Hi, I’m new here. Forgive me for the long post, I have had no one to talk to about any of this, ever. I’m 42 and married to an Army veteran aged 62 with COPD on top of his old injuries etc. He was only actually diagnosed 4 yrs ago after about 2 yrs of permanent illness and me nagging him to see a doctor. He is already quite ill with it, we add to the mix needing a CPAP at night with vaporiser, he is overweight as he is in a catch 22 situation, he cant do much as injuries ( 5 x major ops on feet, with pins and bone grafts, scar tissue, nerve damage, 24/7 pain, restricted foot movements and cant wear most shoes, resorted to some sandals but wide feet make this a tricky find, socks cause pain too) restrict his mobility considerably, add to that the gasping for breath with the copd, so he gets fatter, gets less mobile more breathless and so on. between us we have 6 children, 3 are adults but not in touch, 3 live with us but are all in full time education/too young to help and I work full time as the only income provider. he gets lowest pip and isn’t entitled to anything else. Its becoming really apparent to both of us the future is looking grim. We currently live in temporary accommodation awaiting a council home, we know its only a matter of time before he will not cope with going upstairs anymore and climbing in and out of a bathtub for a shower is already incredibly difficult, however even after talking to the landlord, he is not permitted to change it to a walk in shower or wet room. the council don’t care as he isn’t on highest mobility pip yet, to be honest just getting basic pip proved to be mission almost impossible despite all his actual medical proof. I’m really worried about the future.
Hi Lyndsey
As ex services your husband might well be entitled to help from Ssafa and other speciifc charities such as Help for Heroes.
Even if they can’t help financially they will help him check he is getting all the benefits he is entitled to, and be supportive
Here’s some links
https://www.ssafa.org.uk/
He should surely be on highest PIP?
The links shown are probably the best place to start.
Were the injuries sustained during his forces time?
Is there any financial support from them at all such as forces pension?
There are special conditions attached to forces pensions in cases of illness so you might want to look into that also.
You say that you have never had anyone to talk to about any of this.
It’s time for you to have some counselling. Can SSAFA help with this? Your GP might refer you, or maybe if you had a Carers Assessment then you could ask for counselling as part of the support you needed. I now have it included in my package.