One of those days...

It rained all day...

...I came back home very tired after a long day.

A letter was waiting for me saying as I had not responded to their last letter by telephone, they were giving me a few more days to telephone to book one of my diabetic appointments (I have been recently diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes). And if I didn't respond to them by telephone within a few days I would now be taken off their lists. This is an important diabetic appointment which will be ongoing on a frequent basis.

As I am profoundly deaf I am unable to respond to any request to telephone. So when I received their first letter I responded promptly by first class letter, giving them a few dates over the next couple of months which I would not be available on and suggested that they give me an appointment on one of the other days. I also explained about being profoundly deaf etc and that they had not given any alternatives to contact them to respond to them. And I sent the letter to "Booking Appointments" and then their address on the letter.

Yet I get this letter today with yet another impossible request to telephone saying I had not telephoned them.

Where this letter came from, I had exactly the same problem 10 years ago at the same place. With a request to telephone for this important appointment on another matter. Again, I wrote to them. And they wrote back saying I would have to telephone. Anyway it escalated despite me explaining I could not use the telephone and could they have other means of communication for deaf people and I suggested a few alternatives. I ended up getting a patient's advocate to try and mediate to improve communication between this place and people who were unable to use the telephone. It dragged on and on for months, and eventually they promised to put something in place for better communication for deaf people to communicate with them.

But it never happened as you can see.

*****

A couple of weeks ago I had to go to the CAB (Citizens Advice Bureau) because of a letter from the government saying I had to telephone this number to sort something. It could not be done by email so I had to go to the CAB and ask them to telephone on my behalf. As usual this was not straightforward because they wanted me to use the telephone. And the CAB lady explained quite a few times I was unable to hear on the telephone. Eventually it was nearly sorted after an hour, but the government department will not write to me and confirm all is okay on this matter. So it was relayed to me via the CAB lady that I would have to telephone again in 3 weeks time to check this matter had been passed. The CAB lady explained I was disabled as well as profoundly deaf and that this was a lot of work and effort for me to do, to come to the CAB again to make an appointment so they can act on my behalf to make a simple telephone call. But the government department said I would still have to do all this again in 3 weeks.

The CAB lady asked me how difficult it was that I could not make a simple telephone call so I explained to her. She could not imagine being able to conduct her daily life and affairs without having the ability to hear and use the telephone.

Since then, I have had to make 2 routine Doctor's appointments and. Dentist appointment. In each case, I have used my car to drive to the location to make the appointments in person, simply because I cannot use the telephone as I am profoundly deaf. Both Dentist and Doctor do not have any other means of communication...they do not have an email or fax or text to communicate with them. I have requested they have email or text (my preferred method of communication to replace the telephone). But to no avail.

Last Wednesday I met a friend for a coffee and I asked if she wouldn't mind making a phone call for me. This was over something else that only gave me a phone number to deal with them. I only ask her occasionally because we see each other to have a coffee, not for her to make phone calls for me.

In addition I have responded to two other departments in this last fortnight, that requested I telephone to arrange an appointment, by letter explaining my deafness and my inability to use the telephone personally because of this (again, there was no email address or text or any other alternative ways in the letter of communication with them apart from a telephone call). I have had no response from those departments yet.

*****

The above is only just some of the things in the last fortnight that I am unable to deal with because they only give a telephone number as a means of contact to respond to them. It is tiring and takes up an awful lot of my time.

Yesterday I had an appointment at the Doctor's. The nurse wanted to speak with me first and then I went back in the waiting room. My eyes are glued to the screen because it flashes the patient's name, the Doctor's name and the screen as well as apparently speaking it...I cannot hear that speech. But no name had flashed on the screen. The next thing I know is the man sitting in the chair next to me is tapping my arm. I look at him and he is pointing to the receptionists. So I turn round. I realise all eyes are on me in that surgery waiting room and that the receptionists are shouting at me. I cannot lipread people shouting at me, so I ask the man what they are shouting for...it turns out they were calling my name and then began shouting very loudly when I did not respond, and they are red in the face with shouting...they are shouting my name apparently and waving at me that I am to see the Doctor.
They know I am deaf so why cannot they come over and politely and courteously tell me?

I didn't say anything to them to pull them up over this behaviour, not because I am scared to do so, because I have had a bad 2 weeks because of all the stuff I have had to do to try and circumnavigate the communication problems I have had because only a telephone number has been provided in letters etc. And to be honest it made me angry, they had disturbed me with their behaviour, and I did not trust myself to speak at that moment.

Today I was somewhere I go to. I couldn't lipread the person I was talking to because she held her cup in front of her mouth as she spoke. I have spoken with her before. So I explained I was deaf and lipread, so I needed to see her lips to tell what she was saying, so could she please take her cup away from the front of her mouth as she was speaking to me. She didn't believe I was deaf and carried on talking but with her hands in front of her mouth. I requested once more to be able to see her lips to lipread her so I would know what she was saying. She said she didn't believe I was deaf, and giggled putting her fingers in front of her mouth again. (She is older than I am). I got up and walked away at this point.

Then I come home to this letter that I talk about at the beginning of this post. I am angry and my first draft, in reply to them cannot be posted. I will do another draft in the morning. And see if that is fit to be sent.

I do have an internet friend who I have never seen in real life and she has made telephone calls for me in the past. I only have to ask and she will be straight on the phone for me. But this diabetic appointment is going to be a regular one, (that is if they don't blacklist me for not responding via the telephone), every so many weeks and I would like them to come up with a solution we can agree on for me to contact them by a means other than the telephone.

At this precise moment I am more than fed up with the world because of all the above. I have just sent messages saying I am not doing my usual stuff/groups for the next fortnight saying I am otherwise tied up. I don't owe anyone a reason why. This 2 weeks is for me to do what I want to do totally. No commitments (apart from one diabetic eye screening test), no usual stuff I normally do, and I am going to explore new things, sleep in bed all day if I feel like it, and my head is planning a few days out...