Saturday, January 19, 2013

Quite the day

Today began very discouraging, as my first activity required me to interface with the Social Security System's Medical Machinery.

Apparently, to determine whether I'm disabled enough, they didn't want to just listen to all the medical people who have seen me in person to do complex medical tests, or the doctor I've been seeing for twenty years, I need to see one of Their Guys. Just in case, or something.

So they send me, a Guy In A Wheelchair, to this medical company that answers questions of this sort. Now, remember, this is a company that Social Security hires to investigate people's disabilities. Disabilities, mind you.

And so, being a state agency and all, it's easy to understand why they chose someone in this building:


Ramp? What's a ... "ramp"?

Fortunately, the person who happened by as I was sitting there in the wheelchair wondering what to do used to work in a hospital; he was very quick and very generous in helping me get my chair up those stairs (I was able to drag myself up the steps myself, somehow).

Hardly a "medical" experience... The I-guess-he-was-a-doctor (who neither introduced himself nor even greeted me) seemed to have a script he was working from, he seemed to have very little interest in me or my actual experience of my disease; or even things like "Would you like the number of the people who just gave me an MRI?" I suppose if the bottom-line presumption is "You, and your entire medical team, are trying to rip us off," there's no wonder he had little interest in, well, anything, except what he saw in front of him, but he seemed to have such little interest in me, I honestly have no idea as to what he was actually looking for.

And later that very afternoon, my wife and I went to a tea-tasting offered by a tea emporter. This is what greeted us...



My day started somewhere intended to receive handicapped people, where the first thing that greeted me, in my wheelchair, was a set of steps, where I was "medically" evaluated by someone who had zero interest in my last MRI... and the day ended at a tea-importer's shop that had been set up to facilitate learning about, and enjoying, tea.

Thought, consideration, and passion for your chosen path, reveal themselves very, very, quickly, don't they?

4 comments:

Judy said...

So you can't access your credit union and then you can't secure money from SS so that you don't need to access said money from the credit union so frequently. Sounds like a perfectly reasonable world to me.

Gail said...

So sorry you had to endure that "evaluation" and tat you were treated so poorly. I, somehow, avoided such insult and was 'approved' in round one. I even felt horrid just writing all about my disability and MS and how it impacts my life - si I can only imagine the fave-to face with that moron;
The tea event sounded lovely :-)
Love Gail
peace.....

Muffie said...

I may have mentioned before but my PCP has a non-accessible office, too. And they wonder why I don't go there much!
SS must differ by state. My experience was totally different here in NJ. The place is 100% accessible, and the woman with whom I worked was kind and compassionate. I had all my paperwork organized when I went (and I even made extra copies for her.) I never had to see another doctor, and I was approved in 10 days.
I hope all goes well for you in that area.
Peace,
Muff

Robert Parker said...

Judy, let's call it "typical" rather than "reasonable." "Reasonable" for a chef is "taste it before you serve it," and by that test, "Reasonable" and "Look, there's is a ramp, what's your problem?" when the ramp is innavigable... don't really go together.