The Diary Of Onebrokelady Aged 60 And A Half

Sun_Addict

So sorry you’ve had to rehome Babs ☹️ I’m pleased she’s going to a good home and will have some mates though. I’ve heard of people getting lung problems from keeping pigeons so wonder if it’s a similar thing. 

I hope after following the advice you start to see some signs of improvement 🤞

Onebrokelady

milann said:

What an appointment that was for you. I’m not surprised you couldn’t take it all in. What a shame Babs has to go…..I’m sure her new owner will love her as you do. Well done on your Dd for doing the deep clean for you 👏👏👏 Hopefully you’ll feel much better afterwards 🤞
I was in the support group for the ESA and didnt get the fuel allowance. I did get a letter saying I would then another saying I wouldn’t 🤷🏻‍♀️and i didn’t. How long until your state pension kicks in ?

It was a lot to take in on the day. Poor DD is going to be worn out, it’s literally just damp dusting everything with soapy water but as Baldrick would say I’ve got a cunning plan 😀
I’ve found out now I’m not in the support group for ESA im in the other group 

Onebrokelady

Latest update 
I’m not in the support group for ESA, I’m  in the income related group which means I still have to provide sick notes and be prepared to look for work. I might have to do a work capability assessment despite the fact I’ve done one for Universal Credit 🙄 they also take away some of my ESA because of my pension so I’m getting £56 a week instead of £92, if I was in the support group I would be getting £105 a week instead, apparently being diagnosed with a terminal illness isn’t enough to get you help 😡 and people think I would get PIP 😀😀😀😀 this will give me a monthly income of £897 which isn’t enough so I will be using £100 a month from whats left of my lump sum of £8000 to top my income up.

Occy health called on Wednesday and he again asked me about redeployment 😡which I politely said no to. I don’t know what I have to say to this man to get him to understand I can’t now work. He’s a doctor he a must know how serious an interstitial lung disease is. I’m in danger of losing my temper with him. I’ve worked for 33 years and 25 of those years I’ve been in pain nearly everyday but I’ve carried on and supported myself now I have an illness that is going to kill me at some point and I’ve still got to fight for everything,its doing my head in 😡 I got his report today and he has stated in it that I would like to retire early but that he doesn’t think I’ll be offered tier 2 only tier 1 ( tier 2 is an enhanced payment for if you can’t work in any job at all) tier 1 is if you might at some point be able to work in another job. He’s now contacting my consultant for a medical report so I’ve got to wait for that now.

Sun_Addict

Sorry to hear they don’t accept you won’t be able to work despite it being very obvious you won’t be 😞 Keeping my fingers crossed for a positive outcome in the end. 

badmemory

Are you sure he is a doctor of medicine?  Not a PhD of something else - maybe pratology.

Onebrokelady

Oops pressed the post button too soon
Update part 2 
I have a consent form I’ve had to fill out then scan and send back to them to get permission for him to request my medical info. I had to do that on my phone via email which for some one with no tech experience was a challenge but thanks to Google I managed to send it, I just hoping it was clear enough to be able to be used, if not I’ve got a printed copy I can send in the post.

Today I went for a pre assessment for the pulmonary rehab course and did my 6 minute walk test and my o2 levels were really good. I had to walk between two spots on the floor for six minutes at my normal walking pace which on the flat isn’t too bad. They said they think they will be able to push me in the rehab 😳 so hopefully I will recover some of my lung function before I see the consultant again. I’m not allowed to join the research project as I’m already on steroids so I won’t see her now for 6 months. I do have all the details of the team though if I need any help or advice in the mean time which is reassuring.

Babs is gong to live with DD2s colleague, I’ve just got to phone her to arrange for her to come and pick her up which I will do over the weekend.

I might have come up with a plan so I don’t have to get rid of my sofa. There is a shop in town that’s sells foam for furniture so I’m going to take one of the back cushion covers in there to see if they can fill it either with a piece of solid foam cut to shape or broken pieces. There is an inner cover which the feathers are in so that could be emptied out,washed, and refilled with broken foam or they could cut a single piece to size and shape to fit the cover, much cheaper than buying a new sofa. It might not be possible because of fire regs but I will see what they say. DD2 doesn’t want to do that because she was looking at getting a new sofa anyway so she is still going to replace hers. If I do have to get a new sofa I will probably get the one from Ikea that matches my armchair ( Ectorpe )  I like this one as its not expensive and you can chuck the covers in the washing machine, I have the chair and it’s really nice so I know it would be ok. It’s not as squishy as my current sofa but that’s because that one is filled with feathers 😀

House cleaning wise I have bought a steam cleaner with lots of different attachments so DD2 will be able to just run that over the walls and surfaces to basically sterilise them and it works on the carpets as well as windows, blinds and furniture. I cleaned my kitchen window and patio door with it yesterday and it’s left them amazingly clean with no streaks. I also cleaned the kitchen floor and it was amazingly easy, I get really out of breath moping the floor and I did it in minutes, the only downside is I can’t use it on the laminate ☹️ but I can use it on everything else which will make life a lot easier. The poles are long enough to reach the tops of my walls so it can be used for that too. 

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

Apologies if I have missed this, but with your current reduced income and everything else going on is debt repayment on hold? Are you on a DMP? Relatively new to thread so may have incomplete view. 

Willowtree222

What a palaver OBL. So sorry they aren't making this as easy as it really needs to be. 

Good that you might have a solution for the sofa, hopefully that will be feasible. 

Onebrokelady

Ordinary_Yet_Unique said:

Apologies if I have missed this, but with your current reduced income and everything else going on is debt repayment on hold? Are you on a DMP? Relatively new to thread so may have incomplete view. 

Hi I’m self managing my DMP now after being with Stepchange for nearly 6 years. I’ve now reduced my payments to £1 a month for each of my debts. I am going to contact the company again one I have the letter from my consultant to say with a diagnosis to ask if they will write my debt off but it’s PRA  and I don’t think they will as they are suppose to be difficult to deal with. I have to say though they have been really good with me so far 

Onebrokelady

Willowtree222 said:

What a palaver OBL. So sorry they aren't making this as easy as it really needs to be. 

Good that you might have a solution for the sofa, hopefully that will be feasible. 

Everything I do is a palaver nowdays 😀 I’m getting used to it now. I’m hoping my solution for the sofa will work, it’s just the fire regs that might scupper the idea, although people re upholster things all the time so it must be possible