May You Live In Interesting Times …

cookieI always thought this was a Chinese blessing, not a curse.

I think we’re all living in, um, interesting times. From the global (will we be blown up tomorrow?) to the local (will my MS nurse understand my latest ramblings?).

I had an MS nurse-led appointment on the 3rd January and I told her everything. Which is quite unlike me; I’m usually, ‘yeah, I’m fine. Huh? MS? Oh, yeah, it’s all good.’

After the initial shock of diagnosis all those years ago, I’m savvy. Or perhaps not. I hold it all in. I consult my notebook, mention ‘significant symptoms’, ‘potential relapses’, etc and then say, ‘that was lovely, thank you very much’.

Not this time though, and I even came close to … tears. My lovely MS nurse said to me, ‘… it seems to me like this, the PIP forms, are the last straw of everything you’ve been through and all the fights you’ve had?’

Yes, yes and yes again.

Every single person, whether they are healthcare professionals or people with MS and/or other neurological disorders all say the same – if you strip someone back to what they cannot do, after years in which they have adapted and overcome obstacles, you are merely increasing the despair and anxiety of formerly positively active people.

So where does that leave me now?

In the wee small hours, I am absolutely petrified. Towards morning, I’m calmer. During the day, I laugh it off. Until it starts again. The ramifications of this single benefit, PIP, are huge.

I hate to bring politics into it, but when I’m only asking to continue working and staying on the poverty line, it would be churlish not to?

Theresa May’s ridiculous decision to call a snap-election was solved by spending over a billion on harnessing the DUP voting power.

A billion. Like *that*.

Oh, and we’re the scroungers Mrs May?

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4 thoughts on “May You Live In Interesting Times …

  1. spudnik says:

    It *is* shit, total and utter governance ordure. The PIP process is a trial by ordeal: if you survive it you are too well to qualify for anything, if you die you save the country the money you certainly didn’t deserve.
    I have just been sent a letter about being seen FTF as and when and where they feel like it. The stretching and shrinking of time is evil, we do everything ASAP, they do nothing for weeks at a time. The demands for exact information where the reality is so variable is impossible. Everything I used to be able to struggle through now has to be declared a failure. Everything chips away at any self regard I have left as I am forced to admit nothing works, and I can’t do the things I used to. It hasn’t helped that another major health problem has arisen. I fully expect that while I am under anaesthetic tomorrow another DWP letter will arrive demanding I attend an assessment in Liverpool, or Newcastle or Falmouth the next day. I cannot begin to express the angst it causes, or the screams and rages I have to stifle. We are so lucky to have such a government as this.

  2. I’m starting to get the willies as well about the whole PIP process. I do everything to lead as normal a life as possible but I am disabled. I’ve had Botox on my bladder, fantastic. Fampridine for my walking, it is now twice as fast and I can even walk round a supermarket holding onto a small trolley. I can now stand up to brush mt teeth and have a shave. Hopefully I will get old fashioned cladribine to slow down progress of advanced MS.

    Will I have to stop these things to ensure I get my state benefits cos no one will employ me because I am disabled.

    Yes I am a tad confused. Is the system is designed to reward those who do nothing except watch Pointless or lie through their back teeth?.

    BTW I don’t have any faith in Esther McVey

    • stumbling in flats says:

      I couldn’t believe it when I heard the news about Esther McVey. Absolutely appalling for all of us.
      I know exactly what you mean about the system – those of us who struggle on, keep working, keep engaged in society are hammered down at every turn. It’s getting beyond a joke now.
      X

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