Convalescents: Does anyone know a way of getting... - Thyroid UK

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Convalescents

carolr profile image
17 Replies

Does anyone know a way of getting cheep convalescents.

The wonderful NHS take me off my meds. Put me in a psychiatric

Hospital. Twice while GP's go into

denial. They even lost my notes.

I was fed and watered and injected. I did complain.

I am get too weak to cope.

I am living with a friend she not much better.

I know the only thing is a posh hotel.. Or a OAP home.

I am not old enough.

My husband who died a few years ago. Was a railway man but their convalesce is £400 a week.

Short term OAP homes are about the same.

I just need a meal and a roof.

And a bit of fresh air.

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carolr profile image
carolr
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17 Replies
yorkshiregirl44 profile image
yorkshiregirl44

Hi,

Sorry to hear that you are struggling at the moment. In your post you said you needed a meal, a roof and fresh air but no mention of any support. Are you unwell at the moment or are you recovering from an illness.

There are lots of agencies that can help people with varies needs, for example housing or community care to support people to live independantly in their own homes.

Maybe it would be useful to let is know what your immediate needs. Your local social services department should be able to offer you a community care assessment to find out exactly what needs you do have and provide a package of care for you which can include respite care.

Hope this helps

carolr profile image
carolr in reply to yorkshiregirl44

I am living off my savings and spending it on doctors as I have both Lyme and hormone problems. The money is diminishing. Hence social services say I can pay the £400. Adult care.

The local hospital got a nurse to assess me twice when they put me on the ward.

She just walked away saying I needed treatment not accessing.

I've been ill for a long time years. I agree I need treatment only the NHS don't know what they are looking at. I've been really bad since

August attending out of hours GP and A and E.

A and E just send me home.

Neither want to treat me.

I phone the private doc.

It's up to A and E to talk to him but they don't.

So I get bounced.

I've had neurologists and cardiologists and endocrineologist look at me

they don't take any notice of the private tests.

The private doc says I am very ill. But the the local hospital just either send me home. Or to the local mental hospital. Even when I arrived by ambulance with a high temperature and blood pressure. I found the paramedics had recorded my temperature as normal.

My blood pressures been in the 200's twice over the last six months.

I complained to the health care Ombusman and nothing.

If you can walk to the toilet then your out of the hospital.

There was a women who had 20 fits on my ward in the last 3 days. They wanted her out and home.

Addenbrooks Hospital took a summons out on a patient who had been there for six months. she had a brain operation.

Her home was not suitable and she didn't like anything they offered her. So she had to live with her daughter.

Carol

alangardner profile image
alangardner

as you say that your husband was a railway man , have you tried the union .....because even after retirement the member & and their immediate family [ in the case of some unions ] are still entitled to certain benefits .....this could well be worth investigating .....alan x

carolr profile image
carolr in reply to alangardner

Alan, I will look. My GP told me to self refer for physio in October they have just told me I am not suitable. I said I need a massage when I am bad maybe once a month and acupuncture.

All they are intrested in is a quick fix and show me how to excersize. When I can't walk because my biochemistry has gone wrong. What's excersize going to do. I need care near my home.

The Spa hotel up the road would be good they have a gym sauna and food.

My Lyme doc says I need a sauna for the Lyme and a massage to get the toxins moved. But it costs. They don't do cheap.

Carol

Hi carior, sorry you having a rough time.Do you mean you have £400 to spend? I dont know which part of the country you live but if you need fresh air and good food could you not go and stay at the coast in a bnb or maybe in the countryside at a farmhouse etc.Some hospitals use a special convalesce home sk maybe your local hospital could advice.If this is not the sort of thing you mean try contacting social services .Hope you get fixed upGood Luck.

carolr profile image
carolr in reply to

They expect me to pay £400.

eeng profile image
eeng

How about a youth hostel with a cafe close by? How mobile are you? It would be cheap and they are in nice areas with lots of fresh air. You don't have to be member or 'youth'. How long would you need to be there?

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator

Have you been diagnosed with a thyroid gland problem? Why did they stop your medication? Have your had a recent blood test for your thyroid gland? If so, can you get a copy of them, with the ranges, and post on a new question. If you haven't had a blood test recently ask for one to be done, also Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, iron, ferritin and folate.

I am sorry you are having such problems but many professionals don't know the clinical symptoms of untreated/undiagnosed thyroid gland problems.

carolr profile image
carolr in reply to shaws

Shaws, Most endos let alone

Other doctors don't understand don't want to understand. I've seen 6 endos since 1980 or so.

My 1st endo seemed interested in me he held my hand and said I obviously had an endocrine problem.

I had high prolactin. No record was made of this to my GP.

The endo put idiopathic low T3 syndrome on the blood test formed.

I was on T3 for a few months. Then I got over dosed. I was then given dexamethsone. It put my blood pressure in my boots.

The endo didn't know what to do he told me that endocrinology was in the darkages. He told me but not my GP that he didn't think it was psychosomatic.

I moved GP's said they were not interested in some weird

Hormone problems.

But if I insisted they would call me mad.

I have been put on 600 cal diets.

Then Leicester Royal inf.

Did two 24hr urines.

The endo said I didn't have

Cushings. I got hold of my 24hr urines.

I found I had 11 Hydroxcortisol missing.

The endo ignored the problem as well as my GP.

I need Prozac.

I saw a endo last year.

I said I think I have CAH.

He said that I had not.

It's gone on like that and the Lyme the NHS has been just as bad. I needed psychiatric care even with positive bloods.

I complained nothing was done.

Carol

carolr profile image
carolr in reply to shaws

shaws, I have had a number of tests recently. As well as ones in the past. But the NHS is not able to understand them. It chooses to ignore. I don't look right but they still say there's nothing wrong. Even when private tests show there is.

So I have to pay.

I spent £300 at one private hospital. I am telling them what blood tests mean. It's been like that for a long time.

Going to private doctors. I refused to see the diatition

Which was most of this cost

then I spoke to two they tried to tell me it was my food.

When I knew it was not as I had already been staved in the past. I am handing money over to people who know less than me. I am seeing Barry Peatfield this month. I already know I have high normal RT3. But it's been ignored and high cortisol and missing 11 Hydroxcortisol. All ignored by the NHS.

I did have training as therapist years ago. So I read and I am on the internet.

Carol

shaws profile image
shawsAdministrator in reply to carolr

I am glad you are going to see Dr Peatfield and hope he can help you in some way. I read a book 'Tears Behind Closed Doors' (you might be able to borrow a copy from Thyroiduk.org's library for the cost of postage) and it seems that many people get on a roundabout and have so many diagnosis except one that will make them better.

I do hope you can get sorted out.

Best wishes

scatterbrain profile image
scatterbrain

Sorry, but why does it have to be a posh hotel? I don't really understand. There are lots of reasonable bed and breakfast places around the country that supply meals or will provide them at reasonable cost, many of them are less than £400 a week, are you physically unable to cook for yourself in which case have you applied for PIP for care which isn't means tested--even David Cameron got it for his disabled son and he is a millionaire?

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to scatterbrain

I assumed Carol was contrasting a posh hotel with an oap home (one extreme or the other).

DLA/PIP is a good idea, but if my last DLA application is anything to go on, you need specialist help to fill it in successfully. Aside from the application being about 40 pages long, you had to use a lot of coded language to be successful in your application. I used the Disability Rights Handbook - don't know if that is still going or not - but my friend who is visibly disabled with RA applied through the CAB and was turned down.

It has been a long time since I worked with disabled people but my understanding is that the CAB are no longer any good with this sort of thing. I wonder what the statistics are for applicants vs successful applicants these days. I reckon you need a specially trained worker from a disability organisation behind you to succeed. Maybe someone else will know of something suitable - ?

scatterbrain profile image
scatterbrain in reply to puncturedbicycle

I have been on DLA for 17 years and have always filled in the forms myself, I get both mobility and care but these are for pre-thyroid issues so don't know how many people who apply on thyroid grounds are successful. The forms are daunting to begin with but I do it bits at a time and they aren't actually that bad once you start. :)

puncturedbicycle profile image
puncturedbicycle in reply to scatterbrain

I used to dread it for months and it never got any easier so when I was denied in the end I was a little relieved (but my circumstances had changed so it was not as much of a financial blow as it would have been earlier). Then years later they told me they had overpaid me for years and asked me to repay the overpayments. Thank goodness I had saved all my copies and could prove I had notified them of all changes etc and after a wrangle (here the CAB were very helpful) they dropped it. I feel sick just thinking about it.

I used to think that if you were eligible for mobility - with visible disabling mobility issues - that your chances were better, but my friend with RA has trouble walking and standing and she was not successful. For goodness sake, I had a friend in a wheelchair whose partner was a disability worker who was rejected (and bizarrely asked by the doctor examining her if she had accepted Jesus into her life, but that's a story for a different day).

I suspect that it is harder to get disability benefits now as a first-time applicant (which Carol may or may not be, I'm not making assumptions) than it is to carry on but I'm no longer involved with benefits (professionally or personally) so who knows. It does not look like it is getting any easier for disabled people, quite the contrary. :-(

scatterbrain profile image
scatterbrain

Just to clarify, David Cameron got DLA for his son but that has changed so new applicants apply for PIP instead which is replacing DLA and is to deal with the associated costs of disability.

carolr profile image
carolr

I got DLA at the low rate. I don't know if I can up grade it?

I've had to fill in the forms twice with the aid of one of the clarks at the job centre. He's not supposed to do it. The disabled officer likewise said she was not able to do it either . . It's who can trick who.

A walking stick might help.

I can't get very far without my car.

I saw that it's only the higher rate that gives u 50%

Off car tax and a disabled badge.

I saw the medical officer for the DHS.

He said I should be on perminate disability. He said I looked like I had

Pituitary condition. But the endos just ignore me.

But the DHS have put me on this employment and support.

I thought about doing some knitting to get a few bob.

But have been too ill other than sit and sleep in a chair in frount

Of the TV .

Carol

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