DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       MS Speaks
  HTML https://msspeaks.createaforum.com
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       *****************************************************
   DIR Return to: THE PRACTICAL SIDE OF BEING MULTIPLY SCLEROSED
       *****************************************************
       #Post#: 4774--------------------------------------------------
       A way for some MS organization to be useful
       By: agate Date: April 15, 2025, 1:07 am
       ---------------------------------------------------------
       I know of at least three organizations that offer assistance of
       various kinds to people with MS--the MS Society, the MS
       Association of America, and the MS Foundation. In decades of
       dealing with MS, I have never heard of much help with
       transportation to/from essential appointments (medical, dental,
       physical therapy).  One may still offer trips to/from MRI
       appointments and possibly neurologist appointments.
       But that is all.
       What about people with MS who don't have an available and
       willing friend or family member to transport them and who can't
       drive themselves? How do they get to/from essential medical and
       dental appointments?
       If they can afford it, maybe they take lift-equiped taxis. But
       what if that isn't feasible?
       I myself use the local paratransit van service, which I also
       used for many years in another state. Most sizeable cities seem
       to have this service now.
       But there are drawbacks, especially if you're aging with MS. You
       might not be up to having to ride around for 2 hours just to get
       to an appointment that is only a couple of miles away, then
       having to ride around for another 2 hours AFTER that
       appointment, just to get back home. And the appointment itself
       might have taken an hour or more--and been tiring.
       You need to rest. You need to eat. You need to use bathrooms.
       You might have had to cope with difficult doors to public
       restrooms at your destination--heavy doors which someone might
       have had to come along and hold open for you. Or--one of my pet
       peeves these days--doors with numeric access codes, which you
       have to know.
       If the access code has changed since you were there last, you
       might need to travel clear across the building just to find
       someone who can give you that code. So you try to remember to
       ask for it while you're at your appointment.
       If you're in a hurry to use the restroom because your ride might
       show up at any minute and you by now are out of the range of the
       driver's view, coping with a difficult door can take up valuable
       time.
       You will be in a hurry because you've been warned that a driver
       will wait only 5 minutes.
       Just try to get to/from a public restroom, particularly one with
       a tricky door, in 5 minutes or less.
       So this is one place where some well-intentioned MS organization
       that wants to help people with MS could really be of service. It
       might not be feasible, but if someone with MS who uses a
       wheelchair and finds using the paratransit service to be too
       difficult physically needs to travel to a medical appointment,
       why couldn't such an organization provide rides? They would have
       to be scheduled in advance, and the passenger would need to pay
       something but the fare shouldn't be exorbitant.
       I fail to understand why this assistance couldn't be available.
       Somehow.
       *****************************************************