(no subject)
Feb. 15th, 2021 04:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_rckWe didn't do a lot over the weekend. Scott played some board games online and did the grocery shopping. We were late in considering Valentine's Day food delivery options, so we ended up not doing that and just ordering bubble tea for pick up.
I'm making steady progress on my LTD paperwork. I still need to call my psychiatrist about her portion of it and about how to get the forms to her. I've been waiting because my section needs to be done before I can hand the packet over, because I wasn't sure about my ability to sign my name, and because I have no idea how we'll manage the hand off. We don't have time for mailing, not when that might take weeks, and I can't get downtown unless Scott's home.
Scott has his birthday off, the 24th, but that's kind of a tighter turn around for the doctor's part of things than I would like to demand. The paperwork has to be in, mailed or faxed, by the 2nd of March.
I think the main reason I really managed to get things done on the paperwork last night was that I took an Ativan. A lot of what I'd already written had to be tossed because it was me panicking and babbling rather than answering the questions. Not that any of it wasn't true or even relevant, just that it wasn't what they asked for. Without the Ativan, I probably would have kept flailing.
I've put aside the A-Ride paperwork for the moment because I can't cope with both at once. Also, those forms are specifically designed to make applying for conditional service difficult. As an example, I have to pick from:
I can use the fixed routes for all my transportation needs.
I can use the fixed routes if I get training.
I am blind and can never use the fixed routes.
I can never use the fixed routes for other reasons. Please specify.
My actual answer is that, most of the time, the I can use the fixed routes, but that there are some destinations for which I can't and some recurring but unpredictable circumstances when I can't.
I will never be able to get to the building where they do hand/wrist OT by bus in the winter because it's too far from the nearest stops once things like safe street crossings and presence/lack of sidewalks is considered. (This is just the easiest example of an impossible destination.)
If I've had a recent fall or am light headed or having knee or ankle issues, walking to the bus stop four blocks away is more than I can do. I prefer that route because there's a shelter with a bench at that stop, because there's an in-bound bus twice as often as on the other route I could take, and because that route goes to three of my main medical destinations. If I take the other route into town, I have to transfer to this route, outbound, for most medical appointments.
I might manage getting to the bus stop two (possibly three) blocks away, but that will add an hour to the round trip and will mean I have to stand while I wait for the bus. I'll have to walk another block downtown in order to transfer to the bus that actually goes to UHS or the UM hospital.
I have, in the past, gone a year or more without needing the A-Ride services, but having the option to use them makes a lot of medical stuff more possible. I almost never take non-medical trips on my own, and even if I did, the A-Ride is of very limited use for, say, grocery shopping because I'd have to fit everything on my lap on the trip home so that there's room for other passengers and for whatever mobility aids those passengers have.
I made a lot of use of the A-Ride during the year after I had radiation and during the time when I had undiagnosed anemia. Right now, because of the quarantine related cuts in bus service, it's my main option for getting to any sort of medical appointment.
I'm making steady progress on my LTD paperwork. I still need to call my psychiatrist about her portion of it and about how to get the forms to her. I've been waiting because my section needs to be done before I can hand the packet over, because I wasn't sure about my ability to sign my name, and because I have no idea how we'll manage the hand off. We don't have time for mailing, not when that might take weeks, and I can't get downtown unless Scott's home.
Scott has his birthday off, the 24th, but that's kind of a tighter turn around for the doctor's part of things than I would like to demand. The paperwork has to be in, mailed or faxed, by the 2nd of March.
I think the main reason I really managed to get things done on the paperwork last night was that I took an Ativan. A lot of what I'd already written had to be tossed because it was me panicking and babbling rather than answering the questions. Not that any of it wasn't true or even relevant, just that it wasn't what they asked for. Without the Ativan, I probably would have kept flailing.
I've put aside the A-Ride paperwork for the moment because I can't cope with both at once. Also, those forms are specifically designed to make applying for conditional service difficult. As an example, I have to pick from:
I can use the fixed routes for all my transportation needs.
I can use the fixed routes if I get training.
I am blind and can never use the fixed routes.
I can never use the fixed routes for other reasons. Please specify.
My actual answer is that, most of the time, the I can use the fixed routes, but that there are some destinations for which I can't and some recurring but unpredictable circumstances when I can't.
I will never be able to get to the building where they do hand/wrist OT by bus in the winter because it's too far from the nearest stops once things like safe street crossings and presence/lack of sidewalks is considered. (This is just the easiest example of an impossible destination.)
If I've had a recent fall or am light headed or having knee or ankle issues, walking to the bus stop four blocks away is more than I can do. I prefer that route because there's a shelter with a bench at that stop, because there's an in-bound bus twice as often as on the other route I could take, and because that route goes to three of my main medical destinations. If I take the other route into town, I have to transfer to this route, outbound, for most medical appointments.
I might manage getting to the bus stop two (possibly three) blocks away, but that will add an hour to the round trip and will mean I have to stand while I wait for the bus. I'll have to walk another block downtown in order to transfer to the bus that actually goes to UHS or the UM hospital.
I have, in the past, gone a year or more without needing the A-Ride services, but having the option to use them makes a lot of medical stuff more possible. I almost never take non-medical trips on my own, and even if I did, the A-Ride is of very limited use for, say, grocery shopping because I'd have to fit everything on my lap on the trip home so that there's room for other passengers and for whatever mobility aids those passengers have.
I made a lot of use of the A-Ride during the year after I had radiation and during the time when I had undiagnosed anemia. Right now, because of the quarantine related cuts in bus service, it's my main option for getting to any sort of medical appointment.
