Today is another day and I'm feeling positive!

Spent yesterday feeling rubbish.  Every time I thought about the driving license issue I started to panic and couldn't see a way out of the difficulties and then felt sick in the pit of my stomach.  This really doesn't happen very often nowadays as I can usually turn my thoughts to the positive and that gets me out of any doom and gloom but yesterday I couldn't shake it off.  Woke this morning to find really helpful suggestions in the comments section of yesterdays post.  Lesley suggested hassling the GP to see if we could get an emergency appointment, Sarah suggested contacting the GP to see if we could pay for a private appointment (not something she usually advocates I know but needs must and all that) and Ann told me about driving assessment centres.  I had heard of them but for some reason thought they were somewhere Ash would be referred to by the DVLA.  It hadn't occurred to me that we could book an assessment ourselves (and how useful it would have been when I had to stop my mum driving a couple of years ago).  Anyway there are two centres quite near us so told Ash about it this morning and suggested we contact them.  He was over the moon at the idea and I've realised that we can make it an annual event so that it's not just us  or a GP who rarely sees him saying he's fit to drive.  It will also mean that when the time comes he will be hearing from a professional that he's not safe and in a situation he's used to.  Am going to get onto it tomorrow.  This I think is another example of how taking control of a situation makes all the difference to how you feel about it.  Yesterday I couldn't see past writing back to DVLA to tell them that Ash didn't have a named consultant or an appointment at any time in the near future and thought we just had to wait for them to write back to say they were taking his license away.  Now I know we can be proactive not just now but every year so we don't have to go through this again and that makes all the difference.

Not only that but friends came over last night for a meal and we had such a lovely time AND I've just finished the 3rd week of the running programme.  Those three things (helpful suggestions, meal with friends and getting further into a running programme than I would ever have thought possible) have made me feel a completely different person to the one who sat on my shoulder yesterday and I feel as though I'm walking on air.  To think that one small problem (and in the overall scheme of things it is a small problem) could have such an effect and also that, in writing this blog, I could get so much support and so many solutions.


memoryfortwo@gmail.com

As you can see your comments really do make a difference so if you think you can help with a problem or you have a problem you need help with or you just have something you want to say please feel free to get in touch either on here or by email at the address above.  I would love to hear from you. 



Comments

Lesley said…
That's fantastic! I didn't know about driving assessment centres either - that will work so well, what a relief!
Jane said…
Ash is so positive about the idea that he didn't even mind when I said that there might be a few days when he couldn't drive as we still might not be able to get it sorted in time.
Ann said…
Brilliant! It’s lovely that we can all help each other.

Also, good luck, hope it all turns out well for you and Ash. But as you’ve already mentioned Jane, if Ash is told it would be better for him to give up driving (and this scenario sounds very unlikely to me) at least it will be a professional giving him this news and, not you.

You’ll both be in my thoughts.
Sarah H said…
Excellent! No doubt Ash will do better than most of us with all that training 🙂