Oh you're gonna love this one! Bit convoluted but hear this one out. (don't be pedantic about the hear) Anyhoo, Last year my husband and me moved to a lovely village in Lincolnshire, nice old Georgian house and perfect for us. Last November my older brother came to live with us as his wife had left me, he has heart failure and arthritis and other and numerous complaints and illnesses. He is now going through a very difficult divorce. Right now to the matter that matters. I telephoned Age Concern, not being sure if there was any help we might be able to get for him. They told me that I could register as his carer, I am retired so no worries. They also said that because my brother has great difficulty getting in and out of the bath to shower that I might be able to go through adult social care and the local council to have a walk in shower installed. Yay all simple so far you may think, but NO, we had the Occupational Therapist come round and she wanted us to get a letter from the heart failure nurse who my brother sees to ensure that he wasn't putting any strain on his heart by going up the stairs to bed and come down of a morning, we have downstairs facilities so my brother does not need to use or keep going up and down the stairs all day. In fact he is almost chair bound once he comes down of a morning. We got the heart failure nurse to ring the OT and tell her that some form of exercise will not be detrimental to his heart. Oh i forgot he has a defibrillator fitted inside his body. In the meantime the OT said that we could knock down a wall in my sitting room to make a bedroom and shower downstairs and or have a stair lift fitted (you would have to see the stairs). Now my brother is a big man and the stair lift isn't cheap, Still no walk in shower upstairs, (his bedroom is right opposite the bathroom) If they fitted the stair lift he still wouldn't be able to get up as the stairs are very narrow and he would hit his knees on the wall going up (I think the council must have a thing with the stair lift company). All sounds fun so far, but now it gets even better as they could also move him out to a floor level flat, not near here mind you about 20 miles away, which I will then need a car to get there and not just that he would get lonely and is already depressed what with personal matters and other things. Men are not always social creatures. Who is going to cook for him, clean, do the ironing, make sure he takes his medication of which there are a myriad pills and potions for the various illnesses I have already mentioned. Still no offer of a walk in shower upstairs. Did I mention that my brother is also awaiting knee replacements and this adds to the aforementioned chair boundless (if you can say that) OT wants a letter from the surgeon who is going to operate on his knees now. Needless to say I told her to stick it somewhere the sun don't shine! This has been going on since February this year. Angry, you could say that, no I am LIVID. Obviously a walk in shower will cost £1000 at most, stair lift £5000, Knocking out walls and messing with the layout of MY fine Georgian home goodness only knows. Please can anyone see the sense in this?
Nicola Sturgeon’s husband re-arrested
