To be honest my social life has taken a dive since the RA kicked in hard. A night out is till 8pm if my poor hubby is lucky and a girls night in usually leads to my poor friends letting themselves out as I snore on the couch.Thanks to the wonders of Groupon my two best friends and I decided a a day in the health spa would be a good idea. And so it was ..kind of. I had a sense of impending doom as we entered faced with three flights of stairs. With stick in hand and splinted joints on view I quietly requested an alternative way to enter my intended paradise. Why? Says the seemingly pre-pubescent gum chewing hair twirling receptionist. Ur..because I can't get up those stairs...oh says the girl. you'll have to go in the lift..but it's out through the other entrance, across the hall, through two sets of (heavy) double doors and it's on your right...ok thanks. My very agile skinny friends arrived at the spa location a good ten minutes ahead of me despite having to negotiate the afore mentioned stairs. Nevermind. I am now here . Now I will relax.' Don't forget' says the next receptionist 'we have no loos so you can just 'pop' downstairs when you need to go'.......mmm I can't actually 'just pop' anywhere. I move at snail pace with pain. I think despite the warning to drink plenty I will infact refuse a sip.
Nevermind..treatment time...back massage and facial...have you ever tried to get onto one of those beds??? any chance you could lower it please?? Oh ...sorry..it doesn't do that...right. ok. Just give me a week and I'll be with you.
Now I wasn't sure if the back massage was a good idea. But it is one of the few areas that doesn't hurt (yet) (pessimism is terrible I know) as it turned out it was great and very relaxing as was the facial. My distress was all about access. Why should it be so hard to access anywhere? It didn't just happen today. It's like when you're pregnant..all you see are pregnant women. Before I was disabled (there I said the D word) I never even thought about it (sorry) but now it's the first thing I have to think about before I can DO anything. Sometimes even relatively modern buildings are lacking. Very often I am shoved through kitchens/ back corridors etc to get the lift . I don't want to be disabled but I can be EN abled by simple things. I would like to be able to 'access' my life quietly and easily like an able bodied person does. No wonder my social life is dying on it's feet...
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lulul
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glad you "kind of" had a good day…I love a massage (a light one mind! lol). You will learn as I have to ask about access before you go. I remember in my early (bad) days going to a restaurant that only had loos downstairs (&lots of them) & what with my pea size bladder & awful knees it was my worst nightmare!
Ground floor (or lifts) & electric beds…lovely
You do end up paying for a night out but it's all about pacing & that is also something I have finally learnt to do.
Steph x
ooh poor lulu you will have to get yourself to the holiday inn Gloucester/ cheltenham near junction 11a M5. aka near the famous cotswolds.near me for a spa say.. in thinking of organising an nras thing/ spa day maybe a charity fundraiser as part of it in september.. it has ground floor bedrooms as well as upstairs ones.. the health club and spa are on one level... roman steps and rails to both pool and spa/ jacuzzi.. one disabled loo/ change room.. one disabled ie wider shower with seat too!, the young girl beckki does the best back massage I have ever hand... I cant get roons at discounted price of about £43.00 per room...
Any one with intersest in above idea for spa/ day combined with tea for ten fundraiser in sunny gloucestershire please mail me if enough interest will oragnise it back massage £25.00 normal spa price.. they do a wide range of treatments
How about sending them a letter telling them how much more enjoyable your outing would have been if you hadn't had such a memorable journey to get to (and onto) the massage table? Surely by now they make height adjustable massage tables.
Perhaps the gum chewing receptionist could have accompanied you through the heavy doors and into the lift to make sure that you could manage to get to where you were going. You never know if the problems you experienced are brought to their management's attention, and put right, you may save someone else having to go through what you did and you might feel like paying them another visit in the future.
It may be that they just don't realise how difficult their building is to negotiate for some of us - a little assistance can go a long way.
Totally agree Judi, I would send a letter too, that is completely unacceptable in this day and age, I thought these places had certain standards!
Gina.
Hi Lulu.. what an exhausting nice day out you had! It's like you say its enough to put you off and not bother. But we do have to bother. I think Judi's suggestion is good, Whatever happened to access for all to public buildings, when all these hotels etc were crowing about going out of business because they would have to spend thousands on complying with the regulations? No point in getting angry I suppose, but the more we let them know how difficult it is, the better I am sure (tongue in cheek) it will become. Write that letter. Better still tell them you are thinking of writing to the local paper to let them know how much trouble you have getting into various places??? No not blackmail.. no no no... Any road up. Glad you had a nice back massage, I love 'em, my lady gives me a little stool and helps me up. Simple really.
Oh Lulu what a time you had good on you for getting on with things but like you say why is it so hard to access some places. When I spent time in a wheelchair it certainly opened my eyes to how difficult "normal things" can be. I went for a massage whilst in Egypt and guess what the hotel lift didnt go up there so we had to climb a lot of stairs. Then ofcourse like you Lulu I had a real job to get up onto the bed oh and my masseur was a man, god how embarrassing. Anyway the massage was very good. Take care. Sharon
Sorry that access was unnecessarily difficult for you Lulu
I'm sure that it's not done with malice, just not thinking and as you say before being disabled yourself you (like many of us) didn't appreciate these access issues. I always write either to praise /thank or to complain/point out how my visit to the premises of a business has been - if a member of staff has gone out of their way to be helpful then I name and praise them
Glad the massage was good when you eventually got on the table!
You could point out to the spa that they're missing out on a section of the customer population - the elderly and the disabled - by not improving access. Word of mouth spreads fast when the service is good and we do have buying power!
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