Why I need help:

Here I will tell you about what I want, why I need it & what help has been given to me & the help I have sought out.

 The NHS doctors have either done all they can, or admit they don't know what's causing my symptom, so they can't help me. Therefore I need money for private treatment, to get some thing's I know would help but the NHS's budget can't afford. This includes items such as custom made splints & specialist private consultations. I had to beg for money from strangers as the NHS was unable to give me a wheelchair that I was able to sit in for longer than 5-10 minutes. I also need private consultations with specialists that know about more rare conditions such as Ehlers Danlos and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, and can suggest treatment so help lessen my symptoms and suffering. 

To achieve this I need your help. 

I am being realistic and not expecting that I will be able to afford everything on my lists, nor that one consultation with each professional is going to be enough.

Just raising a few hundred for one consultation with a urologist will not mean they diagnose me right then and there; usually the first consultation is mostly discussion about my symptoms, how long I have had the problems, other health condition, what (many) doctors I have previously seen and what investigations they have done. But I know there has to be somebody who can help eradicate my kidney infection.

And with physiotherapy and hydrotherapy after a full assessment they will be able to give me suitable exercises to go away and do, then I will have to come back and get some tweaked, then go away and carry them out, but come back to touch base to see if they are still appropriate as I gain strength.

Private appointments are very expensive

To give you an idea I have just received a quote from a Professor in Autonomic and Neurovascular Medicine who was recommended to me, by Rodney Graham (a renowned EDS specialist in London), to create a treatment plan for my Ehlers Danlos and the first appointment is £400, while follow appointment's will be £300. 

I also have to pay for an ambulance to take me all the way from my home in The Borders to London hospitals & back again (the only way I can travel is my stretcher)

A hotel to stay at for at least 2 nights (as I am too ill and do not have enough energy to travel and have a  hospital visit all in on day.)

 

Even if it is possible to get medical appointments in the same week,and stay at the cheapest hotel I can find (which lets face it is very hard in London!) and my Mum & I eat the cheapest food & drink possible, it is still a very expensive trip. 

 

I am aware there is no quick fix, but a step in the right direction would be better than no steps at all.

A list of private medical treatment I need to enable me to get better:

  • Follow up POTS Consultant in London who needs to perform tests so he can suggest the most appropriate medication to alleviate my symptoms (that will cost at least £2000!)
  • Specialist Ehlers Danlos physiotherapy
  • Hydrotherapy
  • Urologist to identify and treat Kidney Infection/Kidney Stones
  • A crown for a shell-of-a-tooth
  • Advice/fitting/purchasing custom splints/supports that would help me
  • Fillings/ braces
  • Somebody to be able to help keep my jaw in place- maxofacial doc?
  • An immunologist (who will actually agree to see me unlike the NHS!) to explore my Mast Cell problems & put me on tablets that keep my symptoms under control better
  • A back brace to enable me to sit upright & prevent my spine from getting more curved.

 

Also if you have any ideas of specialists that I might find useful, please suggest them to me :)

A list of items I need to reduce pain & fatigue:

  • A back brace to enable me to sit upright & prevent my spine from getting more curved, lessen pain, improve breathing etc.
  • Electric adjustable 4ft bed
  • Tall/deep soft comfy armchair with leg raiser
  • Back-lit bathroom mirror (I can't lean over the sink or my ribs pop out)
  • Custom made splints (for my wrists)
  • Custom made brace for my left shoulders (to prevent it dislocating)
  • Custon back brace (to prevent my kyphosis getting worse)
  • Custom made gloves (arthritis kind)
  • Wheelchair accessible Car (more of a wish item, but may as well put it on!)

 

 

 

A Lot of things are suggested by physios and doctors, but I have to use my own money to buy them; before I was disabled I assumed that the NHS pays for physio tools etc but they do not.

Disappointingly sometimes the suggested items aren't helpful, or make my symptoms including pain worse, so I have to either re-sell them on eBay for a fraction of what they cost me, or I donate them to charity.

An example of things I am trying to save up for is an over-bed table which I can move on my own & doesn't have lumps around the edge which makes me lifting things over impossible so I have to rely on someone else to carry out a yet another task for me. A suitable over-bed table costs about £400!

An extra long, electric adjustable bed would cost upwards of £1000 & a made to measure reclining armchair with riser & leg elevation function about £1500. Plus other aids/furniture that I can not justify spending that much money on... or realistically afford.

 

If you have made it this far down & actually read everything, thank you & well done, here is a virtual reward cookie :)