Work Text:
"Hey, you can't park there, that's for handicapped people!"
Ronny looks from the angry woman in the Mercedes to the blue tag hanging from the mirror in the windshield of his Honda, barely three feet away. "But I am handicapped."
"You're clearly walking, so you're not handicapped. Move your fucking car. It's my spot, I have arthritis."
He shrugs. She's not wrong: he can walk. Maybe she has a point. He moves his car to the back of the Publix parking lot while the woman practically bounces into the store, and he tries not to collapse on his way in.
,
"I'm sorry, we can't approve your treatment until we have documentation that you failed at least two other modalities."
"What can I do?"
"Well you can try acupuncture, and your doctor can give you Tramadol. Lots of people find they don't need physical therapy if they're not in pain to begin with."
Ronny agrees to this.
"They only told you that because insurance doesn't cover acupuncture so they don't have to pay out," his wife agonizes later. "And opioids won't do anything to help keep you walking."
But there's saddle pain that keeps him from doing much of anything else.
,
"You don't have a case."
Angela slams her hands on the desk. "Why not?"
"His work history after his diagnosis disqualifies him, and you waited too long so he has insufficient work credits. Any money you did win wouldn't even cover my fees."
"This is bullshit," she says. "He's disabled. He should be on Disability. We don't even care about back pay. I just need help going forward."
"Honey, if he says there's no case then there's no case," says Ronny. He should know, he was going to go to law school before the diagnosis.
Besides, they have their daughter.
,
"Well, Ronny, I can't find anything wrong with you," says the doctor. "We can run some more tests if you really want to."
Angela tries to thrust the list of symptoms she has found from the internet into the doctor's hands. "We want him tested for multiple sclerosis. He has every symptom on this list."
"Oh, no, ma'am, that's way down the list of things this could be. You should stay off WebMD. We're going to start with a hormone panel, this could be low testosterone."
Angela fires the doctor. Ronny trusts his wife, but more than a trained doctor?
,
Ronny wonders why the nurse is here if Angela and his daughter are doing all the heavy lifting. But it's okay. They take good care of him, even if they do complain about it half the time.
His daughter actually loves this, taking care of him, right? She would make a great doctor someday, if she can improve her personal time management and bedside manner. She's so rough with him in the shower sometimes. And with the hoyer lift.
The nurse measures his arm and says see you next week. It's two weeks before he sees any of them again.