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Tuesday 8 January 2013

Things are moving quick and productive with my "getting to Vancouver" plans...but seriously, sometimes..what a faff!

I promised this blog wasn't just going to be all "oh wow, i had this amazing experience!" So, this isn't a negative post. This is a reality post of stuff i'm having to do at the moment to get places. It's not a moan it's a "This is what i've got to do." it might possibly help someone or it might just inform and make a few people who've never thought of stuff, aware of what i've got to do in order to just be free and go over to Canada for four months on my own.

None of what i'm doing is new. So many eople do this all the time...just thought i'd write it down. :)

To make things simple, and easier to manage what i tend to do when i'm planning anything (like most people) i break things down. Initially i break tasks i need to do, when it comes to "going places" into able bodied/non-able bodied stuff. So your normal "sorting phone, money..." which apparently sometimes people find stressful (seriously, i have to laugh when i see my friends getting stressed by this student finance lark...it is nothing compared to the extra i have to put up with!) Though...as i'm finding right now...it's an extra add-on!

So travelling as a paraplegic 19 yr old with a fringe...
Within Britain...easy. Just attach a wire to top of your boot and shove what you can in there and bam!

Not so simple across seas and continents and as many frank turner-type explanations i can explain my life with...

If you have meds, which admittedly i do, (mainly for acne) you've got to get them in bulk as we
(Britain) are blessed with the NHS and don't want to be paying full wack in another country. The amount i need to take isn't so bad, and if you go face to face to your surgery and say, as I did,"I'm Laura May, i'm going to Canada for 4 months on my gap year and i need that much supply for my medication that's on repeat prescription..." They're pretty good an are like "ok!"
(despite the NHS website saying that a Doctor can only supply 2 months...which proves, as usual, if you just "go for it" you can get it..)

Catheters anyone? i now use coloplast ones and let's face it, i wee a lot!
An interesting occurrence occurred yesterday...i called coloplast to explain and ask if i could get 4 months supply sent over. They're not allowed to...and i found out some really interesting stuff too! apparently  a little box of 30 coloplast speedicath compact catheters is worth £50...so yes, i worked out that every time i go to the toilet, it is worth £1.67 (rounded up)...sad? Of course i am.
So...i could take 750 catheters over the sea and even more land...but what i'm going to do is get my parent to send them over in month-month supply through a courier as again, it would be so much cheaper than buying it when i get to Canada...£50 a week? C-razy!
So that's moving along...but then the interesting occurrence occurred when the lovely lady on the phone noticed that my GP hadn't payed for my prescription for the last few months and i luckily had enough to cover what i needed...otherwise i wouldn't have been able to get catheters. This has happened in the past and apparently happens a lot...it's all to do with the fact that instead of faffing around running back and to to the doctors and chemist i just call up chartered healthcare and they sort all that stuff and i get my catheters delivered the next day...which is great! it's just not when the "professionals" don't do what they should to make life easier...
Hopefully it will all be sorted and i think a renewal for my prepayment prescription certificate is on the cards...don't think i received my last one in the post...even though i did pay!
Oh and then there's the almost faff of trying to sort out getting an indwelling catheter...and needing a travel certificate as you know tubes on legs and stuff...i got a bit of hassle in belfast when they found my intermittent catheters let alone one attached!

So there's a tiny chunk of a day i managed to bundle an hours skiing, mcdonalds and a few rows of knitting into as well...things are getting there and all is good. I'm sad, i get a weird buzz out of getting stuff moving..but it's just me, and i'm lucky i can grab it and do it...

There's a lot more stuff to do!

Sunday 6 January 2013

Mum's gone viral!

No...she hasn't...there's just a few gifs floating around the internet of Jonnie peacock and Adam Hill sitting on Josh Widdecombe's knee and she's in the background...
(She's the woman in the orange cardigan on the left...!!!)
Enjoy!

I wish there was one of her face at Adam's...that was the best face to ever be on a gif...ever!



Saturday 5 January 2013

Quick response to a newspaper cartoon: British government's attitude towards people with disabilities, and i mean "real ones"...

This sums up the current British government’s attitude towards disability pretty well…”oh wow you can win a marathon, you don’t need dla…”
Followed a link on twitter today...and there was simple but informative article in the mirror about how many actually think the paralympics has had  a negative effect upon people's perceptions of disability..

Now, as a very bad person (apologises to History skills) I'm going to sort of sit on the fence, but dangle two legs over one side...personally, i think the paralympics have been great for what people think of people like "me" as not only, to be a paralympian or just cool like me and do cool things, i have to adapt and use different things to function as an "ordinary" human being and then on top of that to do the things i do...well...i just do extra..A lot of people are now aware of that, (and have been for sometimes) but instead of going 'oh isn't she marvellous?" every time i roll into town...now they don't need to!  Which is good, right? But sadly some people only see the superhuman mask, which being big headed, we deserve...but some, especially those who think they know it all, like our government, forget the "human" side.

So here's my initial reaction to the article/cartoon:
No, you Tory twonks. if i, and a lot of other people didn’t have dla we wouldn’t have the money to do ordinary stuff that then enables us and allows us to do ordinary stuff that then enables us and allows us to do “amazing things”…what i do, doesn’t just come out of thin air it comes from me being able to afford, thanks to dla, petrol so i can travel independently, wheelchairs, prescriptions, extra medical supplies, rent is higher in accessible housing(when you can find it) the list goes on….being a para is expensive and in order to be ‘me’ i have to have the tools to make myself into who i am…but sadly this government will probably take away benefits from people like me but will allow lazy arseholes who refuse to have ambition and are quite happy sitting at home, slip through the net. while people like me who yes, have physical “issues” but are open and adapt and strive to live life to the full will suffer…Do they not realise that these cuts to people who are able to work will make amazing, skilled people stuck at home and won’t be able to work and so..hmmm triple dip recession? So not only will people not be able to get in shops to spend money (access here is shit)…they won’t be able to work in the first place and that, my friends is why i am like…you know what, I’ll do what i do and hope that i enlighten myself and a few others and be happy. Sometimes, most often to be honest, you can change the world without trying.

I'm sure you can all pick at it, and argue...but seriously...