I wouldn’t have been able to have it without the help I received from here. Thanks so much. Now I have to wait for it to heal up to see if it cleared all the infection.

In other news, I had a physiotherapy appointment this morning and since I’ve had very little improvement in mobility, inflammation, etc and some issues are actually getting worse the physiotherapist has finally decided, several YEARS after my stroke, to refer me for a 6 week course of rehabilitation. You’d think they’d give someone as much rehabilitation as they need, straight after a stroke, but no. Not on the NHS’s watch. After my stroke I spent ages on the waiting list, and then had several years of having a physio appointment once every 2-4 months, where they basically just give me some exercises to do and now are shocked pikachu fact that I still can’t walk, dress myself or anything else properly.

And this 6 week course of rehabilitation is literally just one appointment a week for 6 weeks. Like that’s going to make any difference after all this time. And the physio outright told me that I can’t keep having physio appointments now. Basically she implied that I’m clogging up the NHS appointments now, taking too many for myself when the waiting lists are so long.

I’m resigned to the fact that physio isn’t working and I’ll always be disabled but what worries me is in about 2ish years time I’ll be reassessed for disability benefits again, and if I’m not still having some type of physio or rehabilitation for this stroke they will use that against me. I was reassessed for benefits right after having my stroke and that time they gave me zero points, stopped my payments and I had to go through appeal, and part of their reasoning was “You are not having rehabilitation for the stroke” even though I was on the waiting list. So next time if I say “I had rehabilitation and physio for several years, it didn’t give much improvement and I was discharged,” the NHS benefit Nazis will say “zero points, no more money for you!” They use someone not having treatment for a condition as evidence that the condition doesn’t affect them. It’s so stupid, not everyone can be cured and should we be expected to have pointless treatment indefinitely?

Oh and I even have to wait a month for the rehabilitation to start. Still with the NHS I suppose I should count myself lucky it’s starting so soon.

    • DisabledAceSocialist@lemmygrad.mlOPEnglish
      5·
      11 days ago

      Thank you. The entire NHS is like this. I have to see the endocrinologist, neurologist, stroke clinic, GP and others, and it’s always endless difficulty and bureaucracy, struggling to get an appointment, being on waiting lists for years, I’m finally on the urology waiting list after begging to see a urologist for about a decade. This whole time I’ve had endless bladder problems and all the doctor wants to do is prescribe more and more drugs (all with terrible side effects) without even trying to find out what the problem actually is. And if I’d been given a proper programme of rehabilitation after my stroke I might not be disabled now. It also took them nearly 4 years to diagnose my cancer because they refused to do any tests, saying I was “too young for it to be anything serious.” Not to mention having to beg for money to pay for bandages and things after my foot surgery. The NHS has ruined my life.