Keeping up appearances

3/03/2009 04:13:00 pm BenefitScroungingScum 10 Comments

The phone woke me up on Saturday morning. Again. That would be completely forgivable had it been Aunty Betsy, but I was less pleased to hear from the NHS. I was booked to have an ECG by LC so last week the department phoned to make the appointment, then phoned to make sure I was still ok to attend the appointment. The phone call at 9am was not to remind me of the appointment but to ask if I could attend an earlier one. In less than 2 hours time, which the lady insisted had nothing to do with the fact that I'd originally been booked in for the last appointment of the day, and all about the fact they'd had multiple cancellations. Well drr, it's a Saturday.

Before going to my appointment I decided to go to the nearby supermarket. I'm just about confident enough to use a spaz chariot on my own now, but they attract so much attention a positive mood is essential! And L plates. With the Stig to drive me as I'm not really what you'd call safecompetent. Whilst shopping one of the many people who talked to me was a glamorous woman of a similar age to me, who told me that another chariot user had just run over her feet.

Shopping completed I waited in the queue at the till. There were people fundraising by packing bags and a lovely little boy of about 10 approached me in the queue and asked if I would like some help to get my shopping on to the conveyor belt. He was quite the sweetheart. Shopping put onto the checkout I tried to move the chariot forward only to find it was dead. The very nice gentleman in full bike gear who was behind me in the queue tried to help find the isolator switch to enable the scooter to be pushed easily whilst an embarrassed looking manager sent a staff member to bring another chariot round. The scooter worked until I was sitting on it when it decided not to work at all. Not even to turn on. Fortunately the whole queue was laughing by this time and not getting angry!

The little boy helped pack my shopping and I asked if he had a collecting tin. A bucket was put forward and it was only then I realised what they were collecting for. It was to send disabled people to Lourdes. I couldn't and wouldn't refuse to donate to a child who'd been so helpful, but this outdated and religious idea that disabled people must be 'cured' sickens me.

The lovely biker man brought back the goodwill when he offered to carry my shopping to my car. Chatting as we walked he was asking me if disabled parking was still a problem and explaining when he'd worked at Tesco they had a dedicated staff member to patrol the bays and fine people if they didn't have a blue badge. I said mostly people were good about not parking in disabled bays if they didn't need them, but that there were always some selfish twats. It was then that I noticed we were walking past the woman who'd complained her feet had been run over by a scooter. Ain't Karma a bitch!

I made it to my hospital appointment in good time. The department was fully staffed, but the only patients were myself and two very frail, very elderly ladies. Which was nice an' all, but I can't help feel that Gorgon's insistence on Saturday clinics was to do with all those non benefit scrounging important tax paying votersvalued members of society who couldn't get appointments during the week. Whilst I'm well aware that working and managing to attend medical appointments is a major issue, throwing money at certain departments to make them open on Saturdays, then filling them soley with patients who are able to attend weekday appointments is an exceptionally stupid thing to do. But then politicians are expert at redefining the concept of stupid!

10 comments:

Dark Side said...

What a lovely biker he was.

Karma occured at our Asda last night as a registration number was read out over the tannoy to please contact customer services, as I was on my way out I noticed the car in question was parked in a disabled bay and was just handing over the £30 fine....sweet! x

Fire Byrd said...

Hope the ECG was ok.

Don't get me started on religion.... Lourdes, oh boy.
xx

Dave said...

Some of them preach that it's your fault that you're ill. That illness is a result of sin in your life.
God save us from them all.

Okay, so remind me again the need to have ECG's for bendy folk such as yourself? Is this somehow related to connective tissue degeneration?

Hey, at least the supermarket people were helpful, mythological intentions notwithstanding.

MrN: MVP is very common in bendy ppl, it's our collagen which is affected, collagen is in pretty much everything so pretty much everything can be affected! Its known we have sometimes very significant problems with our autonomic nervous systems so BP/heartrate/digestion/temp control etc can all be affected that way. The risk of aortic anuerysm (sp) is increased so it was partly to check that. MsO would be the person to ask for a better explanation as she was a cardiac nurse (and a damn fine one at that!) Hope you are well? x

Dave: Amen to that ;)

FB: I know! I was just thinking of you as I deathwalked on my beach-I think its the one you are so fond of;) Anyway, whilst I can't accompany you on long walks, I can provide the coffee/food/gossip bit if you ever need :)

DS: That is sweet indeed! He was a lovely man, tbh I find the majority of ppl really like to help others. Hope you're feeling better sweet x

MVP, ah now that makes sense, as does the autonomic system issues.

Oh, and btw, yeah, I am good, knock on wood.

Unknown said...
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Anonymous said...

Did you wear a white racing suit and crash helmet or were you identifable? Does your urine smell of petrol and if I look in your ear will I see a finely tuned V 12 turbo charged engine?

Good post, made me laugh, especially the Lourdes bit.

Take care Hun xx

Anonymous said...

I've only just read this post and it reminded me of a song Shopmobility Scooter