It hurts

It wasn't so cold last night which I'm grateful for but the damp, well that's a killer. This morning I can't walk and am in a lot of pain. But hey thanks to South Shropshire Housing Association that's what I have to put up with. My Housing Officer is coming out this afternoon to see me and I want some answers. I want to know why I was told that I couldn't move until the boys did and I want to know why I was told that they couldn't have this house and then I'm going to make a formal complaint to the South Shropshire Housing Association.

Come and see where I have to sleep and what we've managed to do.

There is always a use for an old car number plate.

The bed is a single and the teddies, well they're a must. So is the hot water bottle. The handrail I need to help me sit up to get out of bed. One consolation I can't fall on the floor because there isn't room.

Every girl needs a mirror in her room and the chest is where I keep my clothes. Yes it's damp but hey....

The bottom of the bed, the extra quilt that's for when the temperature drops at night.

Not a brilliant picture but this is standing by my bed with the door open and the door you can see is the door to the garden. The bubble wrap is an attempt to provide a little insulation but....

This is standing outside my bedroom door looking down the brick corridor to the outside where I have to walk to get into the house. The rubbish has gone, major sort out this weekend.

Would you let your dog sleep in a garden shed?

The cold, damp and the anonymous doctor

Brrrr cold and damp this morning. I was up at 5.40 going to the loo, making a hot drink and popping pain killers. Cold, damp and stress do nothing for Psoriatic Arthritis or Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease. Then I went to bed and listened - me and funny noises don't go together especially as the back is open and we do have rats and mice out there not to mention any other four or eight legged creature can wonder in from the garden.

But when daylight came, I think the noises was just the rain. My face was cold so I hid it under the quilt and pulled the other quilt up over me. I think next winter I'll follow in Scott's footsteps.

The anonymous doctor this is lovely. To be rehoused by South Shropshire Housing Association on medical grounds you have to fill in a form. The form asks what sort of property you live in at the moment. It asks you to list your medical conditions and how living in your current property does this affect your conditions. You're asked about your medications and what benefits you're on and then what type of accommodation you require. Finally it asks for your doctors' name and address - doctor as in GP that is, not your consultants. You fill it all in and then....

It is sent off to an anonymous doctor, faceless, unknown who makes a decision (without seeing you) which affects your life. Isn't that amazing or is the word ridiculous? I did ask if I could be assessed by this mystery doctor but was told in no uncertain terms - they don't see anyone. I did point out (because I'm like that) that in my experience many doctors haven't even heard of CMT (which could explain why despite being born with all the symptoms it wasn't actually diagnosed until I was forty one and in a wheelchair) never mind know what it is. Also the Psoriatic Arthritis was also misdiagnosed and when finally I did see a consultant he confirmed I'd had it for years - so how can and what  right has a faceless doctor got to make this decision?

I will add my own GP (Dr Roger Davies at Clun Medical Practice) is fantastic and he knows and understands my decision but more importantly he sits down and talks to me about it and I know he wouldn't make any decision that affects me without speaking to me first. So going back to the final sentence of my last paragraph how can and what right has a faceless doctor got to make this decision?


Answers on a postage stamp please lol.

How and why this situation arose

I moved into this house in September 2007 after losing our previous home in Ludlow due to flooding. Two and a half feet of the River Corve came in uninvited.

Our house in the river

At the time the house was described as having a level access shower room and a stair lift fitted. It did have a shower room, the floor was unsuitable and dangerous and they finally rectified this in March 2010. The stair lift didn't work and the rail it was fitted to went half way across the shower room door so that had to be removed. South Shropshire Housing Association did fit a grab rail ten weeks after my then Occupational Therapist requested it. There was also a downstairs toilet but that was out the back and froze every winter so the only other toilet was the one upstairs. To be honest not really suitable for a disabled person. Plus there were six steps upto the front path - I say were that's another story.

In November 2010 I got an infection in my foot which resulted in almost total paralysis and I was carted off to hospital. What happened is I have Psoriatic Arthritis and the medication I take reduces my immune system so my body couldn't fight the infection and caused all sorts of problems.

While I was in hospital I was accessed by the Physiotherapy department who said I had to get off the stairs and they wrote to the Occupational Therapy team for an assessment of my living conditions. They finally arrived six months later and concluded that not only did this house not suit my needs but also that it was dangerous for me to live here. However, they did suggest some improvements but South Shropshire Housing said they weren't going to do it and basically we had to move. But for me to move, my sons had to be rehoused first because I was the tenant. My lads asked if they could move me and they keep the house but my housing officer said that was not possible. My Occupational Therapist was also told the same thing when he asked.

Still awake?

As two of my sons work in a nearby village and rely on me for transport they need a house in that village or they can't work. Forget it, although a house did come up in Clun and they're on priority banding they couldn't be considered for it because they'd put in separate applications and not a joint application. I did ask if they couldn't just put the applications together and instead of having to find individual properties they would only have to find one. This to is logic but no, sorry can't do that they'll have to put in another applications which will take twenty one working days to process.

And as for me, well if I consider a wider area I will have a better chance of being rehoused. My lads are my carers and I do need them fairly close and they're happy about that. So thirty miles down the road is not feasible.

So briefly (don't laugh) that's how I ended up sleeping in a garden shed in the middle of winter, in one of the coldest places in the country.

And the Housing Association well - happy Christmas guys

Moving In

Well the big day has arrived. Today I move out of my bedroom into a brick storeroom/shed at the back of my house.

Why?

Because after being referred by the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital in November 2010 for an assessment by Occupational Therapy in Shropshire, which finally happened in April 2011 it was decided that I need to get off the stairs. And after being told by Homepoint Shropshire in June 2011 they couldn't move me until they moved my sons I've had enough. We did suggest that they move me out and the lads keep the house but again we were told this wasn't possible. However, Ann Sutcliffe (Executive Director of Neighbourhoods at Shropshire Housing said that I had never been told this. I can provide plenty of people who can confirm that I was (they include my Occupational Therapist and my Housing Support Officer not to mention others) and that Ann Sutcliffe lied on local radio - whereas I didn't.

The number of times I have nearly fallen those stairs terrifies me and to be honest, I'd rather die of hypothermia than suffer brain damage by banging my head against the wall at the bottom of the stairs.

So today is moving day.

My new bedroom

It has insulated boarding but because it's an outhouse/shed there is no damp proofing and it is single skinned brickwork.

This is a single bed so it does show the size of my new bedroom - God even prisoners have bigger cells and my crime - I'm disabled.

Insulation provided by bubble wrap.

Just need to put the draft excluder down and we're away.









So yes snow on the ground and I sleep in a shed.