Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Day 12: Financial House Arrest:

Balance sheet: No change. Bank penalties due to insufficient funds $70 and climbing.

DH has been under house arrest for two days as she doesnt have the bus fare or the price of a latte to make it worth going out... Just as well the fridge is well-stocked. OK, so she and daughter are not starving because if worst comes to the worst she can put the hard word on someone.

And though she had to go cold turkey off some of her medications when they ran out, as it will be weeks before she gets her pension card and she cant afford them otherwise, its not life-threatening, just uncomfortable, and means she doesnt get enough sleep and snaps at her daughter.

She is doing this blog not because she is really in despair, but because she wants it on the record that this can happen to well-educated, competent, formerly middle-class women.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for putting this on the record and in fact thank you very much for writing this entire blog. A friend in Sydney sent me your url. While I'm not in public housing (5 year waiting list for Melbourne's northern 'burbs) I do have PTSD, a 3 year old and a partner also with PTSD and other health problems, and only intermittant casual call centre employment. I am also studying for a BA with the fading hope that it might benefit my family in the future.

It has been very hard for me not to see my problems as some sort of punishment or something of my own making in some convoluted unconscious way. IOW to feel shame and try to hide. I can see that your story is simple and straight forward and that our stories are very alike.

Anonymous said...

Like anonymous, I too can relate to your financial sruggles and having to live without meds.

At times, I've been under 'house arrest' for 2 years plus for those very reasons... I have a DH tenant, and having Lymphoedema doesn't help.

I would also like to thank you for this blog. A Housing Tenant Advocate pointed me to your blog today, and I haven't been able to stop reading...

Have you thought of getting a book published on this entire blog alone? I'm sure it'd be a best seller.. there are certainly enough disabled as well as DH tenants out there to be in aggree-ance with you.

Cheers,
TS