Chick Day - Hair to go with the Teeth

This is a post I started a few weeks ago when Bridget was home after her teeth extravaganza.   I am going to continue some posts like this.  I hope to introduce you to some of the women who make my life just a little bit nicer. 

After our 12 hour dental day, Thursday, Bridget needed some "home time with her mother". We watched Glee like old times and she drifted off to sleep on the couch in her fleece pjs, with her dog and cat.  I got to put a throw blanket on her.  This is probably the most satisfying thing.  I cherish it.  I will mourn the day I have no one to cover up with a throw blanket.  

Relaxing the the Animals

Friday is a chick day which includes hair cuts.  Many may be familiar with this hair experience as many of the people I love (AKA the people who read my blog), are women.  I have a few enlightened men who read this as well, and that, unfairly, I find even more flattering.  Now for the men with only a memory of hair cuts, I will review.  One day you like your hair. Then your husband likes it as it gets longer. Then your mother likes it. Then you get compliments from friends. But just before total strangers start commenting, you get up one morning and you shriek. "Oh my Gawd!! Look at my awful hair! I can't possibly leave the house." I am too embarrassed to even call my hairdresser. Fortunately, my lovely Sandra at Aart's Hair Studio,has seen me at my worst and she understands that I am going to try to convince her that "I really only need a cut"  She is patient. She squeezes me in. She knows that pretty soon I won't be able to go to work ever again.

So today it is hair day. Colour and cut, I agree.  I would put a 

My Sandra - So understanding

"before" picture here but just can't do it. So I sit here drinking coffee and chatting. I fully expect to be much more presentable in about 2 hours. 

Daughter Bridget is also having her haircut today.  This is a little mother/daughter time.  Casey, our dog, who looked worse than I did, is also getting a hair cut.  It is long overdue as I was away in Barbados and totally neglected her coiffing.  Casey the dog and I are usually on the same grooming cycle.  Its the day I wake up and shriek at my hair and at hers.  Bridget arranged her grooming today.  I arranged 

Amanda and Bridget
Bridget's.  

The reason I am posting about something as commonplace as a hair cut is because on this day, there was a videographer

taking shots for a sociology research study investigating the relationships between hairdressers and their clients. I agreed to allow him to take pictures as long as my hair was in front of my face.  Bridget agreed to a complete photo shoot.  How can see study Radio and Television Arts and balk at a camera.  How can she be an 18 year old girl, and balk at a camera.  

So I think to myself, if someone is getting a Master's Degree, studying the sociology of hairdressing, I should add my two cents here.  We love our hairdressers.  

Sandra is one of my peeps. She takes me at my most vulnerable (long wet hair draped in front of my face) and reshapes me. She lifts my spirits and my self-image. She makes me feel like a million bucks.  She is an Aartist. 

I would put an after shot, but I am really not that self-absorbed. Ok, I am, but I like to think I am too proud to take my own photo, which as you probably know, I am not.  

However I will put a picture of the most  beautiful lady of the day ... and it is not Bridget.   

 
Fancy Bitch in her neck-er-chief

Breath by Breath in an Empty Nest

I dropped off my beloved at Pearson for his return to Barbados as the project draws very close to something Derek refers to as "kick off". This means for us, as a couple, more distance and more time apart. This is not new to us. The difference now is that the nest, without the 3 sticky kids and without a spouse, is really quite empty.

I zipped back up to The Big Smoke (Orangeville) and actually got to work early. The hospital is a whole different place at 0715. Pie-eyed nurses are changing shifts, praying their car is not covered in snow. The emergency dept is unusually quiet. The parking lot is being cleared for another day of wobbly patients. The best thing though was the fact that I had time for breakfast. Headwaters is an amazing community hospital with it's true claim to fame, beyond state of the art medical care is the cafeteria. The food is well known. The ladies are gems. People come here just to eat. So I had breakfast. It was egg McShirley and could not be beat.  

The next 3 days were what I would consider challenging days. I saw many very sick patients. The routine I put my patients through to assess their lung function, is rigorous when someone is already exhausted. I ask them to blow hard and fast and long, much like a labour coach. I make them hold their breath. I make them breathe "normally" with a snorkel mouthpiece and nose clips on. It is a compromise between getting the best test results while still respecting this persons limitations. This week has been one of patience and understanding for an unusually large number of very sick people. Basically the rule of thumb is "how would I like my parents to be treated" and I try to go with this.  

My role in lung health is to attempt to identify lung disease and intervene and educate where I can to help slow or control the process. My role is not one of a Respiratory Therapist. These are the young keen kids I work with and for whom I have the greatest respect. RTs can do what I do. I cannot do what they do. These are the people you want there in an emergency. You don't want someone people refer to as "pokey". My fear is to be mistaken for an RT so when there is a "code blue" I hide in the closet. 

 I spent a morning this week with a team of people who work to make us aware of the campaigns and resources available to guide our patients in the process of quitting smoking. This is a role I take very seriously. There are so many factors in the decision to smoke and the decision to quit. I do not stand in judgement as a nonsmoker when I speak with my patients. Vices are vices. I have taken a 3 day course on smoking cessation counselling. I wish there was a 3 day course to help people break me of my addiction to Ben and Jerry's. Who am I to judge. As one of the team very wisely commented "if health were easy we would all be healthy" 

Another thing I encountered this week was a profound sadness in 2 of my patients. They recounted the loss of their husbands like it was yesterday. This attachment in later years is something of which I am becoming more aware. I will remind myself of this the next time I have the opportunity to spend another 6 weeks in Barbados.