Okay, so, yesterday was ‘go time’ and I had my third teeth cleaning appointment. My Mom called the day before just to check on my appointment time. Well, get this!:
My dentist sold his practice. a dentist who I have been going to since I was seven. Sean was three when he started going there as well so he has been going there for 20 years! But I think my Mom takes the cake because she has been going there for 52 years?! Dr. Fox has done all of her dental work as well as mine but I just have had a cap when I was I 16 because I tried opening a bottle of water with my teeth and that wasn’t a good idea.
It was such a good idea that she called because in selling his practice, my hygienist no longer works there and that’s why we didn’t receive the postcard about my appointment. When she called, they only had a 1 or 2 o’clock appointment. We took the 2 o’clock! Man, was that super difficult but we did it!
I noticed changes when we got into the waiting room because the water feature that my dentist has had for probably 20 years was gone. The woman cleaning my teeth was a temp and her name was Keisha. She was lovely and’s she reminded of me of my childhood hygienist because she was so gentle!
We told Sean about Dr. Fox selling out and he said that may be the end of the Mom and Pop shops! I didn’t think he was wrong. My Mom made my return appointment with my previous hygienist for July because there was no availability in June on the dates that I needed.
But then, we left the dentist. I have gone to the SAME dentist for so many years and it has been the SAME for many of those years!!! But I have changed, my disease has progressed!!! I don’t even get out of my power chair when I go to get my teeth cleaned anymore. I am falling into this homebound-ness routine and I really don’t like it but there is nothing to do. Sean and my Mom told me that it was getting warm, but yesterday, I did not feel warm at all!!!
I will be wearing my Vanilla Bean chapstick, at least until the next time we leave the house which will be March 19 and I’m pretty sure that there will not be any snow on the ground then!
Because, let me tell you what happened to me because there was snow on the ground. Namely, the parking lot was cleared, and all the snow was pushed into a mound in the blue area of the disabled section. You know, the place where power chairs need to go to get into a van that has a ramp!
When there is snow on the ground, it throws my vision off, and I am not sure if I under it or over shot it, but I got stuck getting into the van on the ramp! The chair got stuck with me in it halfway up the ramp! An elderly man was coming out of the dentist and offered to help and when he and my Mom couldn’t do it together, my Mom told me to use my device. I wear my Medical Guardian device every time I leave the house now.
My Mom thanked the man for his help and she spoke to the people on my from Medical Guardian. My Mom told them that we did not need a firetruck and just needed people to help because my chair was stuck. Well, they came in a firetruck, but they did not have the sirens and the lights on, I think.
Enter Dave and Sean. The two EMTs who came out of their truck to assist. I was beside myself, and I just sat there, pretty much speechless. Dave took lead, and he assessed my chair and asked to put it in neutral, and I didn’t know what he was saying. He looked at my chair a while. Then he released the yellow. tabs at the bottom. I remember my Mom doing that once!
Then he told Sean that they were both going to tilt my chair back and lift it off the ramp! They did just that with all over 500 pounds of me!!! (The chair itself weighs 400 pounds and I am losing weight but I am over 100 pounds!)
I don’t even know if this is how Sean spells his name, but it is how I spell the name Sean, both originally, when I named him and all the time since! When I was able to get back into the van, Dave commented on how well I moved in the chair! That is completely why I can’t understand how this happened?!
But then there is the icing on the cake of this horrible ordeal! I get out of the van and I’m rolling to my porch up the walkway after I come off the sidewalk but when I turned my chair to go up my walkway, I felt myself begin to sink, and I knew there was only one reason why I was sinking, and that was in the wet ground!!!
I yelled, “SH*T!” at the top of my lungs, as I reversed my chair. The weather was miserable and I didn’t know what else to do. I was looking for a puddle to roll in, but my Mom said to just come in and she cleaned up my chair after I got into the house.
My Mom and I talked about what happened and I think when the ground is wet, she should take lead. At least, don’t park by sitting snow because that’s terrible because I cannot even see! We know that now! But I don’t think I’ll need to think of snow until next year.