Thankful, Or At Least I Will Be

So. The 3 Fates, none of them toothless, sadly, have decided that I am, in fact, disabled enough to have the higher rate of the mobility component DLA (again). A year of wrangling culminated in  I feel sort of numb; it isn't exactly something to celebrate, is it, having official acknowledgment that I am f*$%*d. F*$%*d good and proper, like so many of my patients. At least I can speak, and write, and make myself heard, and I had loads of moral support (including Rolos being telepathically beamed at me by @lumpinthethroat when I couldn't find any). I have spent the last 11 years advocating for people in my role as an SLT; now, I need to figure out how best to do it in a way that doesn't involve 4 hours of commuting and beating the hell out of myself.

Oh, and I did manage one other tiny little thing today: my first round of edits is done, and the MS sent off, so that my primary supervisor can have a read through all of the poems and short stories in my M Res collection. If anyone has any ideas about how a poet goes about training as an advocate, or doing whatever I need to do to help other people in the same crappy sinking boat, I am all ears.

Not Disabled Enough, But Not Able Enough Either

Wondering why, if it is against the 'rules' to consider where I work, or the sort of work I do, when determining whether I meet the eligibility criteria for the higher rate of Mobility Allowance, the fact that I am working, and, in the course of working, cover wards in hospitals and nursing homes, has been cited as proof that I am not disabled enough?

I feel as though I am being punished for refusing to fit the stereotype of the disabled benefit scrounger. Working seems to somehow go against me. I used my DLA money to lease a car so that I could get to work and go on my rounds every day at work. Apparently the DWP would be happier offering largesse to the tune of a princely (technically 'princessly'-- just look at the gender bias inherent in the English language!) 189 pounds a month (or whatever it is...the appeal has been going on so long I don't even remember what I was getting, exactly) if I was staying indoors and out of sight.