The Goose and Carrot July Edition

[Lougle]

All welcome, and everything disappears after 90 days.

DH is painting DD room while she's away so I have gutted the room and all her drawers. Approx 12 loads of laundry, it will last about 2 days when she's home.
We have found so many frankly dangerous things in her room e.g. broken glass glued to her desk, also things she doesn't want to take to school hidden in drawers (her dictionary), pens she's taken apart, dirty underwear, food which she isn't supposed to have in her room etc etc.
DH and I have decided as well as no screens in her room we will have a craft area downstairs (some of the mess is e.g. her deciding to paint in there) and a play area just for her Lego in the play room (which might be easier now DS isn't watching as much TV as that's where he usually watches).

@Wellzizizbetter I’m sorry you are having medication problems and that is having a negative effect on DS.

I wouldn’t want several months' worth of medication at a time. We wouldn’t have anywhere to store it all. It would also result in some waste as medication changes. When DS1 first started getting incontinence products, the company wanted to deliver a few months' worth at a time. I had a meltdown. They now deliver 4 weekly.

I think the rule causes a lot of stress for cancer patients when the meds are needed to help keep them alive, and sometimes the pharmacist has to order them in and normally they won't change for 5/10 years unless you die / have serious complications. Though I wouldn't want to be storing lots of continence products.

DSs have medication that keeps them alive too. Without modern medicine, DC with their main medical condition didn’t live to see adulthood. My post wasn’t just about incontinence products. It was about medication too.

Well it was very distressing to me and the system needs to cater for everyone just not those who having once a month works.

If you actually read my posts I didn’t say it wasn’t distressing for you! I was merely posting that I wouldn’t want several months’ worth at once in response to others saying they would. It wasn’t a criticism of you personally!

Its fine. I didn't read it as a personal criticism. I probably shouldn't have said anything as it was from when I had just finished cancer treatment and DS had just been admitted to hospital so it distresses me to think about that period and that prescription rule fell into the straw that broke the camels back but could have been avoided if professionals had been thoughtful category. It was frustrating I had to get quite distressed a few times to get it changed.

Anyway dead tree is down. And DS stayed in.

A more streamlined approach would be helpful. We order on Patient Access. It would be helpful if there was a system whereby an alert is sent to the pharmacy to say 'this patient has requested the following repeat prescriptions from their GP' and the pharmacy ensures they have stock in anticipation of the prescription being authorised. I'm only allowed 12 of my migraine tablets each month, so if there is a delay I'm just in pain while they sort it. The biggest issue is that all of our meds are out of sync so I have to visit the pharmacy several times per month rather than just once.

I'd love a cupboard treatment room to store all our meds in. We overflow. I have no idea how you manage @inthequietofdawn - even your very organised system sounds like it's full to bursting.

DD1 saw the GP today and is being referred to sleep clinic. He's also increasing her melatonin. She had her ears microsuctioned at the pharmacy but we have to go back next week to get the left ear redone.

I feel your pain @Lougle - I tried to streamline my meds ordering by ordering early and they didn't like that!

Just had quote in for replacing roof on old shed and its come in at £1590 plus vat for roof and guttering presumably plus £450 plus vat for removing cement roof from before so just under £2.5k. Metal is slightly higher. Its quite a bit more than was expecting but new shed with removal of old is £9k. Similar amount of work required by us for both. New shed would need planning (should hear end August) and then maybe 3 month wait. They said can be done in a day. The removing asbestos roof was what expecting as expensive for disposal. Materials maybe £300 for roof looks like he's using plastic rather than polycarbonate I asked for so may only last 5 years though can check that with him. DS does seem to prefer old shed though but new one likely to last longer and look better. Am asking DH but he's on his way to Oxford. We could wait for planning. Have to wait for DH to go to France and come back and water butt anyway.

@Lougle sell done DD1 managing microsuction.

Next time you see the most supportive GP in the practice, you could ask them to issue one off scripts to bring you all in line. Is there a pharmacy who delivers? Although we have medication delivered, community pharmacy and homecare service, and we still have multiple deliveries a month.

I would love a dedicated room for medical supplies! It would make life much easier if everything could be in one place. That won't happen, so sticking with the area in the kitchen diner with 2 sets of 2 larder cupboards separated by worktop with drawers underneath and a white board above it is. A medication fridge and open boxes of things like gloves and wipes sit on the side. Then we also have some medical supplies/equipment in cupboards in the hallway and some in the garage.

Actually materials might be more like £450 once you add in guttering. I am double checking if the £450 plus vat is in addition or included. They told us everything could be done in a day but presumably its 4 men for 1/2 a day each.

4 men to remove sheets from a small shed and replace seems a lot. I doubt there’d be room for them all to be useful.

Ds’s meds are life preserving (and still not here). I think personally a week or even better two overlap would be less stressful. I think the whole process is ridiculously long winded and time wasteful. Here you queue for an hour to even see if it’s arrived. I take a fair bit of medication myself so I can be at the pharmacy many hours a month. There are no chairs, windows or air. No internet or phone connection, and I know more about athletes foot and corn plasters than any human being should because that’s the shelf you are stuck standing by. I’d happily pay to fix it but can’t see how.

@inthequietofdawn Boots will deliver but we have CDs amongst the meds and they can't deliver those because they use Royal Mail. My CDs used to come via DPD from PPG but that was a pain because you had to give a PIN which means you have to be in. My life is so chaotic that it's easier to go to the pharmacy really, and it's only a 4 minute walk away - I'm just a moaner. I'd love to organise their medication storage system. It's so inefficient. They log which drawer the meds go into, but then they have to search the drawer every time they need to release them. Sometimes our meds are split across 5 or 6 drawers and it's painful watching them search the drawers, especially when I know that the tiny little packet they are checking can't possibly be ours.

The head of service has emailed to say that the psychiatrist is sending a new FP10 out to the pharmacy and they'll contact me when they've got it. Madness that one mistake has needed 6 emails and 2 phonecalls to the pharmacy, plus whatever communication has happened at their end!

Excitingly, I've discovered that there is a canoe/kayaking club about 4 miles away from us, and their membership is really reasonable. I think it's £93 for a year for the whole family. Membership includes free Paddle UK courses to become competent on the water, then after that you can kayak/canoe every Sunday and they have trips to various places, too. They even lend the equipment as part of it, although you can pay an extra £20 per year to store your own kayak there. DD3 & DH are very excited, and DD2 has said she'll give it a go. Unfortunately, it's not viable for DD1, but it would relieve the 'I need to go kayaking' itch for DD3 and hopefully build her group confidence again.

I've finally got the MoneyCarer/Zempler accounts sorted. They need to work on their 'how to' guide because they seemed really surprised when I phoned to say that if I didn't have permission to spend money it wouldn't work, and they said 'Oh no, that's all done through Zempler. MoneyCarer portal is just a viewing area...' For something that is meant to make carers' lives easier, it seems unnecessarily convoluted.

DD2 isn't feeling well. Nothing specific but looking very pale and very tired. I might need to get her some blood tests. It's hard to work out if she's ill or burned out.

I have so much to do but my head is spinning and I'm a bit paralysed by it all so I'm ostriching, which is frustrating but I know I have to just accept it or it will last longer.

From what they've said its 2 companies working together so one lot of 2 guys comes at 8am or so and takes down asbestos shed roof and disposes of it. They leave. This part is £450 plus vat so £540 which seems quite reasonable as its specialist disposal.

Then at 10am I presume 2 guys from the other firm come and then put on the new shed roof and guttering. This we have been quoted £1,590 plus vat for like for like but the quote has come from firm 1 not firm doing it. They will also have to get the materials in. They said will be done same day. This quote seems high though but I am clarifying if it includes the £450 or not, way its phrased it looks like not but quote is a bit of a mess and has our address in a different village and refers to garage roof. So overall with vat its either £1,900 or nearly £2500.

Just said doesn't include asbestos removal so its £2450 with vat for both, seems very high. But we don't know yet if we will even get planning or if DS would cooperate with a new shed. New shed is c£8000 plus £1k for removing old so £9k.

I am clarifying the plastic type, AI says it will last 5 years unless polycarbonate when it estimates 20. £2,450 is a lot for 5 years though having said that if its what DS prefers, his PIP/UC can cover that, its gives us 5 years breathing space but does feel about £800 over what it should be.

DH said it was fibre cement type 6 2 panels - it maybe there's more materials than I realise.

Wellzizizbetter that sounds horrendous. It the problem with the meds the pharmacy or a supply issue. I know you are rural so I don't suppose you can easily move pharmacy.

inthequietofdawn I can see why you don't want three months supply if there are storage issues and changes of medication to consider.

Surely there needs to be a more flexible system depending on the meds involved. Here we get 2 months supply for most things which is fine as it gives time to reorder without a big build up (although we don't have so much that storage is a major problem).

lougle good news about the kayaking place. I hope you can get to the bottom of the DD2's unwellness easily.

After 8 months Dd has finally got a reply from DVLA re her provisional licence - telling her she needs a medical. Fortunately it is at our own surgery with a GP who has seen her before. A new doctor who knows nothing of her history would be really difficult.

@NoHaudinMaWheest good luck with the medical. What a pain waiting all that time to be told a medical is needed.

@Lougle if DD1 would like it, you could look at accessible water sports or wet wheels.

I hope the new prescription is correct and DD2 feels better soon. That’s a shame about the pharmacy. For the items coming from a community pharmacy, we use a local pharmacy rather than a national chain. They have their own vans and drivers to deliver in-house so our CDs aren’t a problem.

@NoHaudinMaWheest I'm glad it's her normal GP but how frustrating to wait 8 months to be told that it's needed! Crazy. Are you well? I always worry when you go quiet because you never complain (unlike me - I'm a right moaning Minnie!).

@Tulipandmagnolia I might have missed it in the detail, but apart from being asbestos, does the roof actually need to be replaced? You could get it encapsulated for a few hundred pounds and then there would be no need to replace it if it's otherwise in good condition.

The roof my guess it would be better to be replaced though I'm not that sure what its condition is there are a lot of leaves/sticks on it from the 2 big trees behind though one has just gone and its all above my head. DS has sat on it on a big cushion and walked on it. I think its watertight and water issue is the guttering DS took off. The one guy from thatched company who came broke a chunk of the asbestos off. Its a bit wonky looking.

This is shed roof picture from couple of months ago. That big trunk is dead tree which has gone.

NHMW how has DS been with the fringe? Has he managed to find a balance that doesn’t leave him exhausted?

Its quite hard to reach shed roof on 2 sides as its 45cms to fence unless you do ninja warrior like DS. The guy yesterday said it definitely does have asbestos in it. I was clearing it but got nervous when DH said about asbestos and DS will touch it.