During the 6 months of planning for this trip, we tried to imagine every part of the trip and guess what the potential problems were. I'd call Mom and say, "What are we going to do about such and such?" And she'd say, "I already thought of that." Or visa versa. The biggest concern, was how we'd handle bathrooms when we were in a private home or place where there were no handicap toilets...narrow doors, etc. For this reason, we decided to purchase a folding commode that we would keep with us. We got it from a local "Loan Chest" for $27. More on this in the next section.
We practiced Mom's abilities to get in and out of bed without the bedrail and decided she could do it, even though she preferred the rails when at home. That made less things to carry, but still left her independent to use the commode while I got my sleep each night.
We took along enough meds for our expected 4 day trip AND for an extra week, just in case we got stranded. We figured my brother could always send more from home. We also made sure we had a list of the meds, allergies, insurance cards, etc.
We called the airline and said we were told that they didn't reserve seats, but that Mom could NOT walk far. It turns out they COULD reserve seats for special needs, like her. We also questioned them in detail about shipping the commode and about getting help or special attention on the airline. It helped to know their policies ahead of time. The lady on the phone basically said it was up to the good graces of the person who checked us in. So, when I got to the baggage checkin, and the lady looked at me funny when I said I wanted to ship the commode through at no extra charge, I just said, "I was told that it was up to you, and whether or not you felt kind and helpful, as to whether you'd just ship it through like the wheelchair, at no charge, or give us a hard time about it." :) Then, I added, "Afterall, she can't very well take a 4 day trip without having a usable place to go potty...so...we have to view the commode as being just as important as the wheelchair." By that time, I think she was so confused, she just tagged it and shipped it through.
Of course, we reserved a handicap room at the hotel. More on THAT fiasco, later. The warnings of some of you from this group were exactly right!
Basically, we TRIED to anticipate problems. We sort of EXPECTED things to go wrong, but we were prepared to work them out. I'd written to this group and some of you gave back excellent tips on what to look out for and how to make the trip easier. It definitely pays to spend time visualizing the trip and all the potential road blocks.
