DLA home assessment, diagnoses & general help

dmg24

Benefits_Bod wrote: »

I understand the scepticism. However, the source is someone I occasionally assist and the cases were his. There is absolutely no reason to disbelieve him - I wouldn't assist him if I had doubts about his integrity. Further, given the nature of cases I have personally dealt with first hand, variations of this (on a broad theme) are far from surprising - at least to me.

If he is that good an adviser, and was that confident in his source (I assume he was not at the medical), he would have put in a complaint. If people (your colleague, not yourself) are willing to spread rumours such as the above, they need to be able to substantiate their facts. If they cannot, they hold as much weight as 'My assessor was Robbie Jackson from Eastenders'.

Benefits_Bod

dmg24 wrote: »

(I assume he was not at the medical), he would have put in a complaint. If people (your colleague, not yourself) are willing to spread rumours such as the above, they need to be able to substantiate their facts.

DMG, it is a fact that the event occurred. Both the advisor and myself are professionals and know, in many different contexts, the dangers of rumour. Both of us fully understand the distinctions between the law, facts and rumour. Within the time constraints I have, I further make the effort to distinguish between the law and my personal opinion - see, for example, the thread on backdating.

It would therefore be appreciated if rumours were not spread that I, or the advisor I mentioned, were, er, spreading rumours...

Penny-Pincher!!

I too am baffled at what exactly you are asking of us on MSE with your OP????

Diagnosing ME can be usually done via a brain scan and with the right medication and resting periods as guided through your consultant, most people can live a fairly normal life. I know a lot of people with ME at varying stages, so I understand about this illness.

I have total faith in the NHS as they have saved my life on several occasions and are keeping me alive now!

Why do you have a lawyer involved? After spending all that money abroad on medical advice, did they not give you a conclusive diagnosis? Like I said, ME can be diagnosed via a brain MRI, so did you not have that done as this would be conclusive?

PP

diamonds

Hi everyone,

This is a quick reply as just awake from a bad nights rest and not good, sore & hands shaking so i'll try fully later today as after 2 doses of medication in evening the hand/wrist pain to type 50% of the month subsides to bearable.

As for suing the NHS well yes its hard to prove in many sense, but I can have 100 statements from people I know explaining I my lifestyle of never at home unless in bed to always at home from that date, I have a witness a of the hospital that night & they will give a statement of what they saw me experience as of the two of us they were the one fully aware as from paramedics till I got to a ward they saw me continually passing out. Losing my car as the cost of such in 2003 on benefits robbed me of the little mobility I had outdoors. Dealing with ME/CFS is enough - degenerative spinal change ontop, well its a joke.

It is interesting the discussion on DWP/ATOS.

I thought it odd the Dr/GP told me his medical diagnoses and opinion as I asked (thinking it was all arthritic) what are the drugs like for Arthritis in the joints for someone of my age, is there a good success rate of improvement and he replied what I have mentioned in previous posts.

Perhaps he from our two hour conversation could see I was over 9 years not a benefit cheat, I told him of the financial dependency, my wish to work 16 hours with support from DWP for mobility and homehelp via local council & get a job to have some normality and interaction with people as I may have late 2005 got out of depression but I still fought it and the lows (he commented later how for most that mental side was the hardest and I had echieved that) - I was in tears several times over the appointment talking of how I have been left to rot by NHS, DWP, local council, he only had to look around my flat & he did, (I volunteered rest rooms & he took me up on it) it is up several flights of stairs to my flat to see I could not manage household chores due to my physical limitations, because I could not get medical evidence I was suitably housed and stuck up the top of the block, housebound with major mobility and personal issues, constant debilitating pain of some kind on or off my feet.

This Dr knew ME/CFS, he had experience of such & saw all the signs I was telling him I had told many doctors before.

He even said although nerve damage affected my left hand I was right handed so would I be ok when I could (10-15 days of the month both hands are hopeless and cramped up he already knew that from earlier convo ) I told him the truth in a statement by implying many things need both hands and said you need both hands to open a bottle.

It is ironic I was dreading this ATOS assessment from previous experiences, but instead 9 yrs later this ATOS Dr listened to my symptoms, went against the poss the hands, wrists, knees, ankle & feet pain were arthritic or nerve damage to my leg/siatic nerve.

I have researched yesterday ME/CFS and I knowing my body agree with his medical opinion/diagnoses it is ME/CFS and that also has brought on a whole host of auto immune problems since 2001 - This was explained to me from Dr that the physical & mental trauma in 2001 points to it all.

Ok I managed to write a fair bit in just over an hour, maybe this will be a "better" day

diamonds

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

I too am baffled at what exactly you are asking of us on MSE with your OP????

Diagnosing ME can be usually done via a brain scan and with the right medication and resting periods as guided through your consultant, most people can live a fairly normal life. I know a lot of people with ME at varying stages, so I understand about this illness.

I have total faith in the NHS as they have saved my life on several occasions and are keeping me alive now!

Why do you have a lawyer involved? After spending all that money abroad on medical advice, did they not give you a conclusive diagnosis? Like I said, ME can be diagnosed via a brain MRI, so did you not have that done as this would be conclusive?



PP

From my research on official ME/CFS UK websites there is no conclusive proof in a certain test to diagnose, my worst pain is my spine - I got that confirmed abroad where NHS refused to even do any xrays, mri, cats on my back as they were blaming it on nerve damage in my leg - that was their diagnoses from verbal communication from myself,they point blank refused to investigate via scans...this is a NHS trust/hospital that changed a complaint I addressed to them over another dept, they denied to the ombudsman they did but I copied a copy of the original complaint to my GP when I made it...my doctor/GP is aware of such & my lawyer has a Data Protection subject access going in for copies of the files on that complaint and will write to my doctor confirming such, my GP is wonderful its the rest of my NHS trust thats an abomination.

bambammy

Could you tell me how you know they can diagnose ME via a brain scan ? Can't find anything on the NHS website.

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

Diagnosing ME can be usually done via a brain scan and with the right medication and resting periods as guided through your consultant, most people can live a fairly normal life. I know a lot of people with ME at varying stages, so I understand about this illness.


PP

bambammy

I'm understanding your brain fog, and I to, have it at the moment. So I've only skim read the posts.

I know it's hard, but, if what happened to you was so bad that they stopped you bleeding to death, you need to realise how lucky you are to be alive!!!

I had a severe head injury at 18months old. Over ten years ago, I had an operation on my nose to try and fix it some of the damage. My surgeon told me he'd been a surgeon for 25yrs, and I was the worst he's ever had to work on .............:eek:

For me, sometimes on my darkest days, anger/ fuelled energy, and i've cried many a day, wishing I could have normal functionality on something other than anger and adrenaline. It took me a long time to realise it, but I soon noticed the pattern. I had some energy and functionality when I was angry at the world.

Get angry, yes!, get annoyed, but don't keep it focused on the past. If you're fired up, recognise it, and use the energy elsewhere. Get your ' to do list ' done.

Set up an online account to do grocery shopping online, instead of paying for taxi's!, or find someone who wants to share taxi's and shopping. When theres two for one offers on, yous go halfs on the fruit/veg.

Your food shopping, can be reduced to £40-£60 with clever shopping. Eat little and often. Organic, or Marks and Spencer. M+S, fruit and veg lasts way longer than the other big stores. Got at yellow ticket time, and stock your freezer up.

Like you, I can only eat certain foods or I suffer. For instance, I took a few chips from my husbands plate the other evening, and IBS symptoms makes suffering worse.

I follow the stone age diet recommended by Sarah Myhill.
http://www.supportdrmyhill.co.uk/invest_in_me.html

diamonds wrote: »

Now im told I have had ME/CFS since then, they may have stopped me bleeding to death, but unprofessional standards could have made sure I was not unemployable for the rest of my life from the spinal damage.

I was completely naked in the city losing massive amounts of blood after paramedics done their job properly and cut ALL my clothes off before even moving me anywhere from where I was lying, making me stable, and first off I was screaming at top of my lungs & howling crying in pain in A&E when they were sewing my face up and had to do it three times while being held down from 4 or 5 staff and the worst of my injury was my leg not my face.
QUOTE]

bambammy

Half an hour :eek:.....my teenager walked in the door home from school when I started my two replies.

I've got my churchill head on and feel like there's a big pot of treacle fixed firmly stuck to my feet.

Have you read the consumer forums in regards to suing the NHS?, you will find it difficult. I considered it years ago, and decided I really couldn't waste precious years of my life chasing a
' Maybe '.

diamonds wrote: »

Ok I managed to write a fair bit in just over an hour, maybe this will be a "better" day

welshmoneylover

diamonds wrote: »

Hi everyone,

This is a quick reply as just awake from a bad nights rest and not good, sore & hands shaking so i'll try fully later today as after 2 doses of medication in evening the hand/wrist pain to type 50% of the month subsides to bearable.

As for suing the NHS well yes its hard to prove in many sense, but I can have 100 statements from people I know explaining I my lifestyle of never at home unless in bed to always at home from that date, I have a witness a of the hospital that night & they will give a statement of what they saw me experience as of the two of us they were the one fully aware as from paramedics till I got to a ward they saw me continually passing out. Losing my car as the cost of such in 2003 on benefits robbed me of the little mobility I had outdoors. Dealing with ME/CFS is enough - degenerative spinal change ontop, well its a joke.

It is interesting the discussion on DWP/ATOS.

I thought it odd the Dr/GP told me his medical diagnoses and opinion as I asked (thinking it was all arthritic) what are the drugs like for Arthritis in the joints for someone of my age, is there a good success rate of improvement and he replied what I have mentioned in previous posts.

Perhaps he from our two hour conversation could see I was over 9 years not a benefit cheat, I told him of the financial dependency, my wish to work 16 hours with support from DWP for mobility and homehelp via local council & get a job to have some normality and interaction with people as I may have late 2005 got out of depression but I still fought it and the lows (he commented later how for most that mental side was the hardest and I had echieved that) - I was in tears several times over the appointment talking of how I have been left to rot by NHS, DWP, local council, he only had to look around my flat & he did, (I volunteered rest rooms & he took me up on it) it is up several flights of stairs to my flat to see I could not manage household chores due to my physical limitations, because I could not get medical evidence I was suitably housed and stuck up the top of the block, housebound with major mobility and personal issues, constant debilitating pain of some kind on or off my feet.

This Dr knew ME/CFS, he had experience of such & saw all the signs I was telling him I had told many doctors before.

He even said although nerve damage affected my left hand I was right handed so would I be ok when I could (10-15 days of the month both hands are hopeless and cramped up he already knew that from earlier convo ) I told him the truth in a statement by implying many things need both hands and said you need both hands to open a bottle.

It is ironic I was dreading this ATOS assessment from previous experiences, but instead 9 yrs later this ATOS Dr listened to my symptoms, went against the poss the hands, wrists, knees, ankle & feet pain were arthritic or nerve damage to my leg/siatic nerve.

I have researched yesterday ME/CFS and I knowing my body agree with his medical opinion/diagnoses it is ME/CFS and that also has brought on a whole host of auto immune problems since 2001 - This was explained to me from Dr that the physical & mental trauma in 2001 points to it all.

Ok I managed to write a fair bit in just over an hour, maybe this will be a "better" day

Do you have any family living close by who can help you out with household chores or preparing a meal?

diamonds

bambammy wrote: »

I'm understanding your brain fog, and I to, have it at the moment. So I've only skim read the posts.

I know it's hard, but, if what happened to you was so bad that they stopped you bleeding to death, you need to realise how lucky you are to be alive!!!

I had a severe head injury at 18months old. Over ten years ago, I had an operation on my nose to try and fix it some of the damage. My surgeon told me he'd been a surgeon for 25yrs, and I was the worst he's ever had to work on .............:eek:

For me, sometimes on my darkest days, anger/ fuelled energy, and i've cried many a day, wishing I could have normal functionality on something other than anger and adrenaline. It took me a long time to realise it, but I soon noticed the pattern. I had some energy and functionality when I was angry at the world.

Get angry, yes!, get annoyed, but don't keep it focused on the past. If you're fired up, recognise it, and use the energy elsewhere. Get your ' to do list ' done.

Set up an online account to do grocery shopping online, instead of paying for taxi's!, or find someone who wants to share taxi's and shopping. When theres two for one offers on, yous go halfs on the fruit/veg.

Your food shopping, can be reduced to £40-£60 with clever shopping. Eat little and often. Organic, or Marks and Spencer. M+S, fruit and veg lasts way longer than the other big stores. Got at yellow ticket time, and stock your freezer up.

Like you, I can only eat certain foods or I suffer. For instance, I took a few chips from my husbands plate the other evening, and IBS symptoms makes suffering worse.

I follow the stone age diet recommended by Sarah Myhill.
http://www.supportdrmyhill.co.uk/invest_in_me.html

diamonds wrote: »

Now im told I have had ME/CFS since then, they may have stopped me bleeding to death, but unprofessional standards could have made sure I was not unemployable for the rest of my life from the spinal damage.

I was completely naked in the city losing massive amounts of blood after paramedics done their job properly and cut ALL my clothes off before even moving me anywhere from where I was lying, making me stable, and first off I was screaming at top of my lungs & howling crying in pain in A&E when they were sewing my face up and had to do it three times while being held down from 4 or 5 staff and the worst of my injury was my leg not my face.
QUOTE]

I KNOW how lucky I am !! in fairness it was paramedics (brain fog!) that stopped the bleeding on site & got me stable, so full credit to them, A&E only sewed my face and xrayed...and not the most important parts just to see if I had anything in my leg which I did. My witness at hospital was the witness on scene and thought they would do xrays of my back and head after they told medical staff at A&E the events, they were in shock to find out 8 years later NO xrays of such were done given what medical staff were told by them.

Thanks for the link, check proper tommorrow