More than just a bag lady

So today I went for my first influximab infusion as an out patient at the day case unit at The Treatment Centre. They needed to cannulate me as it’s given in a drip and didn’t believe me at first when I told them my veins were bad. After 3 nurses spent an hour having 3 attempts each in various places in my hands, arms and feet they then got the doctor.  Even using a paediatric cannula he couldn’t get one in so they called my gastro consultant to ask if they could use my Hickman Line to which the answer was a resounding ’NO’ as it’s too precious. If they didn’t follow the correct sterile procedures I could end up with a line infection and sepsis and back in the hospital and to be honest I would rather them jab me a million times than get sepsis.  So they had to call the anaesthetist to ask him to cannulate me. I had to go to the short stay ward  to see him and it took 2 of them half an hour to get one in. In my wrist! And yes, it hurt. A lot.  Back on the day case uni...

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...

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...