rawnee

As most of you will know, this is where I get things off my chest. Maybe the person it's aimed at will read it, maybe they won't, it doesn't really matter to me either way but I have to get it out of my system and psot about how I'm feeling at this moment in time.

I'm so glad you derive pleasure from other people's suffering, especially when that person calls you a friend. To have an injury and no-one be able to tell you why you are constantly in pain; why you can't walk more than a few yards; if you will ever be pain free; if you will ever walk normally again; if you will ever be able to ride your bike more than 30 miles again, is, quite frankly, not something I find funny. I remember you being in a similar situation when we first 'met'. Not once do I remember anyone telling you to hurry up and get back on your bike, indeed, you had our sympathy that you simply couldn't go out and ride your bike whenever you wanted to. It's not nice is it? Have you forgotten that feeling already? I suppose you must have.

You're young and idealistic. Your disposable income is about 4 times what ours is! Why? You still live at home with your parents, you don't have a mortgage/rent to pay, no bills...cushy number really! You need new tyres, you go out and buy them. You want a new bike, you go out and buy one. We struggle just to pay the bills each month but we can't make you understand that if we need new tyres or petrol to just go out and have fun, we have to think long and hard about it. There was a time when it simply didn't matter and we could do what we wanted, when we wanted to, but because of someone else's failure to follow simple rules of driving, we are left barely having enough to live off.

I'm annoyed at myself for having justified my past actions to you. It was nothing to do with you at the time and is irrelevant now because the situation has nothing to do with us, but you still felt the need to bad-mouth us on a public forum. Hardly the stuff of friendship is it?

I find it offensive that you see fit to name-call but when the tables are turned and someone does it to you, you find it offensive. Grow up! For all your bragging about speaking your mind and not caring what other people think about you, have the decency to consider other people's feelings! I do not, nor have I ever, called you a c**t. It's not a word I like and it's not a word I have ever used though the saying 'if the cap fits...' does offer some relevance here. As for Paul 'putting it on', how dare you! He is not a hypocrite for claiming benefits. Unlike you, we don't have money to burn and, quite simply, if he didn't get the pitiful amount he does, we wouldn't have food on the table.

Oh, and just so you know, I stumbled across this article tonight and read with interest as this is what Paul has been diagnosed with. It's bad enough suffering from it but made worse because it's the crux of our problem with the insurance companies.

I then went on to linked articles which only confirmed that what Paul is suffering doesn't seem to be taken as seriously as it should be! Most of the advice given echoes what the NHS doctors have told him but for some reason, they aren't classed as independent experts.

Quite interesting to read that it isn't always in the mind!