Army Veteran: We are homeless

Hi, I’m Tracy, and I’m not good at asking for help, so here I go ….. This is our story.

We are attending Court this Thursday due to a non-fault eviction. The house we are current in, is a Private Rental. It has black mould and is in disrepair, however, we have been told that we are to leave despite this, and have been informed by Shelter that we will be

going into a B&B.

This breaks my heart for my children and husband as we all suffer from Anxiety. My husband and I both have Depression and other issues. So as you can imagine, these hard times that we have fallen upon, make us feel like we have failed our children (and cats! - as they will have to be rehomed or fostered).

Our background… well, my husband is an Army Veteran, he did two tours and did something’s that obviously can’t be mentioned. He had his leg shattered on exercise, had a replacement metal leg (was the first to be done in the Army) but had to then leave due to not being able to commence with his duties. Still to this day, he doesn’t have closure and misses the Army life. But now at 56 years old, he had a mild stroke last year (2022), and this year (June 2023), an Ambulance had to be called at 4am in the morning as my husband’s blood sugars rose so high that he nearly went into a Diabetic coma. At this point, he was on pre-diabetic and had no medical plan, so it was a very scary time. Whilst my husband was in hospital, he found out that Rocuronium (a drug that I am severely allergic to) is being used more than ever. Hearing this news has terrified me and as I have PTSD, and have had since 2008, my nerves were shot to bits. I will continue with my story in a bit. But just to say, Medical staff were completely amazing and my husband now receives insulin all day every day now. I need to add that he couldn’t walk for 18 months due to not having any sensation in his feet. He was very frail and he to use a walking stick. Needless to say, he became incredibly withdrawn and home bound. His mood plummeted and felt suicidal. What with having back surgery in 2013 and he is in pain everyday, I take my hat off to my husband, just for getting up each day.

My story…. Back in 2008, 2 weeks after our daughter’s first birthday, i went to have a minor Haemorrhoidology operation (ohh, the joys of pregnancy!). When I woke up, which seemed to take ages, and I was super tired, I discovered that I didn’t have the operation (I was hugely disappointed!) and I was in the Intensive Care Unit. To say the least is was so thirsty my mouth was like a desert and why did the silly bed keep moving. I suffered Anaphylactic Shock from the anaesthetic. Apparently I had the crash team hovering over me, as I later found out that I had just 30 seconds approximately left to live! I had been in an induced coma for 3 days. They took me for a brain scan which must of been ok, or I wouldn’t be writing this story now. I had sever trouble computing/processing this information as the operation is was expecting was supposed to take just 20 minutes. I had various medical professionals come and see me, I could see worry in their eyes, as well as relief.

After a few months. I was invited back to the ICU, so they could try to explain to me what on earth had happened to me. I completely freaked out. I had to go to a specialist hospital to have a scratch test, to see if they could identify the drug that I had taken. I was warned that I may never know. When one drop of 10 percent of the solution was dropped onto my arm, an instant red rash appeared. Then they gave me a drop of the 100 percentage solution, my arm felt like it was on fire! from the inside out! I asked if they could amputate my arm now, I would be happy. So they immediately gave me a hit of adrenaline. My husband said to me “can you just imagine a syringe full going straight into your bloodstream”. I freaked out.

I have since given my DNA to my consultant, for a UK national study via a University (not mentioning names), to help prevent other people from having an allergic reaction to anaesthesia. I’m glad it just one person benefits from this, trust me, I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy.

So, now, all these years later, I’ve suffered a mental breakdown, which I still haven’t recovered from, despite seeing Medical professionals over the years. I have PTSD, insomnia (petrified of the dark, darkness was the last thing my brain processed just before the Anaphylaxis), when I wake up I have to check whether I’m alive or not! It’s a constant struggle with myself, Anxiety, Depression, Emotional Unstable Personality Disorder, problems with Short Term Memory recall and the list seems endless.

I lost my career, house etc, I loved my career at Network Rail, to this day I miss it. I did 10 years service which I’m super proud of.

At the time of my recovery of my breakdown (2014-15) our daughter was being bullied at primary school, by this time she was 7 years old. My husband lost his job. Life was falling apart. We relocated, left city life to live at the seaside (my happy place). My mood has improved but I now think I have come to terms with never being the person I was before, I have grieved for my past life and now live everyday for my kids and husband. I know I will never be truly well again. My brain gets very confused and is like scrambled eggs. I even forgot to tell my husband that one of his family members died once! That was horrifying!

Our daughter…. now 16 years old. Just did amazing at her GCSE’s, we couldn’t be prouder of the lovely young lady who has had become.

After relocating, she started at primary school, where she struggled to begin with, as she’d been through so much, she started forming great friendships. It was such a relief. The was quite behind on reading, I couldn’t get her to do it at home, she refused. So I told the school and they improved her no end. Turns out, she was Dyslexic. She did well at her SATs.

Then went onto secondary school…. her other friends went to a different school as we lived out of the catchment area. Her mood changed and became withdrawn again, my heat was breaking. I found out that my daughter had been cutting herself on her arms. She was being bullied again. I was livid. I applied to change schools for her but there was no availability. A year past and now she was suicidal. Then Co-vid happened. Lockdown. She started to thrive again, working from her bedroom mainly in her laptop. Google classroom and emails, saved her, she was happy again. Then I received an email informing me that she had a place at the new school, where her previous friends were at, wow what a blessing that was! She left her school, Easter came and went, then she started her new school, which was weird whilst being at home: new teacher names to learn and new schoolwork. She thrives.

She has Anxiety and needs extra support from school with her mental health it she tells me now that if I hadn’t of

moved schools, she feels she wouldn’t have passed any exams. Now she is doing 3 A-levels, still at the new school. All the teachers like her and she has lots of amazing friends. We are super

proud parents.

Our son….. 5 and half years younger than his sister, he is OCD tendencies and is a happy smart lad.

He has had a lot of issues with Anxiety, to the point where he would make himself vomit so he wouldn’t have to go to school. After various doctors and hospital appointments, due to him being off school for 6 weeks once, it turns out that he suffers from Anxiety and Reflux (his sister was born with Reflux).

To encourage him to attend school and distract him from his illnesses, the school put him on a local Well-being programme, to do Windsurfing and Sailing, at the Weymouth and Portland National Sailing Academy. Well, we are amazed at his progress. We were told that he had natural talent, he loves doing both but tends to like Windsurfing slightly more.

After he had done just one session, he came home from school informing us that he was the Windsurfer of the Week! He was delighted. So from the second session onwards, I decided to watch him, and his classmates and teacher and took footage of the kids progress and gave it to the school (for school use only!). All children loved it and were happy, what an amazing experience for them all.

Our son now does Windsurfing once a week, and loves it, despite cooler water temperatures now.

We have just been around the local secondary schools’ open evenings, we is wishing to get into the same school as has sister. We still live out of catchment, so he has just this weekend done an Ability Test to try and get in that way. Our fingers are crossed. So far now, his Anxiety is in check.

Our current situation…. So on our daughter’s 16th birthday, she’d just started her GCSE exams, on that day on the journey to school, we heard that the government were looking into non-fault evictions. At 09:30, I received a phone call from the estate agency that we private rent through, telling me that the landlord doesn’t want to half board out the loft, like he promised and wasn’t doing the repairs but he wants us out instead! 30 minutes later, the eviction paperwork came through the letterbox. How on this earth was I supposed to pretend everything was fine on our daughter’s birthday! How was this going to affect her exams! How can I stop crying!

I did the best acting of my life, to give her, the best day. She was informed the next day. Poor kid, she’s a trouper and a survivor.

Well… our story is at a pause now, we are in Court in four days time, with no home, no money, and little hope. Any cash you are able to spare will go on storage costs, whilst we are in temporary accommodation, and if we have enough so the kids can have access to the internet to do there homework and recreational battery recharging (for example so our son can play on Roblox! Hahaha), that would be truly amazing, we would be forever grateful. My husband and I cannot work due to our disabilities but we help prop up each other, somehow we just work it out, just as well after 23 years!

God bless you all.