New Zealand based members - home aids and your experience

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hope23

Senior member
Joined
May 16, 2017
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228
Reason
DX FIBRO
Diagnosis
00/0000
Country
NZ
Hi all, i am new zealand based and am now in need of going through the process for trying to get some home aids, mainly a shower chair and adjustable chair stool for the kitchen when cooking and standing for too long isnt an option some days.
If you could share your experiences with the new zealand system that would be greatly appreciated.
 
I don't know how internet purchases work there - in other words if you have to pay higher shipping costs due to being in NZ - but all the things you are needing can be purchased on amazon and they have free shipping if over $25USD. Unless shipping costs change because of NZ, I suggest you go that route.

I think there are a couple of other Kiwis here, maybe they can chime in.
 
experiences with the new zealand system
I first thought you meant getting it paid for, but I bet not that bit of system you've shared about. 🧐
My favourite chairs to keep gently moving are adjustable swivel bar stools. From eBay, which I greatly prefer.
 
Thanks Guys, i am going to have a look at these over the weekend
 
Hi Hope, 👋 l am also in NZ. Can l ask who diagnosed you with fibro? To be eligible for free aids you need a diagnosis of fibromyalgia from a rheumatologist and a referral to the occupational therapy dept at your hospital, which the rheumatologist would do. Tbh l'm not sure if your GP can refer you to OT or not, you can call your gp nurse and ask for the criteria for referral for the aids. Good luck with that.
 
Hi AnnaMaria,
My experience with the rheumatology department in Hawkes Bay has been horrendous. I saw Stephen Sawyers once, and the sum of this consult was a cursory examination, him stating yip youve got pain in a lot of places and i was then discharged from the service, that was it. We have tried referring a number of times to both rheum and neurology, and 'im not sick enough to be seen', we cant even get a referral for cortisone injections in my SI joints accepted. I have all but given up on the Hawke's Bay DHB.
Despite my barrage of medications and how long i have been sick they refuse to accept a referral. My GP has given this diagnosis, after extensive testing and scans, in other words we have ruled out all other possibilities(scans were ordered by rheum and neurology in response to referrals) this diagnosis was ratified and accepted when i went through the pain clinic.
Occupational therapy does form part of the pain service here in HB so i would say he can refer me even if that is via the pain service.
 
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Hi Hope, that experience sounds about typical unfortunately. Yes the pain clinic can refer you to OT for aids. You could ask them? Sounds like your gp is pretty good though referring you for all the tests. The gp l had 10 years ago was a nonbeliever in fibromyalgia. He only referred me to rheumatology because he reckoned l had polymyalgia. But the lovely rheumatology registrar who saw me at Waikato hospital recognized my signs and symptoms and diagnosed fibromyalgia. So glad l have his report on paper. Since then l have moved to another dhb but the rheumatologist here refuses to even utter the F word. I don't know why fibro is even under the rheumatology umbrella, it should be neurology maybe. So yep it seems just random luck who you see. Good pain clinic doc here though, whom l see for a nonfibro condition, but he readily acknowledgesmy fibro diagnosis and supports me in that. So ask gp and or pain clinic to help you with obtaining aids.
 
Yea the rheumatologist was about as helpful/useful as tits on a bull, to say i was miffed after that experience is putting it mildly. My GP is amazing and is the only reason i have any degree of management of my FM. Thank you for your advice, i find it so frustrating that so much of the government assistance available in NZ is income tested, it feels like being punished because you force yourself to work so you can have a roof over your head and food to eat.
I will have a chat to my GP when im there in a week or so for cortisone injections into my hips, i have recurrent bursitis there, knees, si joints and shoulders as an addes bonus of everything
 
I don't know why fibro is even under the rheumatology umbrella, it should be neurology maybe.
Good thought. I bet neurologists would then be just as exasperated as many rheumatologists are now, tho. :rolleyes: :ROFLMAO:
I think it's under the rheumatology umbrella because the symptoms overlap most with rheumatism type issues (in my case severe stiffness after any postures or even cycling), so to exclude those, a rheumatologist would be first in line (that's where my wife pushed me to go first).
They sent me to neurologists and endocrinologists. Endocrinologists I was putting quite a bit of hope into, as was my orthopedist, who was thinking outside the box, but in wrong directions, so harmed a lot. Another orthopedist sent me to a manual therapy clinic. At the same time I was making good experiences with whole body cryotherapy, which was also offered in a fibro/rheum clinic, which had a similar PT protocol to the manual therapy clinic, so there I was with the rheumatologists again and not much help - I could test all the PT forms, but sleep & eating there caused quite a backlash. I actually wanted to try a pain clinic too, despite that, but my insurance wouldn't let me anyway. The pain doc, orthopedist/!osteopath and psychologist I talked to there seemed to have an alternative perspective (no meds, same as the rheum clinic and the manual therapy clinic btw). However I was getting my pain under control more and more.
The neurologists sent me to sleep lab psychiatrists early on, and those're actually the only ones I regularly go to now, except my GP, cos they think outside the box most. Which is quite fitting, because sleep is still a big issue, altho they can't help me with that. Fatigue in the sense of rapid depletion is the biggest issue and the only one I'm not getting much of a handle on, despite doing lots of things for it. It's easy to wonder if it's sleep related, but I've somehow now learnt to get >9h of restorative sleep, and that still doesn't raise my energy above 25%.
And fatigue to me is nothing neurological, doesn't seem to be the sleep, so I'd've thought endocrinological - hormones and mitochondria/ATP. But they seem to be most out of their depth of all. Even thyroid has been cleared of all suspicion several times.
So I have to continue being my own specialist and seeking the grail with the help of all my fibro & MCAS online companions.
 
Well i am thoroughly impressed, my doctor referred me to occupational therapy directly for shower stool and perching stool for kitchen, and have just been called and the items have both been ordered and covered under public health system, i am so stoked and pleasantly surprised 😁😁
 
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