Meeting with my MP

On Friday I had a meeting my local MP. He’s a Tory, which meant that I had a dilemma. Did I go and ask him for help in chasing up my surgery date or did I ask him about ‘party gate’ and why he continues to support Boris? Part of me wanted to go in there and grill him on why he’s not written to the 1922 committee, why he always votes with the whip even when it means his constituents will suffer as a result and to make him understand that I’m angry. Every time I switch on the news there’s another scandal, another cost of living increase, another example of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer and I’m fed up of it all. Fed up and enraged.

But when I wrote this on my Facebook page last night…

…a friend wrote this comment which got me thinking… ‘Definitely ask for help for yourself. Having a go won’t achieve anything as they’re all deaf and will say exactly what you want to hear and then deliver nothing. They’re all the same just different coloured leaflets and ties!’

Going in there and ‘having a go’ might have made me feel good for all of 5 minutes but what would it have actually achieved? Nothing. I’m sure all he would have offered me would have been the party line and some platitudes. So I decided that I might as well see if he is able to do something that might end up making a huge difference to my life.

I’ve never met with an MP before but I have sent emails in the past when something has really pissed me off. Having now had my surgery postponed three times I figured I had nothing to lose by asking for his help. The MP’s surgery was in a local community centre and I wasn’t surprised to see a police car sat outside, especially after Sir David Amess was stabbed to death last year. He was running a bit late so I waited and then went in to see him. Obviously our politics are polar opposites but I have to say that he seemed a decent bloke. I’m not one of these people that thinks all MP’s are lying arseholes (just the prime minister!) and I think that in general they work incredibly hard.

He listened to what I had to say and I tried to explain my complex medical situation in the most basic of terms. He seemed genuinely concerned by the fact I had spent so much time in hospital and that I’ve been unable to get the surgery I desperately need due to the huge waiting lists within the NHS. I did touch on the fact I’m also waiting to have 3 teeth removed but he struggled to grasp why this was such a serious issue for me so I decided to focus on the need for surgery.

He explained that he couldn’t influence the hospital but he could write to them on my behalf and enquire where I am on the waiting list and when I might expect to get a surgery date. I stressed that I wasn’t looking to jump the queue and that I had no complaints with the treatment I had received within the hospital but that not knowing when I might have surgery has an impact on both my physical and mental health and that while I wait I will continue to yo-yo in and out of hospital.

Yesterday I received this email from him:

So fingers crossed he gets a response from the hospital trust soon and that this might get things moving 🤞🏻

New car smell

After everything that’s happened over the last 5 weeks not many days have been good days but today was. I will write a blog post about everything that happened but that’s for another day! Today I went to pick up my new motability car and got to breathe in that new car smell. I am now the proud lease holder of this lovely Volvo XC40. To be honest, part of me wasn’t sure whether to write a blog post about getting the new car with everything that’s been going on with the disability benefit reforms. There’s been so much written about motability cars on social media but a lot of it is misinformation and hate and that made me nervous to write this post. But I figured that most people reading it are friends and family and understand my need for the car. But for those that don’t let me explain a bit about how the motability scheme works. I am lucky enough (or unlucky enough depending on how you look at it) to claim PIP- personal independence payment. This benefit is designed t...

The germs have got me 🦠

Being on azathioprine, influximab and prednisone is helping to control this recent Crohns flare up. But unfortunately they work by wiping out my immune system making me more susceptible to all the bugs doing the rounds. I refuse to stay at home and be held hostage by these meds though- for me they are there to give me my life back, not to make me a prisoner in my own house, so the inevitable has happened and I’ve got a cold. ‘It’s only a cold’ you might think, but with no immune system to fight it off this cold has made me pretty poorly. Yesterday I couldn’t get out of bed and felt so, so ill. I was coughing and struggling to breathe so I’m pretty sure I’ve got a chest infection too. But I can’t confirm that because apparently even being immunocompromised with a suspected chest infection is not enough to see a GP these days! I spoke to the receptionist at the GP surgery this morning who told me that all the urgent appointments for today were gone (and this was at 8.25am, aft...

Disability benefits cuts

So in Rachel Reeves spring statement earlier this week it was confirmed that there will be massive changes to the benefits system including the way that PIP is assessed and changes to the health element of Universal credit. As someone who is receipt of both PIP and ESA disability benefits I find this whole situation… 🔲 terrifying 🔲 baffling 🔲 rage inducing 🔲 disgusting 🔲 [all of the above] I honestly cannot believe that a LABOUR government is looking to balance the books of the country by taking money from some of the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. This is the sort of thing I would have expected the Tories to do but when I voted Labour I honestly thought that not only would they look after and protect the neediest but they would actually make things in our society better and fairer. How wrong I was. Looks like I’m going to have to get some ‘Fuck Labour’ merch to go along with my ‘Fuck the Tories’ stuff I already own! Now I do b...

More than just a bag lady

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