Sunday 28 July 2013

#5 Weekend Cute, Humour & Awesome.

To this guy that can take something embarrassing & turn it into something Hilarious! Kudo’s

(I do not own the images but respect the awesome)

Sunday 21 July 2013

Friday 19 July 2013

Its all about perspective.



(Here is a picture of my beautiful long furred baby Syrian tucking into some cucumber to cool down)

It has been hot this week & today is no exception & it is indicative of us brits to whine when its hot & to whine when its cold.

But lets take some perspective here, I’m really hot & I could wine but it wont make me any cooler & I have two beautiful long furred Syrians & the baby of the two’s fur is like silk & wool. Now we have been keeping them both cool but especially today the baby has had his moments when I’ve found him either lying ‘splat’ on his front or on his back with all his feet in the air. I would be lying if i said he hasn’t whined (he really can for a hamster) but I cool him down again & he gets on with it & snuggles down to fall asleep.

Now the difference is I could think of only of me & whine about how hot it is but I have the ability to strip off to my birthday suit if I so wished (with the blinds down not to scare the neighbours of course lol) whereas my beautiful little hamster doesn’t have such an option.

This is my point. Its ok to whine as long as afterwards we put it into perspective & carry on with what we are dealt because any whining is only going to increase our own suffering. I understand that this is not always possible & especially for people with disabilities because the light at the end of the tunnel may seem so dim & we all have times like this. But for all the benefit bashers out there I can not understand for one minute why you can not be grateful for your lot? why people make stupid suggestions like people should only have food stamps & such? Why can’t you be grateful for your health & what ever you do have because putting other people down wont make you a ‘cooler hamster’

And

To you all " Just keep swimming"

I dedicate this post to a beautiful soul who after battling with cancer earned her wings, Talia Castellano.

Sunday 14 July 2013

Tuesday 9 July 2013

"So whats a cumulative impact assessment"

So today has been one of those interesting days & I wasn’t going to do another post but found myself compelled to.

So i’m doing this post at the moment with two of my fingers strapped up because my hand decided it reaaaallllyyy wanted to know what a dislocated finger felt like so my finger happily obliged >.<

Ah hypermobility!

But the thing is I can only do the things I do because of a lot of physical help, adaptions & aids etc & there is always a physical “price" for everything I do. Disability is a major barrier.

The government have pushed through a vast array of cuts in the light of austerity but to begin with they insisted that the most vulnerable would be protected.

If we fast forward to today there are no promises of protection because they know that it is not being given & with each cut it slices into the safety net making the holes bigger, meaning more & more of the most vulnerable falling through the net. You only need look at the news, to see countless examples of people that were let down & for every one story covered there are many more in the wings.

So tomorrow there is a debate in the house of commons calling for a ‘cumulative impact assessment’ with the aim to try and assess the overall impact of the cuts. Because many people are experiencing several cuts to services all at once instead of just one or two which people could try & adapt to & this is leading people into significant difficulty & hardship.

Many people, news outlets & charities are now seeing the scope of these cuts & how multiple cuts are causing significant problems to vulnerable people & now they want to get the government to see the reality.

Below is a link to a awesome blog that goes into much more detail than I can atm with my wonky finger

Diary of a Benefit Scrounger

Whats in the brown envelope?

So what’s the significance of a little brown envelope ?

Not much really, it more concerns the contents within it. This little brown envelope can bring either security or throw you down into the depths of uncertainty & fear.

Also talking to others, they have experienced the same feeling & some were left feeling petrified of the day that this little brown envelope will land on the mat & what news it might bring.

Of course I am talking about benefits & the question that many a spoonie ask “have they assessed me fairly & correctly this time".

You see I had a reassessment.

So they sent me a dissertation of a form to fill out, which with a lot of time, effort & support took me over two months to complete. There are countless questions to answer on these types of forms & I even had to use separate sheets of paper to answer some of them.

So I sent it off & waited for the enviable, that I would have to battle this, that this would just mean even more form filling & such, which just thinking about makes me feel tired & sore.

But the envelope landed on the mat & I was awarded (makes it sound like I won Wimbledon, whoop! whoop!) my benefit. Well, they do send out certificates (for a free tax disc :P) which I find very odd.

It did come as a shock that they got it right, because every single time with this benefit they have refused me first time around. When I’ve challenged these refusals I have found out that they have used inaccurate or incorrect information & I have always been awarded on a reconsideration.

And I think that’s it.

Disabled people understand the need for checks to make sure that the people are getting this support are entitled even with the fraud rate being so low.

But the thing I think makes it hard is that the amount of people that get awarded on a reconsideration or appeal. This shows that there are significant errors & this means that people that often have a great deal on their plate (hence applying) having to fight for their entitlement. This can cause a great deal of fear & uncertainty especially to those struggling with mental illness & I think that this is a big problem. I have read my own refusal letters & the accompanying information & the letter read like its someone else they’re talking about & the information is either incomplete or out of date.

And I know I’m not alone in this & it shouldn’t be down to luck, are you going to have a decision maker that reads your form properly or skip over it? Because if you have two people with nearly identical conditions, one can be refused and the other one granted which makes it seem like a lottery.

I’m obviously glad that I had my benefit renewed without issue, with the way my health is I’m grateful not to have that added stress.

But how I wish these letters would change into my acceptance letter to Hogwarts because that would be AWESOME!

Sunday 7 July 2013

It's near Monday, Gwah!

I’m so mean reminding you but you know it is the enviable >.<

So the weather has been quiet hot here this weekend & among other things I have been trying to keep our two cute fluffy syrians as cool as possible, bless them.

This week, one of the hospital appointments I had was to see my physio who is super lovely but I think is really confused about what to do with me as I have random joint swelling that doesn’t seem to conform to any patten & the swelling usually gets exacerbated by normal physio ‘things’. I’m currently waiting for some final tests that may explain why this swelling seems to be random but for now she really seems to not know what to do with me.

I get the feeling that she really doesn’t think there is anything further she could do to help without aggravating things which almost always seems to happen when I try any physio related stuff but she seemed determined to try & seems like she doesn’t want to let me down which I appreciate.
So I’m going to be trying acupuncture again & I may be seeing a podiatrist to possibly get some insoles.

Also as people may know I started Questran for my Bile reflux & I hate it, it’s just been awful.
Ok yes the suspension is nasty to take but its not the worst but the thing that’s been quiet bad is that it has increased my nausea & the amount of bile coming up. But the worst thing is the bloating, OMG! I swear I feel like I have a beer belly & to be honest this is the one that is driving me crazy. The doctor wants me to ideally take four doses but i’m only managing two at best because of the bloating & such. I think this week i’m going to have to go back to the doctor to see what can be done.

In other news I had my benefit reviewed & it was renewed so there’s one less worry there.

And really that’s it for now, I would love to write more but writing as much as I did & re reading through it just showed the amount of Bol**cks I was writing due to the pain & how i’m feeling atm & no its not because IM CRAZY! >.< Ha Ha

Anyway new posts coming soon so stay tuned!

Saturday 6 July 2013

Something new!

So a quick post to let people know that there’s something new!

I use various things to help me complete my posts & they take time to complete due to my disability obviously but with the power of the interwebs & ifttt which is an awesome service it has allowed me to route my posts through to blogger automatically.

I know that people aren’t all on one service & this may allow people that might want to see this blog to do so on a service that they’re more familiar with.

I also have set up a Google+ but at the moment ifttt doesn’t support this so updates maybe a little sparse at the present time.

To readers on blogger, originally my blog was set up on tumblr & from the first post on blogger entitled ‘#2 Weekend cuteness’, anything I post on my tumblr will appear there too.

But if you do want to read any of my old posts there are 47 over on tumblr, these wont be moved over but any future post will.

I hope this helps people :)

Edit: Please excuse any teething problems :)