Hiya,
Welcome to Zimmer World where we are battling the NHS and the (doesn’t) care system with one rich tea biscuit at a time. I have set up this site to record my parents experiences of dealing with dementia and growing old. The blogs are a slightly fictionalised account of what its like to live with somebody who has dementia (my dad) and what its like having to deal with all the separate agencies required to live and die in your own home.
Where hospital visits are like magical mystery tours when the doctor tells you to go home and contact your GP and your GP tells you to go back to the hospital…………on the same day. Where you arrive by ambulance but leave by taxi because the NHS and the SAS have different rules. Where closing a Post Office account becomes a Kafkaesque nightmare that takes three months and costs you money to get a letter from an NHS doctor. Such is life in the bizarre world of the Scottish care system. Encountering answering machines, A.I. doctors, nurses, district nurses, orthopedic specialists, physiotherapists, social workers, carers, hospitals, councils, ambulance booking systems and robotic humans. It is aimed at the elderly and their carers and and the intention is to tell the truth about what its like being old living in a hi- rise flat with humanity dignity and hopefully a bit of humor or if you just want to listen to some music click on dads playlist for life, but be warned it contains Slim Whitman.
The stories are mostly written by stepping into my parents slippers as a proxy for how they may view their experiences as they are unable to use a computer. Most of the blogs are told in their voice, the voice of the voiceless working class Scottish elderly and in their dialect. A Trainspotting for the nonagenarian, if you like, where the drugs are Thiamine and Finasteride rather that Heroin and CocaineĀ and where two wheels and a set of ski’s is not a Harley and your rig out for Aspen.Ā Prepare yourself for zimmerworld because one day it may be you.
Zimmer World 