Life, the Pain and the Medication!

As a follower of the Diary of a Benefit Scrounger - Sue Marsh's views on life I read with a growing awareness that her blog And Drugs Don't Work They Just Make Things Worse mirrored my life. 

I am fairly fortunate that my GP understands how much I respect the lack of control that some medication gives, the fact that some of the medication he has me on is OK for some parts of my life, but doesn't quite help out at the times I need it to.  Yes, my GP has agreed to let me control some of my medication with the clear knowledge and understanding that I do respect the maximum daily dose. 

Through this, I have now been able to adapt my medication levels to the extent that I can manage to cope with my voluntary job on a Tuesday. This is a good thing.

The negative side to being able to cope with Tuesday is to lose Wednesday.  I don't do Wednesdays very well, it takes until about 2 p.m. for the near overdose of Tramadol on the Tuesday to clear out of my head enough for me to feel safe driving (I just pray I don't get a drug test when driving on Wednesdays). 

In addition to the loss of Wednesdays and the fuzzy headedness is the disbelief of my wife.  Yep, she that must be obeyed can not get her head around the fact that I can cope on Tuesday but not through the rest of the week.

The other really annoying thing about pain, that thing that I have tickling away at my nerve endings even now as I sit here feeling no pain, thanks to the meds, is describing it.  Every Health Care Professional wants to know how much pain I'm in on a scale of one to ten.  I don't know, I seem to remember the pain I had when my knee dislocated as being the worst I can remember.  Now this being the most, it should be a ten.  Now I have to think where my pain level is compared to that?  At times it seems more as it lasts longer. 

Is it as bad as hitting my thumb with a hammer (about a four)?  Is it as bad as breaking a rib (about a seven)?  Is it as bad as slicing my arm open when falling through a plastic gutter (6)? Is it as bad as ... ? That's my interpretations, what is someone else's?

I can understand 30°C temperature, I've felt it.  I've felt it in the south of Spain, I've felt it in the South of France (well in the Pyrenees), I've felt it in the south of England.  Three places where the temperature at ground level was the same.  Oh no it isn't!  In Spain, it's warm.  In France it was tolerable.  In the UK, however, it's stifling, to hot to breathe.

We can measure temperature, we can measure blood pressure, we can count the number of pulses in a minute. We can do all these things, and do them accurately and repeatedly.  So why can't we measure pain accurately?

Religious Hatred

After the brutal killing of Drummer Lee Rigby of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers in Woolwich by two misguided people, attacks have been made on mosques and muslims in the UK.

Why?

Why are people so focussed on Islam? 

Why are there so many Muslims so angry against everything?

I cannot see what difference there is between a Muslim extremist of today or an IRA activist from the 1970's.  Yet, when the IRA set off a bomb in Canary Wharf in 1996 killing two, and injuring 39 others, no-one went to Westminster Cathedral and smashed a window.  No one thumped an Irish person for being born in the wrong place at the wrong time.

What is wrong with the world?

The Taliban and Al-Qaeda are responsible for the damage done to the reputation of the Islamic people.  They are the ones that have infiltrated the mosques to incite the hatred of some young people to such an incendiary level.  It's not a political thing.  It's not a religious thing.  It's something that has no explanation as it occurs only in the heads of people that are so unbalanced that they are looking at the world from some strange viewpoint that no sane person can understand.

I can't quote from the Q'uran, but I am sure that in that holy book, somewhere, it says that to take the life of another human being is wrong.

I can quote from the Old Testament and I know it says "You shall not kill!"

Just remember, do as you would be done by.  Love one another.  Give Peace a Chance!

Funky Mango's Musings: The Impossible Girl (spoilers) #DoctorWho #Spoonie...

Reblogged from: Funky Mango's Musings: The Impossible Girl (spoilers) #DoctorWho #Spoonie...:

Last night was the season finale of Doctor Who. I  thought it was one of the best episodes for quite some time, certainly the best of the season. But it also got me to thinking. A major theme was losing and gaining control - both for the Doctor and his current companion, Clara. And that's also a huge issue for spoonies, people with long-term illnesses that cause crippling fatigue.

The baddies in this episode were the Whispermen, who kidnap the Doctor's friends Clara, Vastra, Jenny and Strax to lure him to the one place he must never go: his grave, on the planet Trenzalore.

When we become ill, it's as if we've been kidnapped and taken to a different planet. We are snatched away from our everyday lives, held hostage by the limitations of our conditions.

There is no body in the Doctor's tomb. Instead there is a time tunnel, made of scar tissue from all the Doctor's travels through time and space. The villain of the piece, the Great Intelligence (hammed up wonderfully by Richard E. Grant) enters the time tunnel, aiming to split itself into fragments scattered throughout the Doctor's timeline and corrupt it absolutely, undoing all the good he's done.

Clara follows it into the time tunnel in an attempt to reverse the damage. Things take place around her. Previous incarnations of the Doctor run by. At first she feels out of control. She has no idea what's going on.

Gradually she works out her purpose. The Doctor is always there, though not always in the same form. She can recognise the best thing for the Doctor to do: she saves his life.

It's the same for us. At first, everything is confusion and feeling out of control. Fatigue, pain, brain fog. But gradually, a pattern emerges. We work out what to do. How to live our lives in the best possible way for ourselves and those around us. Maybe we're not saving the Doctor (or maybe you are?) but in our own way we're time lords, pacing and resting so we can do the things we really want to do.

We're the impossible girls and boys. We learn our purpose. We regain control over our lives.

We're spoonies. 

Posted by Funky Mango at 09:27 

False Imprisonment and the Government

Take a walk through this semi-hypothetical situation with me and ask yourself if you agree with me that there is a law being broken.

Joe Bloggs has arthritis, he can walk about 130 metres, however this distance is split up by repeated stops because of pain.  His nearest bus stop is 450 metres away from his home so there is very little chance he can get there.  He has a car, which thanks to "Passport" benefits, he can tax and because of the Higher Rate Mobility component of Disability Living Allowance he can use a Blue Badge to allow parking closer to buildings that he has to visit.

Now thanks to the changes in the regulations in PIP, if Ms Esther McVey, the minister for Disabled People has her way, the requirement for the Blue Badge and car tax will be drastically reduced, so much so that Joe will lose all the Passported Benefits that allow him to use his car.  As he is not able to reach the bus stop, he cannot go anywhere to do all the things he does.  His shopping will have to be done online and delivered; his visit to the Department of Work and Pensions or the Jobcentre Plus will have to be by friends giving him lifts or at the worst, he will have to forgo food so that he can use a taxi.

He will be detained within the four walls of his home. 

He will be detained against his wishes.

He will be denied the freedom to move freely through the world.

The law states that False Imprisonment is The illegal confinement of one individual against his or her will by another individual in such a manner as to violate the confined individual's right to be free from restraint of movement.

So, does that mean Joe and all the others that will have their mobility stripped from them by the changes in the regulations, simply so the government can save some money without taxing their friends the high earners, or the bankers with their ridiculous bonuses paid for simply doing their job?

Does the change in the regulations which will affect 600,000 (according to Esther McVey) be tantamount to False Imprisonment?

If so, are we entitled to compensation for this being done to us?

There are so many different ways these Welfare Reforms are wrong, they are poorly thought out, they harm those who cannot fight back, they harm those the government promised to protect, and they are being carried out in a virtual media blackout.

There has been no Cumulative Impact Assessment of Welfare Reform there needs to be one, if you haven't already signed the "WOW Petition" started by the disabled comic Francesca Martinez. please do so now at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43154 and let all your friends know about it, this blog and all the harm that is being done to the elderly, the frail, the vulnerable, the poorest in our society.

Thank you, and remember, every time you see a person on crutches, with a walking stick, in a wheelchair, there, but for the grace of God, goes you.

My label.

Disabled! What an awful label, I wish I could get away from it. 

I have lost the ability to stand for long periods, I have lost the ability to get items from the top shelf in the supermarket (if I can get there), I have lost the ability to walk long distances.  I am disabled, but I don't want to be called that!


Thesaurus.com has this to say on the matter of being disabled:

Main Entry:	disabled [dis-ey-buhld]  /dɪsˈeɪbəld/ Show Spelled
Part of Speech:	adjective
Definition:	incapacitated
Synonyms:	broken-down, confined, decrepit, disarmed, hamstrung, handicapped, helpless, hurt, incapable, infirm, laid-up, lame, maimed, out-of-action, out-of-commission, paralyzed, powerless, run-down, sidelined, stalled, weakened, worn-out, wounded, wrecked
Antonyms:	able, healthy

Let me take the synonyms step-by-step:

broken-down
That makes me sound like I'm an unkempt tramp,

confined
Close, confined to my home by the DWP thanks to them stopping my DLA.

decrepit
Isn't that a building that's falling down?

disarmed
Nope, definitely got two of them, even if the connections are killing me.

hamstrung
Erm, no, I think my strings are still attached to my hams.

handicapped
Only when meeting a lady or entering a bilding, otherwise my cap is on my head.

helpless
I have help in the form of glamorous assistant Sally, who I help in turn.

hurt
YES!!! I'll go for that, I'm definitely hurting especially in my arthritic joints.

incapable
Ah, no, I am capable of many things; I just prefer them not to be negative things.

infirm
Afraid not, just poked my tummy and it's definitely solid and firm.

laid-up
No, I'm sat up at the moment, it's not bed-time yet

lame
ah, hm, close - movement, especially walking, is difficult or impossible,

maimed
Nobody did this to me.

out-of-action
If I weren't fighting the symptoms of osteoarthritis, I might go for that.

out-of-commission
Excuse me??? As all Armed Forces NCOs would say I work to survive.

paralyzed
Bah! My limbs move.

powerless
Not until the electricity prepayment meter runs out of cash.

run-down
Never in my knowledge has a car hit me and run over me.

sidelined
Never been a game player, so can't have been sidelined.

stalled
This is a house, not a stable, I'm not a horse even though my wife sometimes nags me (geddit?).

weakened
Yes, true, but so is a tree branch when half cut through.

worn-out
No, I'm not a piece of clothing.

wounded
No holes in me that shouldn't be there.

wrecked
Not sunken, not crashed, not wrecked.

 
So it looks like I can't rely on a "proper" old-fashioned word, it'll have to be more modern, more street-speak.  The problem is I don't do street-speak!

The lies that men tell live on in infamy!

The Second of May 2010 a day that should live in infamy alongside the Attack on Pearl Harbor (7 dec 1941).  A day when a prospective Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland appeared on British National Television and promised within the space of seven sentences 

" I don't want to leave anyone behind. The test of a good society is you look after the elderly, the frail, the vulnerable, the poorest in our society. And that test is even more important in difficult times, when difficult decisions have to be taken, than it is in better times. "

So there you have it David Cameron promising the nation that he would protect those at the bottom of the social heap.
 

 
Now, three years later we have
 

• Disabled people are dying because they have been told they are "Fit For Work" while they have serious heart defects or disabilities.   Is this something to be concerned about?
• The attack on the Disabled was started to reduce fraudulent claims, even when the DWP admit only 0.7% of claims were fraudulent.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• Disabled and Unemployed have had their basic benefit capped at a 1% per year rise with inflation running at over 2.5% this is a 1.5% per year reduction.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• Mobility assessments are being slashed to keep disabled people within their homes as they won't get enough to run a car, use taxis, busses or trains.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• The complex quantity of benefits that are being changed, combined, renamed or scrapped is so confusing that it takes a battery of people to explain them.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• The poor, vulnerable and frail of our society have had their right to legal representation for many actions removed from them.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• The number of disability fora and marches opposing the cuts and changes are rising.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• The changes in disability calculation and benefits are being challenged in some of the highest courts of law in the country.  Is this something to be concerned about?
• The unemployed and disabled have been branded as scroungers, it's no good retracting the statement, it's still in the general psyche.  Is this something to be concerned about?

And now, as part of a stealth attack, the government, formerly a supporter of the NHS are trying to privatise it, at the same time the previously privatised railways and steel works are failing.
 

 

 
To protest the cuts to the NHS, there's even a protestor pushing a toy pig through the streets of London using his nose.  A bit pointless, any Conservative worth their membership is too dense to understanding the symbolism.

And all along, government ministers have been misrepresenting, manipulating and massaging the truth with the use of percentages rather than numbers. 

The thing that the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition is that they have forgotten the power of the people, and the internet that they are insisting the unemployed, handicapped and elderly should all have.  Or, did they underestimate this power and this record that is the internet?

Every word that people in (or soon to be in) power is recorded, written down and saved, the interview on the 2nd of May 2010, given to Andrew Marr on the BBC is transcribed, you can find it by following this link. Photographs of posters that parties use are saved on the net and the people who are being hurt by these draconian cuts are saving them on their computers.

So,

How many more lies do we have to put up with?

How many more U-turns?

How many more people dying on our shores when we send billions abroad in Foreign Aid?

Oh, and the one thing that he could have done, had he had an economist in the Treasury instead of his Bullingdon club pal History student, keep the higher rate of tax where it was.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you have a shortage of money, why take a pay cut at the same time you cut your expenses?  Or in plain English, tax the rich and cut benefits.

No Ta! I want None Of The Above

In the 1995 film "Brewster's Millions", Montgomery Brewster, played, in this incarnation by Richard Pryor, gets an idea to waste money by running for public office.  He is so fed up with the corruption that fuels the other contestants he launches his campaign to "Vote None of the Above"!

It is too late, in the film, to have the ballot sheets reprinted, so, thanks to an American voting law, the electorate is allowed to write on the sheet the party they want to vote for - NONE OF THE ABOVE.

At the conclusion of the election, even though Monty has resigned from the campaign, the electorate have responded with a massive majority for "None of the Above". 

Would this work in the United Kingdom?  Without a charismatic leader to take the peoples imaginations and spin them through myriad hoops, could the electorate get off their backsides and vote None of the Above?

The electorate in this country are disenchanted with the politicians that we have.  One bunch is doing all they can for their mates in big business, so that when they retire from politics they will have a lucrative consultants fee; the other lot lining the pockets of their rich mates so that they will employ them in a consultancy position in their big businesses and pay them a large retainer.  Which lot do we, the people want?  None of the Above!

If the country, full of apathetic voters, like the mother of the Downs Syndrome child shown on the news in the run up to the Eastleigh by-election showed, people do not vote because they get cardboard cutouts of the last lot in if they vote for the other lot.  As soon as candidates become MPs they seem to forget about their constituents and focus on their bank balance, squeezing expenses, getting paid their £1000 a week.  What do we the grass-roots voters want - None of the Above!

We want no apathy, we want people to use their vote, to elect a government that can make this country "Great" again, we are fed up of living in Britain, we want it to be Great Britain again.  We don't want these sycophantic university brats who have had little or no experience of life outside Public School and politics running our country, we want, nay need people who know what they are doing. 

Do we want a history student in charge of the Exchequer?  Do we want a soldier in charge of Benefits and Pensions?  Do we want a TV presenter representing the disabled? Do we want a director of a house building company in charge of the Armed Forces? No, we want None of the Above.

Although the Registration of Political Parties (Prohibited Words and Expressions) (Amendment) Order 2005 stipulates that no political party can be registered in the UK under the name "None of the Above", there is no legislation against a person changing their name by deed poll and appearing on the ballot paper as "None Of the Above".  This does, however, bring about problems of order on the ballot paper as "Above, None of the" would be at the top of the paper, not the bottom!  If the candidate was to change their name to "Of The Above None" they would end up in the middle.

My thought, although there can be no political party named "None of the Above", does this exclude the option being given on the ballot?  Does this preclude the option of voicing one's dissent to the political system?
I believe that a wake up call should be sent to the political parties of the United Kingdom that the time has come to stop thinking of themselves and start thinking of the well-being of the country and the people in it.  As John F. Kennedy said "ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country".  

I believe that a vote of no-confidence, not only in the Government, but also the political parties and their politicians is needed.  At the next by-election for a Constituency Seat at Westminster, or, if it comes first, a General Election, the electorate should, in all decency, spoil their ballot papers with the words "None of the Above".

So, to vote None of the Above, do not stay sat in your house on election day, this just says you are apathetic and lazy, you do not want to take part in the election process.  Get up, get out of your house, go to the polling station and vote - "None of the Above". 

Then, to highlight the choice of people in your constituency, send a letter to the returning officer of your constituency asking how many spoiled papers were spoiled with "None of the Above".  (This may be better being asked in advance of the day, so that they have a chance to set up the count for it.)  Ask your local paper to enquire how many papers were spoiled in this manner and if the constituency had in fact elected "None of the Above".

If the movement to vote "None of the Above" were to become prominent enough, it might be that the returning officers would look for this statistic to be included in their returns.  It might be that rather than using half-truths or manipulations of the truth, that Members of Parliament would again earn the right to be called "Honourable", an appellation that makes me laugh when I hear "The honourable member for Chingford and Woodford Green" mentioned.

So please, remember, when you are called to vote, get out of your house, go to the polling station and vote -

NONE OF THE ABOVE!