I don't know if any of your remember, about three weeks ago my husband was in hospital with pneumonia, (he was discharged at the week-end).
I had been trying to get Attendance Allowance for months as we were housebound because of his illness and I was his carer 24/7. They kept telling me he was not ill enough to claim Attendance allowance even though I was up 4/5 times a night because of his breathing problem. He has been in hospital three times this year with pneumonia.
I wrote to my MP but only received confirmation of my letter. I emailed the Lung Foundation who told me to ring Age Concern, who told me to ring Age UK, I rang a couple of times and they promised to ring back but with the Hospital visiting I could not be sure if I would be back in time.
At the hospital I met an old friend I used to work with many, many years ago, she was now a Lung specialist. She told me to write to the City council, Welfare Department and tell them my story, I received a reply telling me to ring them when my husband comes out of hospital and when I received the next refusal for AA. and they would come to our house and help us with the forms.
Last week a lady rang me from the AA and asked a few questions, she knew things that I had not told them because when I sent in the last appeal my husband had not been taken into hospital so I assume she had been making enquiries about us with other people. The next day I received a letter confirming we had been awarded the higher rate of AA.
Since then a lot of things have come together, we now have a Community Matron, the physio is coming to see us (we were going to buy our own wheelchair but they are going to lend us one to see how I go on with it first before spending £100's on one.) the Pulmonary Rehab are coming to our house to see my husband because the Matron says he is not fit enough to attend classes at the moment. We went to the Blue Badge assessment yesterday and they did not ask my husband to walk as he was not too good at all, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for that. (They kindly lent us a wheelchair, even though they state on their paperwork they do not loan them to people to get to and from the car-park) which we really appreciated, otherwise he could not have got there.
I cannot believe after months of stress filling in forms after forms that things are now settling down, even all the hospital appointments the consultant organised for my husband are coming through, so when we see the specialist in a few weeks time everything should be there for them to assess.
I cannot thank this forum enough for all the help and support they gave me when I was at my lowest, I am 70 years old, luckily fit as a fiddle, don't take any medication apart from Asthma Medication, but the stress was killing me, our electric bills were high due to the heating being on 24/7, as you know when it is cold breathing is difficult. We did not leave the house for 8 months apart from hospital appointments, the taxis cost us a fortune as there were never any parking places near the hospital. The only respite I got was when my husband went into hospital, my sons told me to miss a day or two and they would go in my place. It was wonderful, but still worried about my husband so did not get the full advantage of my day off.
Sorry for the rant, but thank you all so much for your help, it does mean a lot when we know we are not alone and there are others going through the same thing.
Best wishes to all.
newly diagnosed with copd
My dad graduated from ICU today! Severe Pneumonia 
COPD symptoms 
