Blog > Thoughts > Other's Thoughts > Chloe's Thoughts > Wheeling at the Dentist
Wheeling at the Dentist
Written by Chloe on Monday, August 10, 2009
There are often errands to do on the way to work, or on the way home. Generally speaking, however I appear at work is how I appear doing those errands. My disability presentation at work has changed three times during the course of the last year. It keeps life interesting. This morning I went to the dentist for a teeth cleaning.
Last time I was at the dentist I was using a crutch. My presentation at work now is with left KAFO plus wheelchair, so that’s how I went to the dentist. It wasn’t that long ago, ~18 months, that the thought of doing such a thing would have scared the crap out of me. Now I am not in the slightest bit nervous about such things. I would just say to those of you who are hesitating: my experience is that it’s not nearly as scary as you think it’s going to be, once you jump in and do it.
There were absolutely no designated disability parking spaces in the dentist parking lot. This seemed like it was not a good sign. What if there was a big step to get in the building? I couldn’t remember. I parked leaving plenty of room on the driver’s side so that I could have wheelchair access. I’ve noticed that people do these things in a variety of different ways. The other wheelchair person at work exits his car through the passenger door.
There was a nice easy ramp up to the dentist door; and it was not on a spring. Yippee! That makes things much easier for me.
The first glitch was that the dentist room I usually go to was absolutely not accessible in a wheelchair. I must have given a worried glance up at the hygienist, because she immediately said "It’s okay; the room at the end of the corridor works for people who can’t get up out of their wheelchair." I smiled and said "That sounds great." She warned me that she wouldn’t be able to assist me with the transfer because she had recently strained her back while helping a patient with paraplegia. I said "That’s fine; I can do it by myself." The transfer to the patient chair was in fact particularly easy.
She took some minutes collecting all the tools she needed, as she had not been expecting to use that room. I apologised for not warning her ahead of time. It had simply not crossed my mind that there would be a special accessible room for wheelchair users.
I’ve been seeing this dental hygienist for many years, and we talk a lot. We know quite a bit about each other. She noticed that I’d lost weight since the last visit. She even used to ski at the same resort where I had my back injury, so she knows the exact spot on the exact run where it happened.
Inevitably she wanted to know about the wheelchair. It makes life a lot easier for me if I don’t make up any stories. I told her about my car crash a few weeks ago. I was able to answer every question, and there were many, honestly. People just make the assumption that I am in the wheelchair because of the car crash, which is actually true after all, without my ever saying so.
I find teeth cleaning to be a very relaxing and sensual experience. I was there for an hour, but the time went by very quickly. She said that my teeth are in excellent condition.
On the way out I made my next appointment. I promised to call ahead of time to let them know if I was going to be coming in a wheelchair, so that they could get the accessible room ready. This seemed like a nice way of preparing them for the permanence of the situation.
The receptionist gave me pained looks, as if it must be absolutely awful to be in a wheelchair. I smiled in return; not finding anything awful about it.
Tags: Accessible, Crutch, Disability, KAFO, Paraplegia, Parking, Presentation, Transfer, Wheelchair
This entry appears in Chloe's Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
Post your comments
© transabled.org - 1994-2012 - All Rights Reserved.