I'm incredibly lucky. I've been on Disability Support Pension for coming up to eight years. It's a bitch to get on.
The forms break my heart. It is so hard to focus on every single thing I can't do. After the first few years I learnt that I need to focus on the good things in my time. Surround myself with people who understand that I need cheering up, to focus on my abilities and not my disabilities. And it's not like the forms are the basics, either. They're so thorough and horrible. And it's not just the form I need to fill out, it's going to the doctor and having them ask me all the questions and assessing exactly what I can't do and to what extent I can't.
I love my GP. I travel to the other side of the city to see her when it's time for my forms to be filled out. She knows how to fill them out properly, with the ridiculous details. And she doesn't ask me too many questions. She knows the answers, then asks me for clarification on things if she needs to.
It's just so fucking horrible.
But I'm so lucky. I got my application turned down initially, but appealed and got it approved. There's no lawyers or anything involved here, doctors make the decisions. Our system makes SENSE.
Heaps of medications are on the PBS (pharmaceutical benefits scheme) here, so they are heavily subsided for absolutely everyone. Since I'm on a pension, I get any meds on the PBS for only $5.80 each (or something like that), even if I'm on a high dose.
Same thing with xrays, ultrasounds, blood tests - they're covered by medicare and don't cost me anything. And when I first got sick, I had so many fucking ultrasounds, xrays, blood tests and so on. There were lots of things that cost my parents a lot of money, and then there was the huge guilt for that. Them spending all their money on endoscopies and crazy doctors and acupuncturists and naturopaths and chiros and and and and and.
no subject
The forms break my heart. It is so hard to focus on every single thing I can't do. After the first few years I learnt that I need to focus on the good things in my time. Surround myself with people who understand that I need cheering up, to focus on my abilities and not my disabilities. And it's not like the forms are the basics, either. They're so thorough and horrible. And it's not just the form I need to fill out, it's going to the doctor and having them ask me all the questions and assessing exactly what I can't do and to what extent I can't.
I love my GP. I travel to the other side of the city to see her when it's time for my forms to be filled out. She knows how to fill them out properly, with the ridiculous details. And she doesn't ask me too many questions. She knows the answers, then asks me for clarification on things if she needs to.
It's just so fucking horrible.
But I'm so lucky. I got my application turned down initially, but appealed and got it approved. There's no lawyers or anything involved here, doctors make the decisions. Our system makes SENSE.
Heaps of medications are on the PBS (pharmaceutical benefits scheme) here, so they are heavily subsided for absolutely everyone. Since I'm on a pension, I get any meds on the PBS for only $5.80 each (or something like that), even if I'm on a high dose.
Same thing with xrays, ultrasounds, blood tests - they're covered by medicare and don't cost me anything. And when I first got sick, I had so many fucking ultrasounds, xrays, blood tests and so on. There were lots of things that cost my parents a lot of money, and then there was the huge guilt for that. Them spending all their money on endoscopies and crazy doctors and acupuncturists and naturopaths and chiros and and and and and.
I fucking hate the whole thing. I HATE IT.