Could I ask if this was regular eye doctor, an eye specialist or an a eye super specialist? I ask because my husband has had appointments with one of Toronto's super specialists - appointments were booked for 9:00 a.m. and those in the know take lunch and dinner with them - they often turned into all-day events. But this specialist does Vitrectomies, detached retina eye surgeries, that type of thing and there aren't that many Toronto doctors who perform these surgeries. Most of the patients are diabetics - my husband is one of the few who is not, so on a first visit a person with diabetes has a problem with food. Food sharing then happens. Then we have the various levels of more junior eye specialists - some being too senior to do say cataract surgery so you are referred to a lower specialist. Quite the ordeal. The wait times differ depending on the specialist. The optometrist is very good - usually on time. She does Part 1 of the exam, then puts in the drops and has people return to the waiting room for a few minutes while she takes care of a few other matters and then is ready to see the patient with the drops as soon as the drops have done their bit. Of course with me, the drops burn off immediately and I never get blurry eyes. I think you should sleep on your letter and then decide what to do. Years ago I had to see a specialist - every time you would swear that you were in a bus terminal full of people. The receptionist would always tell people that the doctor had been called out on an emergency. So one day one of my fellow patients stood up and asked how many of us had an appointment booked for 5:00 p.m. - every hand in the room was raised. The receptionist looked scared - not her fault though. It is very common for a few people to have the same appointment time - I think doctors hope that some appointments will be quicker than others. Doesn't always happen though.

If you had a 36" easy reach, what would you do with the remaining 6 inches? I have two easy reach cabinets in my kitchen. I put larger things in the corner itself, and things I use less often, because it is the least convenient spot. Books and papers are less convenient to shuffle than my bowls and measuring cups. This is a case where easy reach might not be the best option. If you close off the corner completely, you'll have lovely 30" cabinets on each side. Or you could do a blind corner, so you could put rarely-used items into the corner, and still have a 30" shelf.

The doctor is a general practioner. There are 2 other doctors in the practice, so that is why there are so many chairs. I always walk with a cane, but I cannot use it to get up from a chair. I have no 'lift' power in my legs, so I lift my body by pushing with both my hands/arms. Chair arms make that much easier. I sometimes use a walker or even a scooter, but in this examining room, I know that there is no room for the scooter for sure, and it would be hard to even manuver the walker around. If I go back to him again, I will take the walker and let the nurse figure out where to put me. The doctors flippant attitude is what really set me off. I, of course am very aware of the seating anywhere I go. In the past, many waiting rooms were without armed chairs. It is rare to find that these days. Now, the lab where I go for blood tests has just 2 chairs with arms in the waiting room. They are at the very far end of the long narrow room that is lined on each side with 13 armless chairs and a couple of tables. I believe the thinking here is that able bodied people will always take the closest chairs rather than walk to the far end of the room for the armed chairs, thus leaving those for the people that need them, like me. No matter that the disabled must now struggle to get to them. But once they get there, they can now sit and get up more easily. LOL! It's kinda like the handicapped stall in the public restroom is always at the farthest end from the door. I know, there must be a good reason for this, but when one is feeling like 'just one more step is more than you can do', it is hard to see it.

I need a new primary care MD and a new dentist. It's no use asking for referrals from people who have always enjoyed good health -- or good teeth! We've rocked along with our present (barely adequate) MD and our (convenient) dentist since 2000. The MD failed to admit me to hospital last month when he saw me a day and a half before I was in the ER at 4 a.m., resulting in a four day stay. ER docs rushed to improve my oxygen uptake and stabilize my erratic heart. I had not *suddenly* become seriously ill. I was ''whooping' when I saw him -- same as when I got to the ER. My DDS has now twice failed to adjust for bite. I have a cracked root on one lower molar (pounded by the new bridge above it). A thrown crown he just reset fractured a day later. ("Oh, you'll need a new crown! $$$$) Is there a shortage of MD's? We only took this one because it was so hard to find anyone taking new Medicare patients in 2000. We saw right away that he was marginal, but the group practice (since absorbed by a hospital group) was efficient -- and we were younger, with few ills! Our prior, excellent doctors retired.