Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

(Photo credit: Tue Romanow)

A couple of weeks ago, I shared how my husband Darrell needs to jump through disablistic hoops to get a new gel cushion for his manual wheelchair. As a quick update, the occupational therapist (OT) – the one who assessed Darrell last year for his new electric chair – called yesterday to say his file has now been reopened, but first Darrell needs his doctor to fill out the Ministry form before the OT can assess for the exact same cushion that is on the power chair. Why didn’t the OT mention this step to Darrell two weeks ago so that he could have booked a doctor’s appointment while waiting for his file to find its way back to the OT’s desk?

The OT suggested that, in the meantime, Darrell park both wheelchairs beside the bed, transfer to the bed, swap the cushion from one chair to the other, and then transfer to the other chair. Darrell and I aren’t sure how he, himself, is supposed to get both chairs to his side of the bed and then get out again. It comes back to levitating – a skill neither one of us has mastered yet.

He does have a doctor’s appointment for the 28th to have the doctor fill out the same form as he did less than a year ago. No doubt, the doctor will charge us the same fee for completing a form! Unless I’ve missed a memo in the last forty years, cerebral palsy is still a non-progressive, lifelong neurological disorder. Why not stamp CP on our foreheads and be done with it? Save a few trees in the process. Better yet, stamp it on another body part – I would gladly moon a few bureaucrats!

Stay tuned…

Have a great long weekend, my Canadian friends!