New Doctor, Same Old DSS, Keeping Sane

I think I'm impressed with my new GP practice. I get the sense that they have no great experience of ME, but they are positive and supportive. I've been having a bad time with mood swings lately, ands a visit to the practice resulted in an appointment for a psychological service for the chronically ill. A previous visit about a bad episode of eczema had me at a dermalogical clinic within 10 days, and has resolved the problem. So, three cheers for the Leven Health Centre.

Meanwhile, I'm back on the Benefits treadmill. I've found a good source of support in the local Citizen's Advice service. Just thinking about the task of making a claim without help makes me feel ill, so I'm glad of the help. It's probably useful that I have crossed the 'I can do that' barrier - as so often these days I cannot.

I potter about with my raised bed vegetable garden, my polytunnel, and my chooks. All this is doable in the 20-30 minute episodes of energy I can muster two or three times a day. The 'Battlestar Galactica" boxset has proved a great way to pass some of the bad times. Less often, I read, but the concentration is so shaky.

To look forward to - ten eggs in the incubator - five should produce blue egg laying Cream Crested Legbars, and the other five are Wheaten French Marans that lay sumptuous chocolate brown eggs comme ca. All this assumes that they aren't all cockerels, which produce only these. Oh! and this :)

Shock late result 18 - 0

I was one of the first to be ensnared in the thickets of the new Employment Support Allowance, the benefit that is replacing Incapacity Benefit. This is paid at a reduced rate until a medical opinion has been obtained by the DSS. I attended this medical in Dundee in May of last year.

There is a list of criteria the doctor has to consider, and he submits a report. This, along with a personal submission is considered by the DSS, who award a point score based on the information before them. The magic number is 15 points - match or beat this, and the benefit is payable. I, in the finest Eurovision tradition was awarded "null points,no points, keine Punkte". This felt very much like an insult being added to my injury, and I appealed the decision, albeit with zero faith in the process.

Time passed.

I received notification of the tribunal to consider my appeal, to be held in Dunfermline, a mere 60 mile round trip from home.

I half-heartedly prepared a few arguments, wrote some notes, and set off to D'line with Mrs Lucas driving.

I was grilled for 40 minutes in an austere church hall building, and then sent to await my fate in the company of a tremulous individual awaiting his audience with these modern Guardians of the Poor Law. My mood was abyssal at this point.

I was summoned back into the presence, and a certain lightness of the tone raised some hope. I was given the decision - I had been awarded 18 points, and was clean through the qualification barrier!

Despite my utter cynicism, the system had worked, admittedly only after months of stress, but hey! I will receive at least £25 per week additional benefit, and I think it will be back-dated. Additionally, I think I can now try my luck with Disability Living Allowance, which is the gateway to eligibility for many other payments.

If anyone reading this has one of ghastly events in their future, I'm happy to discuss my experience. I think the trick is to be clear, concise, 100% truthful and assertive. I'm used to Court type settings - I used to work in the Court system, and have often had to address a Court. If this isn't one of your skills - get a representive to speak for you. The doctor on my panel was a feisty old party, and I did have to (politely) take her on a couple of times.

It's nice to know the good guys win sometimes though, and I'm delighted.

Two muted cheers for the DSS

A good week had elapsed since I had to have my appeal lodged with the DSS against their decision to stop paying my Employment Support Allowance, and I'd had no acknowledgement from them - so I phoned today.

They have recieved and processed the appeal, and as a result, on Monday I will receive £250 "back pay" for the period since the benefit was suspended on 11 June.

So far, so good, I guess.

The Story So Far

I've just "celebrated" the first anniversary of my ME. I'd had a couple of bouts of illness during early 2008, culminating in an illness that lasted for a week in June, during which I was running a high temperature, experiencing soaking night sweats, and feeling deathly. I was given antibiotics by my GP which seemed to clear things up, but slowly and surely the signs of the chronic problem began to show. I tried to return to work but simply couldn't get through a day. My GP was very efficient - he quickly had blood tests organised. All came back negative, so we were left with the differential diagnosis of ME. I've been blundering about in the fog ever since.

Until I was about 40, I hardly had ever set foot in a doctor's office, and the concept of being unwell had seldom occurred to me. However, when I was 41 I had a year during which I felt increasingly unwell before I was diagnosed with bowel cancer. I had surgery, and a subsequent scare with a pulmonary embolism, and recovered well. Perhaps I was a little more prone to "tummy bugs" than some, but I was perfectly able to cope with life at work and at home as a parent of 3 children.

The next glitch began about 3 years ago, when I began to feel fatigued, unable to cope, irritable and all the rest. Tests soon revealed that I had developed Type 2 Diabetes, along with a side order of depression (diabetes and depression frequently co-occur). I gradually improved and returned to work after a six month lay off. Metformin and Fluoxetine became part of my daily routine, and remain so. I'm fairly confident I'm managing the diabetes, and I'm so scared of a return to the depression that I work hard to prevent it (this blog is a part of the therapy, I guess). Within a few months of my return to work, however, the niggly illnesses had begun that culminated in the ME.

So now I sit at home. My job went on grounds of my incapacity in April, although there was no suggestion that I might be entitled to claim some or all of my pension, and I remain in correspondence about this matter. I have been introduced to the wonders of Jobcentre Plus, Pathways to Work and other Government initiatives. None of these bodies seems able to comprehend that I am unwell, but I live in hope of convincing them. The DSS are so unimpressed that they have suspended my Employment Support Allowance. However, I can't claim Jobseekers as I am not certified fit for work. I am appealing the decision about my benefits - and await an acknowledgement of that from the DSS. Meanwhile, the bank make polite but firm requests about my plans for the mortgage I can't pay. Adopting a state of Zen-like calm becomes increasingly difficult. I grimace when I think of all the times I might have said I was happy to live in a welfare state where every citizen could expect to have their needs met - but illusions should be shattered, I guess, so that the truth is revealed.