I'm back.
Thank you for your patience. It's been a long, and for the most part pleasant, summer and I feel I owe an explanation for my absence from the blogosphere for it's entirety. Way too much has happened for me to cover in one post but I'll give a brief summary here and expand on details as time and my typing allow.
I left you back in June because the long decline in my dexterity finally reached a kind of tipping point and my typing became so unreliable, erratic and difficult to perform that anything otter than essential email communication became all but impossible. I have not yet found a satisfactory remedy for this but I have purchased an iPad which, with it's superior touchscreen keyboard, helps a little. It then took more time to find a suitable, but hugely expensive, stylus with which to poke at it with because my fingers are no longer up to the job. I missed blogging but the longer I left it the more things kept happening and less I felt able to catch up. Consider this post a kind of bull being taken my the horns sort of thing. I'm getting back in the saddle and mixing metaphors once more.
You may remember that long ago we started the long process of being rehoused which resulted in a slightly surreal meeting with, and letter from our MP, Tom Brake. (See Cometh The Man back in March.) Well the wheels ground awful slow but we were at last notified of a new development being built that includes wheelchair accessible accommodation complete with through lifts to move users up and down between floors. We were told, unofficially, that we were 'pencilled in' for one of these desirable properties. For weeks and then months we drove past the development and watched the walls going up and the roof being tiled. At least one extra bedroom was on offer as well as an extra bathroom and more space generally. All ideal. A few weeks ago an Occupational Therapist arrived to discuss our specific needs; hoists, bathroom adaptations and the like. He took notes, measured the wheelchair and then disappeared back to OT Land. Days passed. Then we received a phone call from him to say that lift that was being installed was too small to take my wheelchair. The lift shaft had been built into the fabric of the house and it was too late to change it. We wouldn't be moving after all.
We contacted Tom Brake again and stiff letters are being written but in the current climate of cuts it seems unlikely that new housing will get built in the foreseeable future. It seems a pity that no one thought to wonder what kind of wheelchairs might or might not fit in the house before they built them. I suppose they didn't want to waste precious space.
I will call it a day for now. Next time I'll tell you how I went yellow in August and ended up in hospital. Thanks for reading.
Until next time. (Soon, I hope.)
Let's face it, severe disability is not going to be everyone's first choice of lifestyle, but if that's what you're stuck with then there has to be a funny side. Join me on the ups, downs and sheer bizarreness of life in a wheelchair, a family, and a society determined to make things difficult. Guaranteed to make you smile (and groan). A good read.
Glad to see your back, love to all
ReplyDeleteRob T
Glad to see an update, I was getting a bit worried about you!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back! I'm absolutely steaming with anger at the stupidity of the architect/housing department .... whatever, whoever they are. Grrrrrrr. I shall contact soon - when I have calmed down! Love to all. xxx
ReplyDeleteGood to have you back Stephen. Hope you are all well Love P S J M F xxxx
ReplyDeleteUn-smegging- believable....they employ these pillocks because they are educated.......who are they going to be renting these des rezzes to...those with a 'slight limp'?
ReplyDeleteI'm with karen on this one....gggrrrr!!!
Good to have you back on line buddy!
We'll be back up to chew the cud when I return from my world tour!....well, throwing myself off of the falls in a barrel at any rate.
Laters matey
Great to see (read) that you are back. I hope the super shiney goodness of your new iPad allows you to return to regular blogging. We've missed you.
ReplyDeleteI will have to assemble my somewhat angry thoughts on your housing issue and get back to you. It is an uncomfortable truth that some public servants (who we pay a considerable amount to employ) are so unremittingly stupid that they can't even use a tape measure to check the size of a lift..!
Let's storm the barricades comrades...
Thank GOD you are back!! Have you missed your blog!!
ReplyDeleteKeep coming back...
As for housing.... what the bloody hell? Either you have the BIGGEST wheelchair in the universe or the planners have the tiniest brains.... I wonder which????
J x