Today, I arrived at work around 6:30 in the morning so that I could leave early around 2:30 pm. I had an appointment with an oral surgeon at 3 and I was terrified that I would be late. Lately, my lower teeth have been pushed towards each other and they have started to crowd and move around other teeth a little. It's not bad yet, but it's not going to fix itself, so I wanted to get some x-rays to see if I needed to have my wisdom teeth taken out. I was a little nervous because this was my first appointment to a doctor or a dentist or anything really while I've been in CA, and I wasn't sure how gracefully the secretaries and doctors would handle my deafness. When I was in NY, I was in a region heavily populated by deaf people, so I was never the first deaf person anyone met. Here, it's a completely different story, and I wasn't sure what would happen.
I was pleasantly surprised, though. I had called a week or so ago to make the appointment, so they knew I was deaf by the method I used to call. I walked in at 2:55 pm and I had my forms already completed to hand over. They asked me very nicely for my name and when they realized that I was the deaf person they were expecting, the main secretary handed over a piece of paper. I looked at the paper and it had a list that she had typed up just for me with all the things we needed to do. It was all numbered, so first it requested that I give her my ID and medical and dental insurance cards so she could copy them. I handed them over, she smiled, took the copies, and then we moved to step number 2, which was the forms. I handed my already completed forms over, and she was very pleased she didn't have to wait for me to fill out the forms. Then we moved to step 3, and to be honest, I don't remember what all the steps were. The point is, I didn't have to waste a lot of energy trying to communicate, and I wasn't embarrassed by the usual lack of understanding. It went really smoothly, and then I was told to sit down and wait. When the nurse came out asking for me, all the secretaries smiled and pointed to me saying, "That's you!" It was really nice, and it really reduced my stress levels.
The nurse tried to make small talk at first, but I was having a very hard time understanding her. I could not understand a word she said. She held up a finger as if saying "wait," disappeared, and a few minutes later, a new nurse came in. The new nurse tried talking to me, and I could understand a decent amount of what she said. They decided to switch nurses so that I'd have an easier time - I've never had anyone do that before. She also recognized that it was much more trouble for me than it was worth to deal with small talk, so she just handed me a few pamphlets to read, and let me be. I don't know why people think silence is so awkward, because most of the time I think silence is a lot easier to deal with than endless small talk that I can't understand. It was nice because I knew when she did talk to me, it was something important. There are a lot of times where I don't understand something, but I feel the topic is trivial so I just let it slide and pretend I understood. You can't do that in a doctor's office in case they do slip something important in the middle of small talk, so it just makes the situation a lot more stressful. Whenever this nurse said something, I knew I needed to understand completely, and it just went a lot smoother.
The doctor was a little less capable of dealing with deafness, but he was patient enough. Turns out I need my bottom wisdom teeth removed, so I will be having them taken out on Friday, September 11th. I'm sure I won't like the office as much after I've had the surgery, but I like that I had a very easy time and I don't mind the fact that I have to go back.
I was pleasantly surprised, though. I had called a week or so ago to make the appointment, so they knew I was deaf by the method I used to call. I walked in at 2:55 pm and I had my forms already completed to hand over. They asked me very nicely for my name and when they realized that I was the deaf person they were expecting, the main secretary handed over a piece of paper. I looked at the paper and it had a list that she had typed up just for me with all the things we needed to do. It was all numbered, so first it requested that I give her my ID and medical and dental insurance cards so she could copy them. I handed them over, she smiled, took the copies, and then we moved to step number 2, which was the forms. I handed my already completed forms over, and she was very pleased she didn't have to wait for me to fill out the forms. Then we moved to step 3, and to be honest, I don't remember what all the steps were. The point is, I didn't have to waste a lot of energy trying to communicate, and I wasn't embarrassed by the usual lack of understanding. It went really smoothly, and then I was told to sit down and wait. When the nurse came out asking for me, all the secretaries smiled and pointed to me saying, "That's you!" It was really nice, and it really reduced my stress levels.
The nurse tried to make small talk at first, but I was having a very hard time understanding her. I could not understand a word she said. She held up a finger as if saying "wait," disappeared, and a few minutes later, a new nurse came in. The new nurse tried talking to me, and I could understand a decent amount of what she said. They decided to switch nurses so that I'd have an easier time - I've never had anyone do that before. She also recognized that it was much more trouble for me than it was worth to deal with small talk, so she just handed me a few pamphlets to read, and let me be. I don't know why people think silence is so awkward, because most of the time I think silence is a lot easier to deal with than endless small talk that I can't understand. It was nice because I knew when she did talk to me, it was something important. There are a lot of times where I don't understand something, but I feel the topic is trivial so I just let it slide and pretend I understood. You can't do that in a doctor's office in case they do slip something important in the middle of small talk, so it just makes the situation a lot more stressful. Whenever this nurse said something, I knew I needed to understand completely, and it just went a lot smoother.
The doctor was a little less capable of dealing with deafness, but he was patient enough. Turns out I need my bottom wisdom teeth removed, so I will be having them taken out on Friday, September 11th. I'm sure I won't like the office as much after I've had the surgery, but I like that I had a very easy time and I don't mind the fact that I have to go back.
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