themirrorgirl reblogged
Can the women out there who opt out of body hair removal reblog this? We can show people that we exist, and show others that they’re not alone.
themirrorgirl reblogged
I was tagged by tatteredobsidian
► Name ➔ Meredith ► Hometown ➔ Ravenswood, WV ► Hair color ➔ Brownish reddish ► Age ➔ 29 ► Eye Color ➔ Hazel ► Birthday ➔ April 24 ► Gender ➔ agender ► Lefty or Righty ➔ Right ► Single or taken? ➔ single ► Happy? ➔ Not particularly. Nothing seems to be going well. TEN THINGS ABOUT YOUR LOVE LIFE ► Are you in love ➔ No ► Do you believe in love at first sight ➔ no ► Who ended your last relationship ➔ partner ► Have you ever broken someone’s heart ➔ yes ► Are you afraid of commitments ➔ no ► Have you hugged someone within the last week? ➔ My mom ► Have you ever had a secret admirer? ➔ Yes ► Have you ever broken your own heart? ➔ Yes ► Do you usually spend Valentine’s Day alone? ➔ Didn't celebrate it when I was dating. ► Short or long-term relationships? ➔ It depends entirely on who the other person is and our connection. TEN CHOICES ► Love or lust ➔ love ► Lemonade or iced tea ➔ Lemonade ► Cats or Dogs ➔ Cats ► A few best friends or many regular friends ➔ A few best friends ► Television or internet ➔ Internet, don't have TV ► Wild night out or romantic night in ➔ both ► Day or night ➔ day, though before chronic illness I was both a morning person and night owl, it was just the middle of the day I had trouble with. ► Text or Call ➔ Text unless it's a long conversation ► Make-up or all natural? ➔ I like make up for fun, but I've never worn it regularly and have no desire to. TEN HAVE YOU EVER ► Been caught sneaking out? ➔ No ► Fallen down/up the stairs? ➔ Yes ► Wanted something/someone so badly it hurt? ➔ Yes ► Prank called a store? ➔ Not that I recall. ► Skipped school? ➔ Oh yeah, though mostly middle school. It's difficult to skip at boarding school. ► Wanted to disappear? ➔ yes ► Spent all your money? ➔ no ► Met a celebrity? ➔ Yeah ► Been really ill? ➔ Ahahahaha. HAHAHAHAHA. hahahahoooohehehehe. (keeping savvy's answer, cause YUP) ► Gotten high? ➔ No. No problem with it, weed should be legal, just not for me. TEN PREFERENCES ► Smile or eyes ➔ Smile but really both ► Light or dark hair ➔ doesn't matter ► Shorter or taller ➔ Doesn’t matter. ► Intelligence or attraction ➔ intelligence ► Hook-up or relationship ➔ relationship ► Funny and poor or rich and serious ➔ Funny and poor, funny will win me every time. ► Mac or PC? ➔ PC. That's what I grew up with, that's what I know, but I will go back to Linux and never use my printer or Netflix again over using Windows 8. ► Chapstick or lipstick? ➔ Chapstick ► City or country? ➔ Either. I would like to have no neighbor/city noise for a while though. ► Driving or walking? ➔ Before I got sick I preferred walking. I can only drive myself for five minutes now, so neither! I do miss driving around aimlessly, as it was great stress relief. Lasts ► Last phone call? ➔ Home health aide agency ► Last song you listened to? ➔ Lift Weights by the Terrible Truths ► Last thing you ate? ➔ gnocchi ► Last thing you drank? ➔ rooibos tea ► Last place you were? ➔ my mom's house ► Last kiss? ➔ My niece and nephew a few weeks ago, probably. ► Last picture taken? ➔ Probably my cat ► Last outfit? ➔ black and white dress ► Last purchase? ➔ a dress for my friend's wedding, way more money than I ever spend on clothing (I'm his 'best man').
Whoever wants to!
themirrorgirl reblogged
swiftlysivan
Please reblog this if its alright to come to you for advice or to just rant. Thank you.
Just my cat. Sometimes you need a cat photo.
themirrorgirl reblogged
Spoonie question
How the fuck (and when the fuck) do I stop defining myself by who I used to be and what I used to be able to do?
chronicpainwarrior
It’s taken me 1 year post-accident and I still tear myself up about not being the person I was when I woke up that morning anymore (but now it’s getting better). My therapist says it takes time to get over the ‘sense of loss of self’, it’s a grieving process.
marionjravenwood
*hugs* Thank you so much.
I hadn’t quite thought of it that way, but your therapist is right. I did lose something. A lot of things. Like my expectations of my future and how I could achieve the things I wanted.
I think I need to stop putting a mental “knock it off right now” sign up every time I think about it and just let myself grieve so I can move on, because there IS loss. My former life and the abilities and dreams I had for it “died”.
Thank you so much for your thoughts on this. *hug*
chronicpainwarrior
No problem *hug* anytime. It’s definitely a grieving process, trying to stifle the emotions and feelings behind that loss can stunt the emotional healing you may need. If you/anyone ever need to talk about this my ask is open :)
Not to barge in, but it takes a good bit of time. It took me over two years since I lost my job to disability. It’s going on four years now and I still get jags of grief. Be gentle with yourself. It’s a process <3
Honestly, I still struggle with this and it's been many years. I think it's been taking so long partly because I didn't let myself grieve in the beginning. I put on my happy, Pollyanna mask, I tried to keep myself distracted, and I was still dating for the first four years or so, which helped. I tried to put it all out of my brain, in part because I still had hope that some treatment would work. It's a long process, and that is catching up to me now. For me, I feel better about people who didn't know me before I got sick, who never knew that other Meredith who doesn't entirely exist anymore (though likewise, I'm still ME, I just do different things).
I am a foolish person who should listen to her cat more.
Whenever I've been standing too long (to where it will take a day to recover, versus a few hours), my cat stands nearby and meows and meows at me until I lie down. Unfortunately she can't take over kitchen tasks, but she does this consistently, only when my pain is really ramping up and it's adorably sweet of her.
She's a great service cat, I'm just a terrible, stubborn human.
themirrorgirl reblogged
Alicia’s American Sign Language Dictionary. Alicia is showing you four important signs in ASL: ”I Love You,” “Queer,” “Bisexual,” and “Transgender.”
When you’re talking about someone’s identity, make sure to only use words they’re OK with.
If anyone has suggestions to improve these pages, they are very much welcome.
Mq. & Mrs. is a queer/trans coloring book in progress that only uses real people as models. New pages are published every Sunday at noon. Interested in modeling for a page? See our site for more info.
Keep in mind that ASL has regionalisms, just like every language, and signs which have no derogatory meaning in one region may be rude in another, so check in with local signers.)
themirrorgirl reblogged
Sisters/Brothers/Siblings,
My name is Janit, and I have just been diagnosed with a pretty heavy hitting terminal brain cancer called Grade III Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma. I had neurosurgery to remove the tumor, but it’s not treatable by that alone, and honestly, it doesn’t respond well to other treatments either. The battle is going to be long, hard and exhausting. The average life expectancy is 3 1/2 years. I do not have a good relationship with my family, mostly due to my queerness, and am very scared of having to go home to them for care and living the remaining life I have left in a hellhole. I cannot work and was denied disability, making a lot of things hard to pay for. I am asking you for help. Below is my GoFundMe account where you can donate money to help me with things like rent, food, medical care, and therapy. Anything and everything helps. I am already overwhelmed with the generosity that has been given to me, but the care I need is expensive. I am lost and doing the last thing I can think of, asking the universe to provide and hoping that it does. I am young, scared shitless and begging for your help. If you cannot donate, I would appreciate if you could give this a signal boost. Help in any and all forms is immensely appreciated. Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart.
themirrorgirl reblogged
Hello! I’m Annabelle, and I have a rare genetic condition called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, which means the collagen my body produces is faulty. This has such a wide range of effects on my body I won’t even begin to list them all. However, as time progresses, my mobility is getting worse and worse,…
Um. So. Hello there. I need an electric wheelchair. I have decided to make a GoFundMe page. I am very nervous about this. I would really appreciate it if you could share this link please! Thank you, have a good day.
themirrorgirl reblogged
sensitivemoss-deactivated202007
campaign to use the word “productive” less and try out fulfilling, satisfying, or meaningful more
campaign to modify your definition of “productive” to include “fulfilling, satisfying, or meaningful.” i have many productive days in which i do not even make it out of bed other than…
This is definitely something I need to be mindful of, and an issue I had even before I got sick (in regards to myself only).
Not sure if this will be helpful for any of you or not. I can't easily hold paper books (or e-readers, but they balance pretty easily) and I've searched high and low for book holders that really work.
I finally found one, and made a video review, largely for the benefit of the Amazon customers, as some reviews state that The Book Seat doesn't work with larger books.
This is an amazing product, the best book holder I've found and really couldn't be improved upon (unless the cord there were invisible). I highly recommend it if you have trouble holding books.
When chronic illness HAS to equal body positivity - you discover you did the whole video with your chin tucked in creating a very unflattering picture. Only you're so tired and your hands hurt so much that you can't possibly reshoot the video. Sigh!
Dear HealthBags
Hey, healthy people, or HealthBags, as I've decided to call you right this minute. Get huffy. I don't care, it made me giggle when I thought it and laughter is all-natural and I hear it's like, even better than yoga for illness.
If you have a sick friend maybe you have moments where you feel like we get too concerned over new little symptoms. Maybe you feel like we're worrying over nothing or oh my god maybe we're just hypochondriacs and not sick at all! And now it's your job to steer us away from that perilous cliff. It's dirty work, but by god you'll do it, just for us. BZZZT wrong! Chronic conditions often come in pairs (if you're lucky it's only a pair). Much like Bob Ross' happy little trees, they get lonely and like to have a friend around. They piggy back, and even if you're the lucky person with only one issue, that problem can hide a variety of non-chronic conditions which may be increasingly harder to fix the longer they go untreated. We are largely on guard because we know this, and because we must jealously guard the good health areas that we do have. This can be exacerbated by the fact that we will often do anything we can to avoid going to the doctor. Doctors suck, even good ones. They say blindingly obnoxious things about our illnesses at the exact same rate the HealthBags in non-medical careers do, actually maybe they make even more faux pas. Yet, unlike the rest of you, they actually have power over us. When we go to the doctor worried about a new issue we can expect the doctor to say it's just a new symptom of what we already have, that it's because we don't exercise enough, that we just need to stop worrying over nothing, ignore 99% of what we say, and shoo us out the door. We cannot expect them to say “Well, I don't think it's anything to worry about, but let's run down the list of possibilities and I'll actually try to take in what you're saying or read what you've written down about the new shit. We'll look into this, we'll run some tests just in case, we'll do whatever we can to set your mind at ease about it.” Being chronically ill is a full time job, and part of that is paying minute attention to our bodies. We know what the penalties are for ignoring them far better than you do. Your job is to listen, not to erase our worries.
themirrorgirl reblogged
So. Last week I was diagnosed with Elhers Danlos Syndrome, a life long genetic disease I had no idea I had, on top of having had Fibromyalgia since 2010. You can read more about both illnesses at the wiki EDS page and Fibro page. Both illnesses cause pain, exhaustion and limit mobility. I’ve m…
So this is a thing, This is a thing I need help with. Between getting married in 3 weeks, moving next month (and needing to hire movers to do it all) to a house I can manage in better and racking up some medical bills for treatments not covered by my medical card - we need some help covering the cost of a new wheelchair. So here’s the thing
PS - there’s reward levels - I’ll make purdy arts for anyone who donates over 10 euros. <3
themirrorgirl reblogged
Every day…
I have to share the awesome app I use to negate this issue!
it’s called Medisafe and it’s a free app available in the app store or on google play and it allows you to input all your medications and:
-choose the shape, color, and dosage of each medication (including indicating if it’s an injection or a pill or an inhaler) -notate the dosage and/or # of pills -each time of day/night it needs to be taken -add food or other special instructions -schedule refill reminders -add a med-friend (someone who will be notified if you forget to take it!)
The interface is great and i’ve found it very easy to use. You can also add meds to take “as needed” so you can indicate that you’ve taken an out-of-time painkiller or booster pill etc.
When it’s time to take your pills it uses the text-notifcation noise on your phone to alert you- so it’s lowkey, but (usually) unmissable. When it’s time, you have the option to snooze, dismiss, or take pills. OR you can just shake your phone to indicate that you’ve taken them (I usually either snooze or shake the phone).
It tracks your progress too and you can export yourself an excel spreadsheet of your pill taking to give your physician etc if needed.
You can set the snooze time manually, the maximum number of alarms, all kinds of things- you can set your own alert sound too if you don’t want it to use your text-notification.
.
I am TERRRRRRRIBLE about remembering pills (seriously, I forgot for 3 weeks). I haven’t missed a dose since I started using it and it’s fantastic.
No matter how many or few pills you take, always use a weekly pill case, that's the best way to check that you DID take a pill (with this app I could easily indicate I'd taken something before I actually had and then forget).
What actually works best for me is just an alarm on my phone that goes off every day with a short piece of music. The idea is that I don't dismiss the alarm until I've actually taken the pills. It's not fool-proof, so I have the alarm go off again in 20 minutes. Still not fool proof, but it's helped a LOT. I use the "Alarm Clock Xtreme" free app.
Source: emmisnotshortforemma
themirrorgirl reblogged
#WeNeedDiverseBooks because disability is not life-ending, an aberration, or a side story. In the US nearly one in every five people have a disability.
Because there were only two pictures tagged with #WeNeedDiverseBooks and #disability.
Because we are not inspiration porn.
Because the shortest section on any diverse books list I’ve seen is the one for disabled authors and characters even though that’s where every identity, group, race, and ethnicity can converge.
Because my niece and nephew shouldn’t need a disabled aunt in order to be comfortable around people with disabilities.
Because the only high school friend who was there for me when I got sick was the girl whose mom has MS.
Because there are more books about kids with cancer than those with non-terminal conditions (we need both, but I’ll bet there are more kids with chronic, non-terminal issues than those with cancer in the world and they need representation too).
This rung so true for me. Over to You by Roald Dahl, from the story "Death of an Old Old Man"
"The tramp clings to life because of the things he hopes will happen. I am clinging to it for the same reason; but I have clung for so long now that I cannot hold on much longer. Soon I will have to let go. It is like hanging over the edge of a cliff, that's what it is like; and I've been hanging on too long now, holding on to the top of the cliff with my fingers, not being able to pull myself back up, with my fingers getting more and more tired, beginning to hurt and to ache, so that I know that sooner or later I will have to let go. I dare not cry out for help; that is one thing that I dare not do; so I go on hanging over the side of the this cliff, and as I hang I keep kicking a little with my feet against the side of the cliff, trying desperately to find a foothold, but it is steep and smooth like the side of a ship, and there isn't any foothold. I am kicking now, that what I am doing. I am kicking against the smooth side of the cliff, and there isn't any foothold. Soon I shall have to let go. The longer I hang on the more certain I am of that, and so each hour, each day, each night, each week, I become more and more frightened. Four years ago I wasn't hanging over the edge like this. I was running about in the field above, and although I knew that there was a cliff somewhere and that I might fall over it, I did not mind. Three years ago it was the same, but now it is different."
themirrorgirl reblogged
The Sieges Within Our Skins
The difference between acute and chronic is the difference between battle and war the difference between an afternoon slog and countless steps toward sand-slipping horizons. And so we take from you our valiant would-be generals (white coat, no stars) stacked, illegible marching orders, and on toward a dry and endless horizon and on into trenches labyrinthine, unbroken and on, clutching pillbottles and pathology we defend: these sieges within our skins.