Severe M.E. Day

More than two months without blogging. I am afraid I have been rather unwell. The result has been sleeping in excess of my typical fourteen hours per day. And, when I have been awake, I have been suffering from cognitive and neurological symptoms. Nonetheless, I have been jotting notes for items. If I ever regain my faculties, I shall have plenty of material to go at.

Every year, the eighth of August is commemorated as Severe ME Day. I was too unwell to blog that day; but I did post to Facebook:

"I swing between "moderate", "severe" and "very severe". The account below describes my life as it is for the majority of the time. When I go into "very severe" mode I am paralysed by pain and am unable to move anything, even eyeballs is excruciating. Even in an emergency, in such circumstances, I should be incapable of movement to escape.

 #‎ME‬ ‪#‎MyalgicEncephalomyelitis‬ ‪#‎SEID‬"

Apologies to those with visual impairments: I do not have the energy to re-write the above.

BBC's Irresponsible Article on Electric Blankets

[Image description: electric blanket & control; courtesy Wikipedia]

In an article, entitled Use electric blankets to keep warm, says Conservative peer, the BBC has recklessly publicised a peer's comments on using electric blankets without providing any alternative perspective and omitting to give any safety advice whatsoever. The article on this occasion also does not allow for comment so firefighters, HSE personnel or others with an interest in this tale cannot qualify the item nor add alternative perspectives. Note also that the Government (here referred to as Downing Street, the residence of the UK Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer, head of the Treasury) also failed to add any further comment - including safety advice.

'The government should encourage people to use electric blankets as a "simple, practical" way to cut down on heating bills, a Conservative peer has argued.

Baroness Rawlings said this was also environmentally friendly as blankets required little electricity.

Her comments came after the government announced a deal to alleviate increases to energy bills.

…

'The answer'

In the House of Lords, Lady Rawlings, a former government whip, asked Lady Verma: "Have the government considered as a simple, practical measure encouraging people to use electric blankets?

"They are the answer to many of the government's aims. They are very green as they use little electricity and they reduce the need for so much heating in the home.

…

A Downing Street source said No 10 had nothing to add to Lady Verma's response.'

According to The Electric Blanket Institute (red text is my iteration):

Who Should NOT Use Electric Blankets?

Just as with any electrical appliance, things do occasionally go wrong with electric bedding. For example, a control may not work properly, a blanket may become bunched up which might cause an overheated condition or a heater wire might break. Therefore, it is foolish to allow infants or small children to use these products. Likewise for the same reasons, anyone who is helpless, paralyzed, insensitive to heat or incapable of understanding the control’s operation should never be allowed to use these appliances. Some elderly people with one or more of these conditions sometimes insist on having their electric blanket. Be strong and refuse them. Show “tough love” or you may regret it.

So basically, an organisation representing the interests of electric blanket manufactures/retailers does not think the elderly should necessarily use them, contrary to the peer's idiotic notion. In other words, the very folk the uninformed and frankly stupid Baroness suggests should use electric blankets are the very folk who should not.

Shame on the Baroness, the BBC and the UK Government for not highlighting the very real dangers to using electric blankets.

Please use electrical appliances with care dear reader! %)

WoWPetition Plea

For good or ill, I have just posted the following letter on my facebook status. Some 35% of my facebook friends have confirmed they have signed the petition; but I really don't think that is good enough - do you? Maybe you might be willing to write something similar yourselves. We have to do something to increase the signature count. That means ALL of us. Please take action!

[Image description: the writer in wheelchair signing a huge card

to celebrate the 65th birthday of the NHS]

Dear friends & followers,



I am severely disabled under NICE criteria and more often than not sick; house-bound the majority of the time; bed-ridden some two-thirds of the time.

I am doing something to fight for Our NHS so it does not become fragmented and expensive and unaffordable to the majority as in the USA, including the middle-class.

I am doing something to help ensure social security protections, the national insurance scheme that nearly all have paid into or contributed to in other ways (e.g. by caring for others, saving the State a fortune), is not downgraded to a USA welfare system that does not even protect children.

I am doing something to raise awareness of inequalities, unfairness, discrimination, bureaucratic bullying & intransigence; and thus standing up (metaphorically - obviously!!!) for traditional British values.

I am grateful for those of you who have already signed the WoWPetition; but many of you still have not done so (unless you're hiding your light under a bushel!). I spend much of my limited awake time and expend much of my very limited energy fighting. I have caused myself increased pain and made myself ill by attending demonstrations. Surely you can spare a couple of minutes to sign a petition, verify the email and share the petition with your followers. I am willing to listen to justifiable excuses for not doing so; but I do expect you folks to rouse yourselves and take action with me.

If you cannot even sign a petition to protect your way of life, your health, your social protections and those of your kith & kin, what does that say about you?

If it really is too much to ask, please defriend me now...

Many thanks once again to those of you who have already signed and shared WoWPetition. Together we are stronger, united, one community. My gratitude. %D

Here's the link folks:

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43154

I hope you'll sign. Please.

[Image description: the writer in wheelchair (itself adorned in WoWPetition paraphenalia) wearing a wowpetition.com T-shirt, holding WoWPetition flyers