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Blue badge application - good days and bad days?

29 Posts

Hi everyone, I’ve tried googling this but it’s harder than I thought. My main condition is Fibromyalgia and I would say I’m relatively high functioning. However I get very bad days. I go from being able to walk between 1 and 3 miles depending on the day to not being able to make it around the house without 10/10 severe pain. I want to be honest on my blue badge application form and say this but it doesn’t seem set up for that? I’ve often heard that you should put it as your worst day. But we’re talking one or two incidents of 2 or 3 days per month here. It would feel fraudulent. I would rather be completely transparent and let them judge me exactly as I am. I would then use the badge for my bad days.
all I can think is to tick the boxes like it’s a bad day and then in the descriptive boxes state that I am filling out for my worst days and state how often they tend to occur. Would this be correct?
Thanks
all I can think is to tick the boxes like it’s a bad day and then in the descriptive boxes state that I am filling out for my worst days and state how often they tend to occur. Would this be correct?
Thanks

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My really worst days where i can barely walk (i cant walk far on my best days, certainly not a mile) i don't go out. if you have 2 or 3 days a month where you cant walk 3 miles i dont think you really need a blue badge. Fill the form on honestly about an average day (which sounds like no need) and see what they say.
Just from what you describe it doesn't sound like you stand too much chance but it still might be worth applying anyway - what have you got to lose? If you do go for it, I think ticking the boxes as your worst days and then making it VERY clear how often these worst days are is probably the way to go.
On the scale of worst days to 'can walk a mile' days, where do your average days tend to fall? And are your worst days perhaps happening because you're in a boom and bust cycle? If that were so, then walking further on your better days maybe isn't without repercussions - and if things are getting worse, maybe that's something to look at.
[I have ME/CFS which was initially diagnosed as fibro and with zero professional support, and the constant pushing myself was what made me so much worse. I pushed until I ended up extremely ill and my body forced me to stop before things began to stabilise, which is why what you say is ringing alarm bells for me. If you know you are not in a boom and bust cycle and it's just the natural fluctuation of the illness then my apologies.]
As for my secret? Not sure. I was only able to push past a mile about 2 years ago. So initially I was on crutches for the first two years and then for a long time, same as you, I couldn’t walk more than about 20 meters without a rest. I actually can’t stand still for any length of time without leaning on something and I can’t walk slowly (like round an art gallery or museum) but I think that’s more down to my hyper mobility than the fibro. I can only walk about 3 miles 2 days in a row, then nothing for a couple of days, then maybe 1 or two miles after that until I can do 3 again. It’s sort of in cycles. But when I get a bit stressed and anxious EVERYTHING hurts for at least 2 days. My skin burns, my brain doesn’t work, I feel like I’m walking through treacle and oh the headaches. They are not good.
I was super super fit before I had ‘the accident’, I was actually in RAF officer training when it happened. So I think that gave me an edge. I also push myself through a lot of pain; but I think most people with fibro do that. Those 3 miles are not a walk in the park, but pushing through them doesn’t feel like a mental struggle in the same way bad days do.
what I think really helped was a course of acupuncture I did once. My sleep got massively better after that. I still don’t really get the deep sleep, but I’m not as tired all the time. I’ve since come to the conclusion that the acupuncture didn’t really work for me but it was such a good placebo. Like I had the internal ability all along to sleep better but needed something to trigger it.
hope that all makes sense!
edit: oh and I completely forgot, I see a chiropractor every 3 weeks. That probably has a massive impact.