Dusty's Frugal Fortnights Return!

beanielou

Thanks polly. Xx

dustydigger

@pollyanna_26

I dont have a phone app. I have a very old Northern Rock account which transferred when NR  was taken over,and my account number is only 7 digits long,the present banks phone app asks for a 11 figure,so I cant get in. I use my laptop to get in,but its a pain in the neck now. They started a double level of security,as they call it,I have put in all my details,and then am given a code to tap in - before I can even just look at my balance!  It annoys me no end.Its fiddly and time wasting.I never use the phone to  get in touch there's such a rigmarole and you can be on 15 mins.

+I got a giro from my council 2 months ago,a nice little £75 COL gift. I still havent got to a post office to collect it,and since I dont drive,I will have to take a passport less than 4 weeks left. I just dont want to go on buses,especially now when covid is on the rise again. Its at least a 10 min walk away and even going to our corner shop,2 minutes away I am very wobbly. The other day I needed a birthday card and staggered up there like a drunk. My wonky eyes made all the ground sparkle for some reason,and I was glad to get back home.Now that the weather is chilly and wet I might manage it,between showers. Oh joy..........

+ sad to say,Mr D once saw a programme where thieves put a hidden camera over the keyboard of a ATM and got people's details and robbed them.He refuses to use any local ATM ,he will only use the ATM inside his bank premises. Thats why once a fortnight he makes the 20 min bus ride then 10 min walk to visit his bank,and get the whole lot out.and puts my share in my bank just a few yards away,and brings me 2 weeks cash. I pay every single bill,and any cash needs out of my part,so there are normally no worries,I have everything set up while he has nominal control.collecting and distributing the ''pay'' as he likes to term it. I know eventually  we will need a joint account at the least,but for now we must just plod on in the old routine which has been working well for many many years.

+ I have a favourite old coat that I drag out every winter I have had it about 12 years,and it keeps me toasty warm - on the few occasions I still go out these days. The family wail at me,but I am stubborn. Its warm,its still in good shape so to pot with them. I have another coat for spring/autumn which I got in 2009. Just a simple hooded jacket with a zip,which hardly ever goes out of style. Mr D REALLY hates that one,but for most of the year that is what I wear for going to the shopsetc. I have another I wear to go to docs or whatever,its 3 yrs old,but I never feel as comfortable in it as in my old favourite. Equivalent to a comfort read book,I suppose

+ CO-CODOMOL!!  I was given boxes of them after my knee ops and hysterectomy,and I just cant take them. Like Tramadol,they just mess with my head. I can hallucinate,or get brain fog,in addition to all sorts of miserable physical side effects. Hey I have enough miserable side effects to cope with from the diabetes,anaemia and thyroid. I would rather put up with the pain that suffer from them.And back then in 2014 the doc was giving me a 3 month supply!  I hope you can cope well with the co-codomol well,but it can be addictive. In America many millions of people are in opiod dependancy,its a major health problem..

Well,must end here. It has taken almost 2 hours to complete this. Mr Dusty is doing his football. He gets confused about looking at coupons on line,and then looking for tables to check their form. He is hopeless,has me checking for things,or explaining for the 10th time that since the coupons and bet slips and tables are on different places,he could swipe up on his phone and change website without erasing his present place,but I cant make him understand that at all,he is bewildered by that process.

Oh oh,yet again he is wanting my help,then I will need to put the roasties in.Only making veg today,he has had too much pastry lately,we need greens!"

tooldle

Can you pay the Council cq into your bank electronically? Cuts out the need to go out. 

Have you a Coop nearby? Asking as ours have cash points inside, next to the tills. I use these in preference to any outside cash machine. Far harder to tamper with under the eye of the shop staff. I also make a point of running my finger nail around the rim of the card slot to be certain there are no additional devices.

You do seem to be struggling a lot Dusty. Is it worth mentioning to the practice nurse when you go in for the B12 shot? Might a needs assessment be a good idea, for you and for Mr Dusty?

dustydigger

tooldle said:

Can you pay the Council cq into your bank electronically? Cuts out the need to go out. 

Have you a Coop nearby? Asking as ours have cash points inside, next to the tills. I use these in preference to any outside cash machine. Far harder to tamper with under the eye of the shop staff. I also make a point of running my finger nail around the rim of the card slot to be certain there are no additional devices.

You do seem to be struggling a lot Dusty. Is it worth mentioning to the practice nurse when you go in for the B12 shot? Might a needs assessment be a good idea, for you and for Mr Dusty?

My letter definitely says I must go to a post office,with uitable proof.

No Co-op here,they closed down abour 6 years ago They had a post office within the shop,very useful,and also a small co-op bank on the premises too. So it was quite a loss when they shut up shop. Good to see you are alert to fraud details too,you would get on well with Mr Dusty.

As for needs assessment,you can barely get to see a doctor in general. I am a bit pessimistic about any benefits to tell the truth. Lets get through this trying financial stressful stage,and we'll see what the situation is next year,especially with Mr Dusty. I am keeping notes on his condition,at the moment its not bad,and could just be general aging,he is in his 80s. I am monitoring things. For myself,I have little hope of much improvement of my health in general,nothing to be done with the arthritis. I may ask for a reassessment of the thyroid business. It seems a bit weird to me that I have so many underactive thyroid  symptoms,but because they assess treatment based on really just one test,if that seems to come up as within normal range,you are classed as healthy. Yet I suffer from all these symptoms of hypothyroidism -

• fatigue and tiredness
• increased awareness of the cold
• dry and coarse skin
• dry and thinning hair
• constipation
• muscle weakness, cramps and aches
• pins and needles in the fingers and hands (carpal tunnel syndrome
• weight gain
• puffy face and bags under the eyes
• slow speech, movements and thoughts
• low mood or depression
• memory problems
• difficulty in concentration
• raised blood pressure
• raised cholesterol

Of course,I do how a totally useless immune system in general,and complicated by anaemia and diabetes,but the hair and skin drying and loss,carpel tunnel syndrome,depression and lack of focus and brain fog have only come on the last few of years.Maybe just  pernicious anaemia involved in the mental issues,but the hair loss and skin stuff are classic thyroid symptoms. I always feel our surgery just goes through the motions,and has a one size fits all attitude

True,they are going to send me to a consultant about the back issues,vertibral facet joint problems caused by the arthritis. But who knows when that will happen? I've already been waiting for a consult with an eye specialst - not an op,just to meet the specialist! 4 or 5 months waiting already - so who knows about the back.And this wonderful new govt having wasted many billions has no other plan than cutting public services. Doesnt bode well for the health service.......

In the main ,apart from the flare ups,I plod along OK. My symptoms seem to take turns,thank goodness(though not at all happy with the continual hair loss)

i'm sure I can do better. back in 2017 I made a massive effort,lost some weight,improved my glucose level,and felt great. The covid business put a damper on things,and these various symptoms came on or increased,especially the mental strains,and I gave up for quite a while. I then rallied myself a bit,and did slowly lose a bit weight,about one and a half stone at a steady pound a month. Then I started on the metformin,and have put on 4 pounds in 6 weeks. So discouraging.

Oh dear,this has been a long selfpitying rant hasnt it? I'm off to bed.
As Scarlett O'Hara says,''Tomorrow is a new day.''

night night people!

 

dustydigger

Forgot one symptom. Body hair loss! I have no hair left under my arms,none at all on my legs! And half my eyebrows are thinned out. But apparently I have a very healthy thyroid.........  go figure.........

beanielou

Keep plodding  xx

annieb64

I once found something on the Internet that listed 300 symptoms of an underactive thyroid.

My symptoms are similar to yours and I think they are the most common ones. My GP has just increased my levothyroxine and I have to go back for another blood test in December. 

dustydigger

annieb64 said:

I once found something on the Internet that listed 300 symptoms of an underactive thyroid.

My symptoms are similar to yours and I think they are the most common ones. My GP has just increased my levothyroxine and I have to go back for another blood test in December. 

Its amazing just how important the thyroid is. Its master of our whole metabolism,and a major immune system factor.At least your docs are treating you!

dreaming

I have been on thyroxin for years now but spent about 3 years being told I was "borderline" and they would not treat me at that level. Eventually they did put me on thyroxin and apart from a few times when I have had to increase/decrease dosage I have been pretty stable. However this year I was diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, which is an auto-immune disease and often associated with underactive thyroid. I possibly have had it for some time but just put a lot of symptoms (fatigue, aches and pains etc.) down to age and stress as my son died last year at the age of 41. The various tests/scans I have had to confirm the myasthenia have also thrown up other problems which may or may not be more serious -(I had another CT scan yesterday so waiting for those results. Then today I have received a letter for my eye operation (not related to any other condition) for November - the pre-op appointment is next week - and although I feel a bit sick about having it (I obviously won't be able close my eyes! ) it is the logistics of getting there and back. The op. is in Oxford and I am in Northampton, which isn't far away but there is no direct public transport from here to there. My daughter has been an absolute trouper but she lives about 40 minutes away and it requires her to book time off work. She is also due to be starting a new job in the next few weeks and I really want her to focus on that as she has been through so much - losing her brother, then supporting her dad who broke his ankle last year, and then all the malarkey with my ongoing illnesses. On the other hand, I have to say that I am impressed with the speed at which I have been seen for everything within the NHS in this area. I wish it was the same for everyone, everywhere. I always say that health, education, and social service provision should not be subject to "postcode lottery" but standardised through the country. I hope you get some resolution soon. All the best.

pollyanna_26

Dusty Co-codamol only entered my life when  i had two rotator cuff tears a few years ago which happen from time to time again. I was a real meds refuser asI needed ro be fully alert for youngest.,

 ii refused the very strong meds she;s been on for years 19 on repeat with addins as and when needed. We share the same three physical health conditions but I also have sciatica,

When youngest was 13 I had to remove  her from formal education for home schooling as she was being badly bulliied in high school and it was afefcting her mental health which was going downhill  rapidly

I wasa teacher myself and the head of home eds husband an EU funded home tutor. Things began to improve suntil a very inept  child psychiatrist at CAMHS  decided to poke his nose in ,he was well known to all involved in education as somone who did more harm than good. Loved big meetings where he would be the centre of attention. The first one was ridiculous  a big ring of chais  he wandering around the inner circle mumbling things from the book no one was listening to his mumbling our GP at the time who did the ante natal care when I was expecting my two youngesr dds was giggling behing her hanky while pretending to cough  , head of home ed who;d pbwiously who'd obviously witnessed this set up before was rolling her eyes and a woman from social services kept looking at her watch.

I was trying to see the title of the book but was too far away.

After a number of these meetings we were getting nowhere. I was literally having to drag dd out of bed and practically throw her in the car to go there.

I felt sorry for all those busy people who probably had heavy workloads but instead were having to sit listening to his mumblings.

Finally one day he started firing questions at dd. What were her interests, hobbies etc.

She whispered reading. the planets and she loved looking at the stars. she watched all the David Attenborough series online over and over again and was interested in Dinasours and how life had evolved.

Pretty decent interests in my opinion. her classmates spent their days physically or mentally bullying those who didn't join in with their ways. her home ed lady, tutor and Dr were smiling at her knowing she was quiet and shy.The mention of dinosaurs brought a loud aha from the Psych and we found out what the book was about. Tony Attwood who I'd never heard of had just written his first book about Aspergers something I'd never heard of. Youngest was in the Psychs opinion on the autistic spectrum based solely on what he termed her odd interests. He focused on dinasaurs to make that dinosours.

I said almost every child in the primary school I taught in had a dinosour lunchbox. pencils or backpack. Dinosaurs were a trend at the time even Birdseye were selling frozen turkey dinosaurs. I was waved aside as were others in the room.

Tony Attwood was the psychs guru and he was intent on finding his first patient and began making plans which were to result in 20 years of sheer hell and a battle to have that diagnosis challenged and dd still in the world.

I went to Waterstones and ordered what became known as THE DAMN BOOK.

Home ED and her tutor and GP were furious and disagreed with his diagnosis. I read the book and could see some reasons he'd based the diagnosis on . He'd asked about friends she'd had plenty in Primary school . She didn't join the bullies in secondary school so was bullied and solitary which was why she was being home educated.

We had just two more big meetings with him where he set out his plan. She was to attend the college for Autism in our town for at least 3 years. Everyone objected to that but that didn't stop him.

I never forgave my youngest sister who unknown to me forced her in to agreeing to attend a year at the college or the worry over her would kill me and it would be herfault. My first husband had died young and the 2nd her and dd2s father was a violent alcoholic. Thankfully the law got rid of him but according to my sister  if she didn't try a year she would lose her mother.

We had one last meeting he was sitting in a chair droning on it was a hot day and the room was stuffy I could feel dd shaking beside me and she suddenly stood up picked up her chair and threw it at him not good but it missed him while all were trying not to laugh.

We all staggered out into the sunshine and agreed the man was an idiot. We went to view the college which seemed ok. She spent her year as an unpaid member of staff teaching some pupils to read, breaking up fights, fixing the staffs computors and many other things. Teachers and other staff used to say she should never have been sent there.

We tried a social group for those with Autistic disorders but it had one young man who years later was to track her down and abuse her.

The parents of a nice lad phoned me out of the blue one day to ask if I'd allow her to spend a weekend with them they lived in Leicestershire a very long way away so would collect her and bringher back though they needed the petrol money.

She was keen to go so they collected her seemed decant people and said they'd bring her home on the Sunday, She pgoned me a couple of times to say she was getting out and about and having a lovely time.

Sunday came and no contact so I phoned the parents. Some problem with the car. I said I'd drive there and pick up but they assurred me it was ok she'd be home on Monday. Monday came and aquick call from dd mum I've hardly any credit on my phone they wont let me go home, we're in the loft and his mum and dad are drinking and taking drugs please come and get me.

I phoned out local police station for advice and they put me through to the police in Leicestershire who told me they'd see she got home that day.

They phoned me back they couldn't get access so had to force entry . The parents were in custody and son with social services. They would keep in  touch as she was passed from each police force until out local poice delivered her home and she would be in her own bed that night.

They and all the areas involved were wonderful keeping in touch as she was passed from car to car  Our local police finally picked her up from the prevoius one and she was home.

She was traumatised andso began eating disorders with 2 lengthy stays in clinics far from home,                     self harm. Overdoses and being preyed on by perverts. She never spoke of what happened in that house but the police let me know the parents were in prison and the son in care.

Our GP confided one day she was going to retire soon which was confidential. Sge told dd not to worry she was leaving her in safe hands a young newly quaiified GP who would look after her. He became our Superdoc and still is. he fought alongside us for 20 years to have the diagnosis reviewed dd was still self harming etc. but the chief psych here would say still Aspergers at each appt.

One day in the surgery Supercoc said right I'm going to request all your  NHS notes  every one. He gave us a copy of all those notes and there was one little sentence in among her notes from the eating disorders unit from a very young dr we already knew as she'd become a pain counsellor at our local hospital and dd had regular appts with her to help manage the physical and mental effects of pain, she'd written three very important words many years earlier Query Personality Disorder.

DD had put her problems in a search years earlier and printed it off for me to read and one copy for superdoc and that was the diagnosis we were chasing.

He wrote to the chief psych and we were sent an appt he came out of his room to meet us with a smile on his face very odd. Took us into his room smiled and said Borderline Personality Disorder we can do something about this. The right meds and a young counsellor Superdoc brought in to the practice changed dds life and i had my daughter back. Instead of living up in her bedroom she started coming downstairs. i bought the whole boxset of the David Attenborough dvds and for the first time ever we watched them all together.

That young Drs words and Superdoc brought her back in to the world.  The counsellor gently got her to unlock all the boxes in  her head she called the bad memories deal with each and move on.

pollyx.

ETA Tony Attwood  who wrote The Damn Book had a son who was correctly diagnosed with Aspergers in his mid thirties. The great guru had missed that as his son struggled with life.

A few years after we walked away from the idiot psych he was struck off the medical register and banned from practicing for life.

There had been an investigation in to a rise in suicide in youngsters in this area and young adults. Every single one had been given that diagnosis by him some and others survived but their lives were wrecked and a lot of families were having to live without a loved one or help them try to cope.

I'm a great believer in trust your instincts and vote with your feet.

I often tell Superdoc I wish he could be cloned so evveryone who needs one could have their own superdoc.

Youngest thinks the world of him and that kept her in the world in bad times during the long wait for the correct diagnosis she would never let him down.

She has always been his last patient on the same morning every other week, we get the medical stuff done then he takes his glasses off leans back in his swivel chair, I often tell lhim one day he'lll lean back too far and topple backwards,

We have a good chat about allsorts Sometimes we'll end up singing a favourite song. I'm sure the staff think the 3 of us are totally bonkers one favourite is born to run.

Life hasn't been the same since the pandemic he's a one man practice with a Locum and also on the Board at our local hospital but is always at the end of the phone or on the App.

30 years after arriving as a shy young newly qualified  Dr he is still changing lives and going the extra mile.