Tale of Two Doctors

I've seen people say a sure sign of spring is road construction popping up everywhere. For me, it's an increase of doctor's appointments that I delayed over the winter. This week, I had two visits, both with first-time physicians.

Tuesday was the visit about my chair that I wrote about last week. My nurse and I took a slight detour trying to find the facility, but eventually found it the opposite direction from what Google told me. I was quite surprised to see a wheelchair scale ready for me and staff that was familiar with spinal cord injuries. When I was last weighed a few years ago, the total came to 501 lbs. Now, I'm at 509.2 lbs, with my chair. Of course my portable suction and other equipment are a little bigger than my previous measurement, so I'm sure that explains the change.

The doctor was also familiar with my diaphragm pacemaker, even though he hadn't seen one before. This is the first time in over eight years of having the system that I've encountered someone in Iowa that knew about it. Even though it may have felt like an unnecessary appointment, it was a pleasant surprise.

Well over a year ago, my dentist found that one of my front teeth is eating itself from the inside and needs to be removed. Since I use my mouth for everything, he recommended that I have an implant to replace it. However, it's an expensive procedure that my insurance doesn't normally cover as they say it's just cosmetic. The dentist and my primary doctor have been working to show the necessity for the replacement and to have it covered. Thankfully, my dentist was able to get his part approved. The next part of the process will need to happen in Iowa City.

I met with that dentist on Thursday, and I promptly became confused. He apparently does everything, extraction and implant, but knew nothing about the funding approval process. Since my regular dentist is closed on Friday, I plan to make calls Monday to see who knows what is going on. Hopefully it won't be several more months and my teeth keep intact until then.

On Tuesday, the doctor made a point I'm already well aware of, I should be thankful to still be around after this many years of the quad life. Their are a few other senior citizen quads like me, but not many. My teeth are part of the evidence of the time I've been given. This looks to be a calm week, but I look forward to more busy times as long as God gives me, and my mouth allows stick work.