Home visit from ATOS on Wednesday 6th

Thank you for your advice. I'm on my own with this, my nearest family is 300 miles away. Plus, I am still very tired and feeling fragile and depressed following my surgery 4 weeks ago. I am reading and rereading all the info that you have here. One thing though, I will not lie, I will tell it like it is. I may feel better if I could eat properly but, I am too depressed to cook and with arthritis in my hands I can't use knives etc. so I eat crisp sandwiches or soup.

I have a little dog for company and my ex husband has offered to have him with him for when ATOS come. Do you think that would be best? Otherwise he will bark all the time!

I am just so confused about everything today.

Thank you for your help and advice. Because I can go blank halfway through talking about something do you think it would be acceptable for me to write down my conditions one by one and say how they affect me? It seems that the assessor can go through the questions on the form. I do have a copy of the completed form but, all the answers may not be stored in my mind, especially with being a bit nervous. I have been diagnosed with a heart condition since sending back the form so they won't know about that. I will be alone with the assessor as I have no-one who can be with me, and that feels a bit daunting. But I guess they can only say 'NO', they can't shoot me! But if I don't get something life is going to be difficult because I use my DLA to buy things for my conditions which the NHS don't provide, such as incontinence pads, they provide them for bladder incontinence but they are not suitable for bowel incontinence, so I need to be able to buy those and they are not cheap. I think I would feel more confident with my answers written down if it is allowed.

I hope this goes through as the last time I replied it didn't seem to!

Thank you Gordon.

I couldn't get to sleep last night so I got up and typed up my conditions and how they affect me in Word and will print it off after going through it today. There are some that I didn't mention on the form so I am hoping this may fill in any gaps.

Well, this time tomorrow it will all be over and I begin the waiting game for the brown envelope!

In case I don't get PIP I looked at the form for Attendance Allowance and it looks more complicated than the PIP one, so, if it comes to that I will certainly need your help filling that one in.

\I always thought our 'golden' years were supposed to be peaceful and happy!

Well, I've had my assessment this morning and I feel it went well. She had a copy of my PIP form and basically went through the questions and I was able to add things that I had forgotten to expand on when filling out the form. She said she will write her report tonight and I should hear something in 4 to 8 weeks.

So, it's fingers crossed as I wait for the brown envelope!