Spa Day on 5 West

I came up to Mama's hospital room after church today armed with a plethora of items for a "Spa Day." I had some no-rinse foam to wash her hair left from a previous hospital stay. (You never know what you're going to get in the way of personal care products, now they're using these nifty sponge-like cloths that soap up when you wet them for bathing but I thought the foam would work better for her hair. I must say that St. Vincent's is really good about providing that sort of thing. I had a friend who had surgery in another local hospital [one of the for-profits] and all there was to bathe her with was a bar of hotel soap and a basin. I'm not kidding. I was appalled.)

Anyhoo, she was bathed and in her new robe when I got here so we got her hair washed and I sprayed lavender oil around, put a relaxation CD in the laptop and lit the little battery-operated tealight I had brought from today's church service (it was VBS Sunday and they handed them out with the closing song, "This Little Light of Mine") So we had the spa vibes going and I gave her a hand/arm/foot/leg massage, oiled her cuticles, filed and buffed her nails. By then her hair was dry so I cranked up the curling iron and worked a little hair magic. I remembered to check to be sure the oxygen was off before I used the hair spray because you don't want to take any chances on blowing up the place. She lookes fabulous and feels a whole lot better, it's amazing what a little primping will do for a girl. I took a picture on my cell phone to send to the sibs, I told her to put her hands up to show off her manicure and she crossed them up near her face. I said that made her look like she was dead and we didn't want to scare the sibs and she laughed about that which made for a very nice picture. After a week of scares and traumas, hospital smells and noises and folks poking at her from every angle I think she appreciated a little bit of pampering. She's watching golf on TV and working the Sunday crossword puzzle. If we weren't here it would be just like any other Sunday. Maybe we'll get home and back to normal soon.