I’ve just finished all my annual check-ups and testing, a dozen check-ins at doctor’s offices and outpatient centers. I have been really surprised and disappointed by the receptionists’ reactions when they hand me a clipboard holding paperwork to be filled out and I inform them that I am legally blind and am unable to see the forms. I don’t look as if I have a vision problem so perhaps they are just not expecting me to say this but ten out of twelve responses have ranged from annoyance to annoyance, usually peppered by the heavy sigh.
You’re supposed to,feel better when you leave the doctor’s office, not worse, right?
I have been aggressively asked, “Isn’t someone here with you?”, as if I am a child requiring adult supervision, as if I should be undergoing something as personal as a Pap smear with a handler or entourage in tow. It took a long time for me to have the ability and the confidence to do these seemingly mundane activities on my own, and no one, especially not a healthcare professional, is going to destroy that. Draw my blood, ask me to pee in a cup. No problem. My spirit? That you can’t have.
