Use the Stairs LIKE A BOSS

Ohai Everyone!

I hope y'all had a tremendous Thursday and a freakin' awesome Friday. My day went pretty damn well. I had the day off from work today so I got to hang out with some family friends who were in town. That alone would have made for a fun day, BUT it gets better. Ya see... I forgot that one of said friends was a physical therapist. Silly Crippie. We asked her about the whole stair situation because that was probably gonna be my biggest challenge coming home. Good thing we asked her how to do it because boooooooooooooyyy was method of getting up the stairs wrong. It turns out that when you cannot put any weight on your leg, the best way to get up the stairs is backwards. Yup, you heard me, backwards!

The new and improved plan of getting me up the stairs is simple... basically I grab on to my double railings (WHICH EVERY HOUSE NEEDS) and jump up each step backwards. Someone needs to stand in front of me to spot me, but yeah, it's relatively easy. Not to mention jumping up the stairs backwards with one leg sounds totally badass! I feel like such a daredevil! Now I have 10 days to make sure my arms are strong enough for this feat of awesomeness.

Today we also took Angel and Helen to the vet for a post-op check if you will. Angel had a pretty good time, she got to go in the car, smell some awesome new dogs, play with some of said dogs, and she didn't try to kill the vet! Helen on the other was not as pleased the outing, once she realized where she was the whole "DO NOT WANT" mentality kicked and she freaked out a bit. She felt better after her 30 second (no exaggeration) check-up. Speaking of Helen tomorrow is her 1 year adoption anniversary!  It's hard to believe that little pipsqueak has been with us for an entire year. How are we gonna celebrate? With her favorite food of course! We gave Angel a hamburger for her birthday, but Helen is not the hugest fan of meats. Helen loves all things cheese. Heaven help you if you try to eat a string cheese near this dog, because she will try to kill you for it. So we are gonna celebrate by letting Helen have some cheesy products. Yes, we know that cheese is really not a great thing for dogs, but she has it in moderation.

And as promised... ANIMAL PICTURES TO MAKE UP FOR A SHORTER POST!

You know what would help me sleep... CHEEEEEESSSSSEEEEEEEEEE 

Angel and Helen sleeping

Sleeping Beauty

And representing the piggies... here's Frida being awake and cute

Crippie's Tippie - BEFRIEND A PHYSICAL THERAPIST!!! 

Be Preparrrreeeeeeeedddddddddddd

Woot! Lion King reference!

Greetings to all my lovely readers, hope y'all had a swell Saturday. I got in some more polio crutch practice today, it's starting to get easier. My pace is increasing and I don't have to constantly look down to make sure my footing is good. Since this is coming along nicely I kinda need to start figuring out the next challenge... the stairs in my house. Thankfully I have railings on both sides of the steps, I just need to figure out the best way to maneuver myself. It shouldn't be terrriiibblllllyyyy difficult, and I do have a plan B if I can't get up the stairs on my own... essentially someone would have to hold my waist to help distribute my weight and possibly help lift me up the stairs.

Some people have asked me if I prepare this much for all of my surgeries, and why do I prepare this extensively for surgery. Well, first no I don't always prepare for surgeries like this. Mainly because some surgeries haven't required it. A general rule of thumb for me is "If Crippie can't walk... Crippie needs to practice". As to why do I put this much effort into preparations... years of experience have taught me the importance of it. For my first surgery I went to to physical therapist who taught me all the basics of using a walker. We thought that was sufficient. Lol... nope. We couldn't have anticipated all the problems we encountered for the first 72 hours. I was in too much pain to walk, so mom and dad had to find a way to bring me in the house. They both had to carry me. This caused another problem of "WHO IS GONNA OPEN THE DOOR!". Once I was inside we had to figure out how I was gonna get up the stairs. Once everything got settled we had a now legendary problem of "How are we gonna get Crippie to the bathroom". Why is it legendary? Well... I had to use the walker to get to the bathroom (which hurt like a mofo) and I needed helped sitting down, AND my leg needed to be elevated. Let's just say in the midst of all this I wound up being dropped in the toilet.

With each surgery we became better and better knowing what we would need to do and how we needed to do it. Being prepared and being ready for surgery makes the recovery period sooooooooooooooooooooooooo much easier. By anticipating the challenges now, like how am I going to get up from my bed without using my butt muscles, we can take the time to clearly and rationally think about what's needed and what we can do to fix it. In the end this takes away so much stress and anxiety for all parties involved. Of course there will always be unknowns for any surgery, and for those instances we just take it one step and a time and we try not to freak out. Freaking out leads to things like dropping people in toilets ;)

Oh, as promised to make up for my short post yesterday... PICTURES OF ANIMALS!!!

Helen climbing my leg 

Helen looking cute in between climbing my legs (hard to believe she's blind, right?)

Nellie wants food

Mama Pig wants food, also look at them chompers

Frida wants food, and she wants it NOW

Aggie DEMANDS food with an insanely loud WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK

Maggie gives begs for food

(FYI Angel doesn't like having her picture taken, I need to get some good ones of her)

Crippie's Tippie - DOUBLE RAILINGS ALL THE WAY ALONG THE STAIRS! Seriously, everyone should have them. You never know when someone will have trouble walking.

Crippie The Pinterest Addict

Ello Everybody!

I hope everyone had a marvelous Monday. Mine was spent at work at and the pets, nothing terribly eventful. I don't know about you guys, but it is REALLY hot by Crippie, it's getting to a point where I overheat if I use my heat pack for more than 5 minutes. I never thought I'd say this but... NPH is too hot sometimes... NNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Tomorrow I'll set up a fan to cool myself off, but I'm gonna have to make do without NPH for the night.
Anyways, Crippie is gonna follow a HAWMC blog prompt tonight. Pinboard. Create a pinterest board for your health focus. Pin 3 things. What did you pin? Share the images in a post and explain why you chose them. Crippie already has an awesome cripple related Pinterest board, so I'll just share some of my recent favorite pins.

I love this image because it so damn true. Crippie and a few of her cripple friends were discussing this yesterday. Normals look at stairs and just see "stairs" we see them as a lot of pain, effort, and energy. People don't understand the importance of handicap accessible buildings. Crippie is in the process of reminding some people at her office that having the only ramp to the building chained off is not a safe idea. *sigh* normals...

This brilliant info graphic shows statistics about disability in the USA. Crippie lurvs her some statistics presented in a graphically appealing format!

Crippie loves this for two reasons... 1) it's a really well executed tattoo and 2) THIS PERSON HAS AN AWESOME SENSE OF HUMOR. I give this guy props for noticing that his nub looked like a dolphin and then for taking it one step further and getting it tattooed on him! SO MUCH WIN!

Crippie's Tippie - Time killer... Pinterest is thy name!