything looked great for both, and he was in good spirits.
My mom was not in good spirits, though, because my dad had allowed her to spend two nights at home. She really didn’t want to be left at her memory care facility that night. So luckily my dad had his eyedrops with him so he just spent the night there, and I went back to the house alone.
My mom got a picture of Felix and me at dinner before I headed home!
In the morning, I picked my parents up and we headed over to the Cincinnati Nature Center. It was too cold to go on any of the trails, but they have a great visitor center with hot chocolate, a store, a place to watch birds, and a few pet turtles. They were starting a new series of educational programs about the turtles, which we wanted to see. We had a lot of fun there! I got two videos, one of Felix looking at a taxidermy raccoon, and another of my mom feeding one of the aquatic turtles.
We also got some pictures! We got a selfie of all of us, some shots of the turtles and Felix with the turtles, and the naturalist giving us the talk.
We went to Cracker Barrel for lunch, then headed to dad’s radiation again. We had some difficulty because my dad reminded my mom she has dementia and she was very unhappy and did not believe him. When it was time to drop her off in her room, she needed us to stay for an hour talking with her before she was OK enough for us to leave her there.
It was a long night, with 12 phone calls from my mom to me during the night. Of course I answer the phone every time because she’s just lonely and scared and doesn’t understand what time is. But that meant I was very very tired!
My dad was also very tired, and so I took the car and Felix and I met my mom for breakfast at her place, then we went to the art studio. My mom didn’t feel like staying long, though, so soon we went back home to pick up my dad for lunch. We went to my favorite local restaurant, Jugo. It is a place that serves fresh fruit, some frozen and blended, some regular temperature, along with granola, the possibility of yogurt and nut butters, and coconut, etc. It is so tasty!
Then we went to dad’s radiation again. It was my last night in Ohio, so we stayed at mom’s for dinner. It was a very very long day for me, being out from breakfast to dinner. But I knew I could push through so long as I could recover for a week or two after coming home by not doing anything!
Luckily I got no calls overnight, and at 5:15 AM we left for the airport. I was flying out of Dayton this time instead of Cincinnati, and the airport is very small. In fact, it is so small, the service animal relief area is outside next to the police station on the tarmac and you have to get a police escort to go out there! It was SO COLD!!!!! But I got a video and then we headed back inside.
Checking in, being the only one in TSA, and using the relief area only took a short while, so I had over an hour to sit at my gate and wait for my flight. Next time I fly from Dayton I’ll remember it is so small and uncrowded I don’t really need 2 full hours before my flight.
I had regular seating on the way back, bummer, but it was still a fine flight. I got a video of Felix during takeoff!
And since the plane left at 8:30AM, I was back in Charlotte by 10. Well, that’s when the plane landed. It took them 15 minutes after everyone else had left the plane to bring my wheelchair up. But surprisingly my wheelchair was in perfect working order through both flights there and back! Then I had to take Felix to pee, so Brad picked us up around 10:45AM.
I did call and complain about the wait for my wheelchair, and they gave me 7,500 miles. So at least that’s something. I’ve learned it pays to complain about disability related shortcomings with airlines because you can really rack up the miles!
I got home on Saturday, and I’m only now on Tuesday recovered enough to write about my very draining trip. I normally only leave the house 2–3 times a week, and only for a few hours at a time. So being out every day for so many hours with my parents was really really hard. It was hard on me and Felix.
Luckily with the Adaptil collar, stress chews, bringing his regular homemade food, psyllium husk, and probiotics, Felix did not get diarrhea this time! He pooped twice a day every day, even though it was hard to find spots not covered in snow for him to go on (he had never really walked on deep snow before!).
I’m recovering, but trying not to do much of anything for a week at least. It takes me a week of doing nothing before my trip to prepare and a week of doing nothing when I come home to recover from something like that. And I was only gone about 5.5 days total!
Hopefully they don’t need me again in the wintertime, though, because it was brutal up there in the cold. I am so happy to be back in South Carolina where you don’t need to be bundled up just to walk to your car!