Disabilities we all have one or more.

As some of you know, my thing is a poorly spine now.
What I would like to know from all of you is the aids that are available to you for the differing disabilities and what works and what does not please.
I am new to the disabled world in my mind and feel that help is amongst us with them rather than those who want our hard earned to fleece from our grubby paws.
Anything from a shower stool right through to lifts and all manner of assistance aids will be looked into and hopefully trialled and tested by me and the family.
Seems I am not the only one with get out of jail cards. Daughter number two has fibromyalgia, and hypo mobility syndrome. What that is your guess is as good as mine.
Son gets chronic migraines from pressure inside his skull.
Another daughter has PCOS and don't get started on this, poor lass has gotten into comfort eating to curb this is going to be hard.
OH is an asthmatic and has COPD, she has also had Hodgkin's lymphoma in the past leaving her lethargic.
I think a bomb under us would go a long way in getting rid of the pains we all have.

 

Confessing to serious CFS/ME. It was misdiagnosed as mental/nervous illness or just plain inadequacy and hypochondria for three long decades in the UK. Lost my career and everything else. Had to fight for disability benefits etc.
Finally . at last, a consultant grudgingly admitted there really was something physical amiss, and muttered "post viral fatigue" which in those far off days was all they would admit to. A neighbour said " Oh they mean M.E." and BINGO!

The whole thing fell into place and I had the internet by then

So when I got the words " Was never mentally ill; it was always M.E" written under my notes. I left the UK and came here. A different health service and the drs have less power.

And with retirement age came the pension. So I live my life within my limits and no one out here knows I am ill. Just very quiet and private.

Days when I can barely get food etc but that is coped with and what I can do I sheerly enjoy. Revel in it. Enjoy the tiniest things. Love life! However limited.

Drs here are as bad re M.E as they are in the UK ie not interested but I get what pain relief I need and emergency cover and that is fine.

No worries on it all. Just now an old knee problem is bad and walking is not easy so I manage that too. Hopalong lives again!

Doing grand at 77.

 

Think for my old mother the game changer was when I caught her taking a long time to come back down from upstairs, only to find her slowly coming down on her backside one step at a time.

We had a Stannah stair lift fitted, much to her initial trepidation, but as she soon found, it really did give her back full use of the house.

A decent sized shower with a seat and handrails instead of the bath and a riser recliner chair were also very good, though both much more around these days.

 

Remembering a discussion once where we decided there was no such thing as disability. only differing abiltities.

 

I always say. However bad my problems are. There is always someone worse off.

 

I do not see a" disability" as a huge disadvantage. It can enrich, and teach values like nothing else. Mine certainly has. The attitude of others to it can be the worst thing. In the " does he take sugar" phenomenon.

 

Amen to this. I decided when I came here not to tell anyone re my own illness. Being old, using a walking stick is nearly normal!

Folk seem to think your mind is disabled as well as your body. The key is to let the disabled person make their needs known clearly too.

I have found that now I am visibly old attitudes soften somewhat.

Mind you, when I was standing on the kerb in heavy traffic in a nearby town, the traffic screeching to a halt was most acceptable

 

I had a person in my team with a physical disability that I kept forgetting. She had a marvellous attitude in sternly reminding me that she is actually not able to do the task I asked for, so chop chop boss do it yourself. That helped a lot to overcome the awkwardness of non-disabled people like me to deal with the situations where people with disabilities need alternative solutions. Now I'm quite comfortable in asking if I can cut the steak of my one- handed manager for her in a business lunch. It's just steaks and normal politeness, a long way from my awkwardness a decade ago.

My Mum lost the use of her right hand and the best gadget ever was a wooden chopping board with nails driven through it so that the choppable item ironmaidened on the nails stayed in place.

 

My mother in law is disabled through mitochondria she literally has to sit where you plonk her and can’t even move to make herself comfy if she were uncomfy, it used to break my heart showering/dressing her or toileting her I used to say to my husband that it must be so degrading for her, I would be mortified if I were needing my daughter in law to do these things for me, he agreed. However one day I had an heart to heart with her and she said it isn’t degrading at all (even though she was previously a shy conservative kind of lady) she said she accepts she had to have help and so just got on with the fact that other people than her husband would see her naked etc. I think like someone said previously when you have a disability you accept and get on with it or I guess it will ruin your life if you get upset and frustrated about it. My father had arthritis and Adapted things to help him go about life like a metal coat hanger formed into an hook to be able to pick up his underwear and put it over his feet and pull them up

 

No one out here actually knows how disabled I am. That was my choice and with the tiny population here, privacy is deeply respected. If I cannot manage something it does not get done and I am well organised for that. I value my privacy deeply and as there is nothing that can be done, need to stay free of invasion as long as possible. When that time comes, my family will support and provide. They know I retire at the latest at 4 pm but not why. Just now am in an unprecedented severe flare of many symptoms and can barely walk. But I can and do cope. Simply feed the cats and myself and knit. My home is tiny and my day bed- centred.

 

I can appreciate all your problems and the difficulties it brings with daily life, I used to be a fit hill walk/climber with raising a family.
At 44 I was pensioned off due to I’ll health learned to walk again with a stick, that is how it was a busy life with 3 grown kids and a reduced income until 2012 when we decided we needed to down side and get a bungalow.
So we upsized instead as all 3 had flown the nest and got a large overgrown garden, with more bedrooms for the two of us.
All’s well with remedial work on said house until 2014 I got pneumonia and went into hospital twice with it and a third time for a biopsy, DWP said I was not Ill at all and stopped all my benefits luckily I had no mortgage to pay. I had tests every 6 months until it was proven I had asbestosis and shortness of breath, no cure for it just rest a lot more then my tablets gave me labrynthytus for a year.
So as you can say not had an easy life, but hey ho I get on with it.
All I can say is I can still do almost what I want I have to do it a different way, if I cant lift it I look for a different method if I cant do it standing I will sit and do it, I used to work from dawn till dusk now nothing happens till after lunch and then it’s short shifts till tea then I stop.
Some times I can stand up straight, I can’t shower and bathing is difficult, getting up from a chair or bed can be painful, but as I think I am here when others are not life’s not fair but I am still here.
If you can’t do it don’t store your frustration up talk to some one, find ways of doing things differently the answers are out there ( hello YouTube ) just look and ask.