Yesterday I went to The Guild of Machine Knitters day held in town. I had a good time. I met 'net' people that I know, Jane, Alison and Ann. Seeing the garments people had made got my juices flowing so I have been thinking of things I might try on the machines.
I would have liked to have stayed and seen Bill King and his designs but I was having a bad day pain wise. Even though I was in Daniel, the pain was bad. I get this awful cramping down my legs when I sit for any length of time, when it's a bad day. I then have to get up for a bit until pain forces me to sit again. Days like this are up and down and up and down till I just go to bed and sleep. I left and came home where I promptly went to bed. I took more pills when I got up and a couple of hours later I was calling the out of hours doctor to ask if I could take the morphine on top of the Tramadol I had taken. The answer was no. The doctor was really very nice and explained that Tramadol and Morphine are both opiates. Anyway, she did say I could take more after 4 hours instead of my usual 6 hours.
I didn't knit because I was in too much pain. I did watch The Andromeda Strain which as a superior made for tv programme we watched on DVD.I enjoyed and managed to stay still and ignore my body enough to follow the film.
There is no rhyme nor reason to it. I did not do much Friday, certainly nothing like walking or lifting. I can't remember the last time the pain was that bad and the pills not knocking it on the head.
Today I have to fill out forms for the government regarding my disabilities and health. I hate doing this. This is the third time for me. Hopefully this time they will write me off for life instead of 3 years. My disease is progressive, I won't get better, so really it would save much time and effort on all our parts. Strangely, I am written off for life as regards illness. I will get the incapacity for life. This is something different, this is for Disability on top. This is the one I had to fight for, and won before. Now i have to do it all over again. Hopefully though I will not have to fight this time as the situation is the same and I am physically worse than I was when I first applied. All I needed was the Blue Badge (disabled river parking etc) and had no idea it would involve all this bureaucracy. And they treat you as if you are a criminal from the outset, trying to defraud the government. The whole process is humiliating. Even the doctors find it infuriating because their competence is called into question too! I had to see a Government doctor for him to check that my 3 doctors were telling the truth! Even then they go it wrong and the panel lied saying there was no supporting medical evidence. There was, x-rays, and a neuro report which they chose to ignore. This is why I won my appeal.
These forms are so complicated that even John and I can't comprehend them fully so we have to have a professional form filler do it for us. Thank fully, my dear friend Linda (she bred Whitney) is one such person so we will spend much time on the telephone today with her while John writes it down. John has to write because I can't write any more. I can write but it takes so much effort and is still illegible!
I am going to give another service tonight. Not far away. I am looking forward to it. This is a place I can relax in and stay sitting. It is a purpose built church, not a hall.
I have some very attractive mandarin coloured cashmere to knit into a sweater for myself. I swatched a few days ago, the same time as I swatched the violet cashmere. After this, I am going to do something different, a waistcoat maybe. Maybe using the knitting machines version of weaving. Maybe not. But something different anyway.
I would have liked to have stayed and seen Bill King and his designs but I was having a bad day pain wise. Even though I was in Daniel, the pain was bad. I get this awful cramping down my legs when I sit for any length of time, when it's a bad day. I then have to get up for a bit until pain forces me to sit again. Days like this are up and down and up and down till I just go to bed and sleep. I left and came home where I promptly went to bed. I took more pills when I got up and a couple of hours later I was calling the out of hours doctor to ask if I could take the morphine on top of the Tramadol I had taken. The answer was no. The doctor was really very nice and explained that Tramadol and Morphine are both opiates. Anyway, she did say I could take more after 4 hours instead of my usual 6 hours.
I didn't knit because I was in too much pain. I did watch The Andromeda Strain which as a superior made for tv programme we watched on DVD.I enjoyed and managed to stay still and ignore my body enough to follow the film.
There is no rhyme nor reason to it. I did not do much Friday, certainly nothing like walking or lifting. I can't remember the last time the pain was that bad and the pills not knocking it on the head.
Today I have to fill out forms for the government regarding my disabilities and health. I hate doing this. This is the third time for me. Hopefully this time they will write me off for life instead of 3 years. My disease is progressive, I won't get better, so really it would save much time and effort on all our parts. Strangely, I am written off for life as regards illness. I will get the incapacity for life. This is something different, this is for Disability on top. This is the one I had to fight for, and won before. Now i have to do it all over again. Hopefully though I will not have to fight this time as the situation is the same and I am physically worse than I was when I first applied. All I needed was the Blue Badge (disabled river parking etc) and had no idea it would involve all this bureaucracy. And they treat you as if you are a criminal from the outset, trying to defraud the government. The whole process is humiliating. Even the doctors find it infuriating because their competence is called into question too! I had to see a Government doctor for him to check that my 3 doctors were telling the truth! Even then they go it wrong and the panel lied saying there was no supporting medical evidence. There was, x-rays, and a neuro report which they chose to ignore. This is why I won my appeal.
These forms are so complicated that even John and I can't comprehend them fully so we have to have a professional form filler do it for us. Thank fully, my dear friend Linda (she bred Whitney) is one such person so we will spend much time on the telephone today with her while John writes it down. John has to write because I can't write any more. I can write but it takes so much effort and is still illegible!
I am going to give another service tonight. Not far away. I am looking forward to it. This is a place I can relax in and stay sitting. It is a purpose built church, not a hall.
I have some very attractive mandarin coloured cashmere to knit into a sweater for myself. I swatched a few days ago, the same time as I swatched the violet cashmere. After this, I am going to do something different, a waistcoat maybe. Maybe using the knitting machines version of weaving. Maybe not. But something different anyway.
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9 comments:
Good luck with the whole DLA thing. I applied once, got turned down, and felt so degraded by the whole process, I simply didn't re-apply. It really is a cruel system. They treat genuine claimants like criminals, yet they often allow the bogus claims through. Where's the sense in that?
Hello Colin,
Nice to meet up with you yesterday although I must say I realised you were in some distress. Shame you had to miss Bill, he was his usual enthusiastic brilliant self and I too have come away with some ideas to follow up! As a lone knitter, I appreciate these opportunities to meet up with fellow knitters. Incidentally, the photo of your lilac sweater does not do the colour credit!
Have you ever heard of a tens machine? I have a friend with chronic pain who uses one and has found it to be tremendously helpful. In the beginning she rented one from a medical supply to try it out. I found this link which has information both pro and con. It is not meant to replace medications but as an addition to. Hope you find this helpful.
http://www.patient.co.uk/showdoc/23069069/
Take care,
Susan
I have a niece who lost one leg due to a silly fall in her apartment. Things should have been simple to fix the damaged leg, but nothing was simple and eventually they had to take it.
Now imagine a person with one leg, along with a rare form of asthma - someone who truly has a rough time getting through the day. She's a doctor, too. Has a lot of trouble doing her job. She applied for disability. Twice they denied her any payments. I don't understand why they can't part with help when help is truly needed.
You are in my prayers.
DLA applications are usually turned down as standard in most cases you need to appeal Siani. I applied and got it ok though but when I applied for incapacity it was a nightmare. I was made to feel like I was trying to cheat the system :o( When I think of the people out there that do cheat the system makes me so made. Really makes it hard for the people who REALLY need the help.
Hope they don't give you to much crap Colin
Indigo Incarnates
It's pretty screwed up in Maryland too. The government will give junkie-bums lifeetime disability for crap conditions like "attention deficit" but people with real disabilities get routinely turned down.
When I read your blog entry, Colin, I really really wished I were able to practice law in Britain! I'd give 'em hell for you!
:)
Joan
Colin
love reading your blog, always so much fun. I think its your irreverent british humor. Great to hear you had somewhat a good day and were able to get out, sorry to hear you were not able to stay as long as you would have liked. Hope things go well with your paperwork, you can't ever know how these things will turn out, especially for an honest person.
If you need any help with the knitweaving technique give me a shout, I did qite a bit of this when I did my City & Guilds Machine Knitting course about 10 years ago.
The trick is to get a really thick yarn as the weaving yarn which makes a nice definition - against a contrasting background otherwise it doesn't look particularly special...
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