Sunday, 10 May 2026

Appointments and IT

One of the lesser joys of having autistic, and dependent, offspring is that one has to organise, and usually attend all their dental and medical appointments. 

I have sat through and witnessed more procedures than enough, some more upsetting than others.  At times I have had to follow my mother’s advice and just keep silently repeating the Hail Mary, like some sort of mantra, to keep myself calm until it was all over.   

Being there whilst people, albeit necessarily and with the best intents, do things to your child’s body is one of the loneliestplaces on earth.

Unfortunately Thunderthighs has inherited my jaw with wisdom teeth growing at right angles into and cracking the back molars.  This became apparent during lockdown and there were several masked visits to the dental hospital and various clinics to discuss and organise extraction under sedation.

From Facebook Archives.

9 May 2023

Thunderthighs gets up at 6.30 for an early breakfast and we're out of the house by 8.45 for his dental appointment at 9.10 to have the wisdom tooth broken molar out.
Traffic awful and half way along Heaton Road the mobile rings.   
Thunderthighs answers because I'm driving.   
It's the clinic.   
They've just got in and discovered they have a problem with the sedation equipment.
"Can you pull in Mum and talk to them?"
So I pull into the very top of Meldon Terrace, too close to the corner, on double yellow lines and turn off the engine.
"We can do him tomorrow in Walker"
So tomorrow's schedule is now:-
take Ferretfingers to the day centre
go on to Monkseaton Computers with Fester's laptop for antivirus
take Thunderthighs to Walker clinic and witness his tooth extraction
bring Thunderthighs home
go back to Monkseaton
collect Ferretfingers on the way home or as a special trip depending on timing
get bread from Earth&Fire at the Rising Sun.
Unless something throws a spanner in the works.
Mrs Lasagne  Do they do a general anaesthetic Ben xxx
Bentonbag  No, it's gas&air to keep him relaxed.  Mind you, having successfully had fillings by George Dupree, he turned to me the other day with "Couldn't I have my tooth out with an injection like George did."  After all the organising and appointments to get this sorted, surprisingly I didn't hit him.
Mrs Lasagne  The granddaughter’s teeth is just turning into a nightmare!
Bentonbag  I know, I saw her dad last week.
Ms Exlibris  Good luck!
Woolerwoman  What a day! And another worse one tomorrow. xxx   Good thing you're the amazing woman you are.

11 May 2023

Everything went well with Thunderthighs's tooth extraction yesterday and everything else on the schedule.
I even had time to get the boys' prescriptions for extra-flouride toothpaste filled.
8.30 this morning Ferretfingers had an appointment with the Physician Associate to have another blood test.
Shortly after we arrived the computer system crashed, in fact the whole national computer system they are part of crashed.
The poor receptionist was forced to write people's names on bits of paper.
The doctors who were supposed to be doing telephone appointments couldn't see the names, numbers or history of the people they were meant to call.
When we got in to the PA there were two black screens on her desk.
"Remind me what bloods we were taking?"
"Ferratin, it was left off last time."
"Oh yes ... Oh what the heck we'll do the lot ... I'll do two yellow and one purple and that'll cover us."
Then I asked her to look at Ferretfingers's ankle again and she went to write a prescription for Fucicide (?), but she no longer has a prescription pad, they’re emailed directly to Lloyds Pharmacy.  
She was reduced to pulling a sheet of paper out of the printer under her desk and make a note on there for later.
"It should be available tomorrow afternoon."

To err is human, to really cock things up requires a computer...


 

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