13 replies to this topic

[AmericasHorse]

As mentioned in other posts I seem to be getting the really short end of the stick on everything. Here is another one. My handicapped parking pass, I am not able to acquire.
Yes I said that right I am not able to get one. I had one end of 09 and beginning of 10 when i injured my neck but my ortho will not sign off on a new one, GRRRR.

So what do i need to do or what doc do i need to go to get my pass, this is adding to my madness and aggravation. Any and all help is welcome. Thank you, AH

[A trophy guy]

AmericasHorse, on 05 December 2011 - 06:59 AM, said:

As mentioned in other posts I seem to be getting the really short end of the stick on everything. Here is another one. My handicapped parking pass, I am not able to acquire.
Yes I said that right I am not able to get one. I had one end of 09 and beginning of 10 when i injured my neck but my ortho will not sign off on a new one, GRRRR.

So what do i need to do or what doc do i need to go to get my pass, this is adding to my madness and aggravation. Any and all help is welcome. Thank you, AH

Did the ortho sign your first? And if so, why would he hesitate to sign a second? Either way, I'm confused why a doc would refuse you. Geez, normally those permits get doled out like candy. Did the doc give you an explanation?

[goose]

Have you tried another doctor? I thought you could get one even if you had the sniffles...at least that's the way it seems.

[lavenderthistle]

Actually they don't get doled out like candy.

Example;
A.) I had leg surgery and had to be non weight bearing for a few months...I was offered one, but refused it.

B.) Another leg op...had to be off it for a few months I accepted that one.

C.) Yet another leg op, asked for one but was denied even a temp.
(Yes I'm a real screw up )


Right now, I've been issued a permanent one by my GP based on my diagnosis codes and the fact I'm physically unstable in certain situations.

Your GP can sign off on the paper work, an Ortho, a neurosurgeon, in some states I think chiropractors can. I discussed it with my GP for months before I decided I was ready. (Pride?) I was actually emotional about it.

Ok I'm wordy!! Sorry

Ask your GP. It's likely that doctor sees you the most often.

Edited by lavenderthistle, 05 December 2011 - 04:07 PM.

[Vanessamaee]

lavenderthistle, on 05 December 2011 - 04:05 PM, said:

Actually they don't get doled out like candy.

Example;
A.) I had leg surgery and had to be non weight bearing for a few months...I was offered one, but refused it.

B.) Another leg op...had to be off it for a few months I accepted that one.

C.) Yet another leg op, asked for one but was denied even a temp.
(Yes I'm a real screw up )


Right now, I've been issued a permanent one by my GP based on my diagnosis codes and the fact I'm physically unstable in certain situations.

Your GP can sign off on the paper work, an Ortho, a neurosurgeon, in some states I think chiropractors can. I discussed it with my GP for months before I decided I was ready. (Pride?) I was actually emotional about it.

Ok I'm wordy!! Sorry

Ask your GP. It's likely that doctor sees you the most often.

Now that we have the "vote this post down" button. Can I ask why this post was voted down? I found it rather helpful actually, and very true. Im only allowed a temp tag since I am a minor. And I dont qualify for the license plates at all.

[AmericasHorse]

Maybe there is just not enough wrong with me, should i visit the doc in a wheelchair, i dont get it. My get it PCP said she would sign off on it if my Ortho would GRRRR. I am seriously missing something somewhere.

[lavenderthistle]

I didn't have to visit my GP in my wheelchair...just limped in with my cane. Can you take a diagnosis sheet in with you from your ortho to your GP? My GP got my surgery report from my surgeon and entered the info, then we started getting to know each other. Yes..I switched GP's after surgery because my last GP missed a crap load of my earlier symptoms.

My doctor had no problems filling out my paperwork. He broached the subject with me when we were discussing my anxiety levels. Have you discussed your limitations with your GP? They can be sticklers on the criteria. There is a lot of widespread abuse. Many providers may be getting heat for filling out the forms. Your doctor may not know much about SCI's and how one can walk and still have one.

If the GP has seen you walk in and out of the office they likely won't give you one if you show up in a chair the next time, new doctors might be reluctant to sign off on it if you just show up and ask with no documentation from a prior doctor or surgeon


If I were you, I would

1.) revisit the ortho and ask, if they again refuse ask why

2.) ask your GP why they won't do it

3.) if those fail...find a new doctor


always ask why

[KayDub]

It must vary by state. In Colorado they do get doled out like candy. The qualifications are :

"Qualifying criteria are listed below. All criteria require certification by a person fully licensed to practice medicine in Colorado.

-Persons who cannot walk two hundred feet without stopping to rest.
-Persons who cannot walk without the use of, or assistance from, a brace, cane, crutch, another person, prosthetic device, wheelchair, or other
assistive device.
-Persons who are restricted by lung disease to such an extent that the person's forced (respiratory) expiratory volume for one second when measured
by spirometry is less than one liter, or the arterial oxygen tension is less than sixty mm/hg on room air or at rest.
-Persons who use portable oxygen.
-Persons who have a cardiac condition to the extent that the person's functional limitations are classified in severity as Class III or Class IV according
to standards set by the American Heart Association.
-Persons who are severely limited in their ability to walk due to an arthritic, neurological, or orthopedic condition."

http://www.colorado....4&ssbinary=true

The witness signature is the person at the DMV. You just bring in the completed form to your doctor (any doctor, your GP, your ortho, your neurologist, your next door neighbour who is a doctor, your dad who is a doctor) and bring it into the DMV and you're set. They don't follow up with doctors either. From there no police officers or parking officials ever check to make sure the person using the car with plates or the placards is the person who they're registered too. If anything an occasional person gets ticketed for parking in a place without one, but even that's rare. Things in Colorado are just meh.

That's interesting you get a temp Vanessa. Here minors can get permanent placards.

I wish Colorado would become more stringent like some other states seem to be! But I'm sorry those of you who need passes can't get one too.

AmericasHorse, on 06 December 2011 - 11:35 PM, said:

Maybe there is just not enough wrong with me, should i visit the doc in a wheelchair, i dont get it. My get it PCP said she would sign off on it if my Ortho would GRRRR. I am seriously missing something somewhere.

That's so weird! I had no problem with my GP signing off on it. Do you have another doctor you see? Go in in your wheelchair and you shouldn't have a problem. You're the first person I know of in CO that has had an issue. Good luck!!!!

[dreamerr]

I hardly ever find a handicapped spot in my state cause lots of old people and obese people who are given them for nothing. I see them walking around the stores for hours so they can walk the extra few feet to there car. I often have to park far away so I can take up two spots but then of course people mess with my car cause they get mad. I need room for access.

To answer the question my surgeon didn't give it to me but the rehab doc signed off. I am a para so I can't imagine them not signing. My regular doc would have if the rehab doc didn't. I also sent justification with it as to my disability.

[edlee]

Well,, my equine friend,,, if your TWO doctors don't think you need the placard,,,,,,,( how to put this???,,,),,,, perhaps you don't ,,, need it. As KW posted,,, there ars specific criteria and they aren't all that hard to meet. Here we have TWO different doctors,,, neither willing to certify that you meet the needed tests. Are they both wrong?

It certainly does seem that way from reading your earlier posts. I would think that you would be eligable, from the pain, if nothing else. You've been injured for 16 years or so,, have these same two MDs been treating you since the beginning? From the sound of it, neither has seen more than a handful of SCIs in his career. While this is entirely posible for a GP,, I fail to believe that about a orthopedic surgeon.

It may well be time for a THIRD opinion,, .. Tho that would entail your collecting ALL your medical records from the first two.,,, OR ask the ortho WHY,,, but make sure you take the list, that KW provided, with you,, so he can point out to you why they don'y apply to YOU.

All those that NEED to park close, should be allowed the tags. Those that don't have the need, shouldn't. Since there is disagreement,, even here, about what ,, exactly,, those needs are,, well,,, that's what the doctors are for. I wouldn't want to be the one forced to decide,,,, from what my wife tells me,,, I'm NEVER right.
ed

Edited by edlee, 08 December 2011 - 01:49 AM.

[AmericasHorse]

Thank you everyone for your responses, I will be having a chat with my ortho very soon. My assistive device is my service dog, so still that blows my mind. It may fall into the category of things that mak you wanna go hmmm.

[lonebobseytwin]

I was issued temporary ones for about a year or so while they "waited to see why I couldn't feel my leg."
in CA they have a limit of how many temps. you can get at which point you don't get another one, or you doc. decides there's a big enough problem and issues the Blue one.
The reasons for issuing here look alot like the ones from colorado, with a line open for the doctor to write in one that doesn't fit into the list.

It was over two years after my accident before I was issues my blue one. It was given to me by my Pain Management Doctor, but only after he thought I was mentally okay to not let it bother me as a label.
Since was was just slightly over being twenty and it took a few years or me to even get an diagnosis or answer about what was happening to me.

I do walk, but it on how well varies from day to day. I never know what kind of curve ball it's going to throw me. I look okay but i'd still eat someone alive if they wanted to say something to me, I've been through too much shit to put up with someone's judgement at this point. I guess i'm still pretty angry about the whole thing, it'll fade eventually, I'm only a few months out of the ending of my litigation over the whole thing.
my mother a cancer survivor with disinagrated hips from radiation also has one. I have no idea who issued her pass.

I joke that the pass is my only perk, that and being able to skip lines occasionally at disneyland.
but in our parking lots here there are tons of handicapped spots to park in. There's ones always empty. I see abuse every so often where it's clear it's their grandmother's or something, that and people like to idle in them while they wait for people to "finish shopping" which really infuriates me. Sometimes I see people who look okay but I can tell there's something off about they way they move, you learn to recognize it.

when I used to live in the bay area near san francisco you could park anywhere without paying meters, which was spectacular because I could park so close to places I needed to go without having to panic about how far I might have to walk to get there.


Keep pushing. If you think you need one, you probably do, you know your body better than anyone.
Hang in there.

[kathy.k]

What is handicapped parking????? here in Alabama you can never EVER get a handicapped spot. Handicapped parking here is for the people that don't want to get wet when it is raining or to be closer to the door. I am beginning to think that handicapped parking is for the lazy. I honestly believe that if the sign says van accessible then only vans should be able to park there. 99% of the time I park down at the very end of the parking lot so I can open the lift and let my huband get out, but it never fails someone is going to park right next to me when we come out. We just laugh it off now and say that apparently they need the spot more than we do....

Right outside of the apartment we live in are two handicapped spaces. We are the only ones that require the spot but I cant tell you how many times they are taken. My neighbor likes to park in one because it is close to her door. We even have neighbors that will park in the blue lines so we are not able to get off the curb leaving us stuck at home. When you knock on the door they just don't answer....how sad is that.

[isobar]

Ask your primary care doc.