Dla mobility and fluctuating condition?

Hi,

Good afternoon , l hope you can please help.
My daughter has functional neurological disorder, she also has autism and hypermobiity.

Now, it is FND that is the most debilitating mobility wise. She is in crutches most of the time. She is of course off school currently, when she goes she is only in for the morning as she is to weak and fatigued to cope all day. She also cannot manage on crutchs for large periods of time because of severe pain in her right foot when placing it in the ground, she also had to drag this foot along the ground sometimes when it goes dead and heavy.

When l collect her from school she is often so tired from moving around in crutches that she falls asleep in the car on the same way back. But she also has odd days when she can be off her crutches for about 30 minutes at a time, . Then back on them again when she is in pain and feels weak. I think she meets the VUW criteria ?
She is not "walking" when she is on crutches, she does not put any weight on her right foot when on crutches? So cannot be said to walk. I'd read some interesting caselaw on this very point. A man won his appeal against refusal of HRM for this reason ,he used crutches but had to swing one food along ,and could not put any weight on it due to an injury he had sustained. He argued that when he put his foot down he did not apply any weight to it , so therefore was not "walking".

Sorry for such a long post , l am trying to explain my predicament with completing the mobility part.
I know rhey will look for any reason to refuse a claim , especially with HRM.

I am about to fill out this part of the form on her renewal and wonder if they will refuse HRM because she uses her crutches the vast majority, but not ALL the time? For instance I'd say 70% (and in fact it's likely more) of the time she is on crutches. The other 30% she is not able bodied and walking normally. She is very weak and gets tired very easily, she can't play like other children. This 30% of the time also includes when she is unable to mobilise at all and she cannot stand or walk because of pain, and when her leg drops. She has been in hospital several times recently when she had no feeling in the right hand side of her body and was bed bound.

I am worried they will say she can manage on crutches fine, which is not true as she is fatigued and in pain for almost all this time the doctor even says in her report that she is very fatigued for using crutches .When she had managed for small amounts of time without crutches it is because she is trying to fit in and be like other children,(due to her autism)often to her own detriment, as she suffers for it as soon after.

I need to get the dla decision maker to understand that FND is a fluctuating condition and someone can go from apperaing to walk 'normally'to being completely dragging themselves around on crutches. I'm sure they will be sceptical of this?

I'd welcome any advise you can give me

Many thanks in advance

Clare