Hey guys! I'm back with another installment of my living with disabilities series. Today is just going to be a quick one. I wanted to talk about doctors and appointments and how my entire life has consisted of going to said appointments and tests and procedures over the years. Like I said, just a quick post today.
When I was a kid, my mom tried her best to schedule all of my appointments for a single day so that I would only have to miss a single day of school rather than multiple days in a row or one day every week. This was a bit tricky because we didn't know whether a doctor would want me to go for bloodwork or x-rays or whatever other scans and then go back to see him (or her) within the same day. Which meant additional waiting times. But we'd try and factor that into the equation when booking the appointments so that none overlapped. Oftentimes, especially in my later childhood/early teen years, there would be a huge chunk of time where my mom and I would end up walking around the hospital for a few hours between appointments. And because we lived a good thirty to forty minutes from the hospital, there was never any point in going all the way home and then going all the way back between appointments.
One appointment I had that was never booked on the same day was seeing the Hematologist at the Medical Day Unit on the sixth floor of the hospital. That was generally an all day affair as it would involve bloodwork, talking to the doctor and even having an IV started for a blood transfusion because my blood cells were low and needed to be replenished. Those were the days I was grateful that MDU had a playroom on the floor where my mom and I could go while I was being transfused. I could play with toys, read books, play the Super Nintendo they had there though that was pretty difficult with an IV in my hand, and play board games while I waited for the blood transfusion to be finished. More often than not I was usually the last kid to be on the unit. At least, I was the last one in the playroom. There were other kids who were in beds because they'd just had some sort of procedure done.
Another appointment that took most of the day was Cardiology. This is because I had to see the doctor, have an Echo done and an ECG done, and even though all of it was done in the clinic on the third floor of the hospital, this was back in the '90s and technology wasn't as advanced as it is today, so we actually had to wait for the doctor to get the results. I did get to watch a lot of movies and videotapes in that clinic.
The movie that was usually playing when I was in the Cardiology clinic's waiting room was the 1973 animated Disney movie, Robin Hood. Inevitably though I would never get to see the whole movie because they would either call me into an examination room or into the Echo room for that test. And it was always at the same point in the movie that they'd call me in too. It was always at the part where Robin Hood is in disguise and is about to be exposed at the Archery Tournament, and I never got to see the end of the movie. I'll be telling that story more in depth at another time.
Now, while I was in the room getting the Echo done, the technician would put on one of two VHS tapes for me to watch while she did the scan.
One of the tapes that the technician put on for me is Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. I had this movie on VHS at home, but I liked it a lot, so I would request this one quite often. I would probably only get as far as the part where Shadow, Sassy and Chance started heading for home, near the beginning of the movie, but, like I said, I had the tape at home so it didn't matter that much if I didn't see the rest of the movie.
The other tape that the technician would put on for me was short enough that I got to watch the whole thing every time it was put on for me. That was the 1992 VHS release of Barney's Campfire Sing-Along, the fifth tape in the Barney and the Backyard Gang series. I'll be talking more about this when I get to reviewing it on the VHS reviews. Having an Echo done is where I remember watching this tape for the first time.
So there it is. What doctor's appointments were like for me growing up. These days I still have appointments. They're just spread out across the year and I only have to go see most of them once a year. The only appointment I have more than that is the dentist to keep my teeth clean. Otherwise I have a lot fewer appointments than I did when I was a kid. And the ones I went to when I was a kid, weren't all gloomy or anything like that. I had fun looking at/reading the books, playing with the toys, playing the video games and board games, and watching the movies, even if I didn't always get to watch the whole movie. Sure, some of the appointments were unpleasant because I had to have bloodwork done, an X-ray done, or have an IV put in for a blood transfusion, but all that unpleasantness was done to keep me healthy and I am very grateful for that.
I'll be back tomorrow for my first VHS review of a Disney Sing-Along Songs tape. I'll be starting with the first tape in the series to ever be released, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah. So stay tuned for that. Until then have a great rest of your Sunday. Later.
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