NHBPM - That's My Jam!!!

Ohai!

I hope y'all are having an excellent weekend thus far. My weekend's been good, been very busy working but I'm not complainin'.

Today's NHBPM prompt is quite entertaining, and I could have done more with it if grooveshark would've let me share playists... oh well. The prompt is..

Health Playlist. Make a playlist for your health community.

Again, I couldn't embed a playlist here go I opted to pick one song that is epitome of awesome, an anthem for teh cripples everywhere, our jam if you will :)

Yup, I just went there. Anybody else have any awesome cripple songs that I could add to the playlist, IF I HAD ONE?!?!?!

Speaking of crippledness, I was definitely a bit of a special cripple today. I figured I'd summarize why with two photos

While I was at work today at my hand would hurt periodically, specifically one of my fingers. At first I thought nothing of it and brushed it off. But it kept freaking happening. Upon closer inspection I noticed that my finger was kinda swollen. In other words, a tumor on my finger has irritated whatever tissues are near it. It'll pass in a day or so, but in the meantime I'll avoid moving or bending it to prevent further irritation. What makes this scenario so special? Um... well... can you guess which finger I should be keeping elevated? SENSITIVE PEOPLE SCROLL PAST THIS PHOTO

If you guessed my middle finger, YOU ARE CORRECT! You get a cookie. I have decided to name the troll tumor Birdie, mainly because that's what I'll be flipping for the next day or so. Luckily it's starting to feel better already, let's keep our fingers crossed what I don't accidentally flip of any co-workers tomorrow :D

Crippie's Tippie - If you happen to injure your middle finger, consider wearing a finger brace... that way people will know that you probably didn't mean to flip them off. Also, while you have said brace on, be sure to casually flip people off... they'll think it was an accident! 

NHBPM - Cripple Rage Comic

Whazzzzzzzup

Happy Friday everybody! Tonight's NHBPM blog prompt certainly looks entertaining...

Create a comic strip about your health/life/community

Oboi! Sounds exciting! I opted to be the internet female that I am and make a "rage comic" because they're easy to make. Without further ado I give y'all a rage comic summarizing my disability...

There we have it people, my disease in a nutshell... my bones are riddled with troll tumors.

In other news, me thinks the weather is changing cause I've been rather achy recently. I can actually tell when my pain medicine starts kicking in at night. Gotta love that feeling of the pain melting away :) That plus my super awesome melatonin gummies have made night time less suck-y. I used to just toss and turn for hours hoping that I'd either get tired or stop hurting. Now I'm tired and not in pain. Yay for feeling normal!

In animal news, Angel's 2nd anniversary with us is this Sunday! Last year we cooked her a hamburger and she was happiest dog on the planet. This year, we don't have burgers and Angel is getting slightly porky, so I'm gonna cook her a slice or two of ham and make her run around the house for it. Angel might be a senior (vet says she's somewhere between 8-12 years old) but her face lights up when she sees food. Speaking of senior animals, Mama Pig is starting to show some signs of age. Primarily, she is getting lazy. She has her favorite spots near the hay and she prefers to stay there. I make her run around the cage daily just to be sure that she still can. Since she likes to stay in one place most of the time, she is also prone to lying in her filth. Thus, we have to change the bedding around her favorite spots every other day and wash her bum periodically. Once the weather gets warmer she's gonna have a nice long bath and a butt hair trim... oh joy. Mama is around 5 years old. I want to keep her happy and healthy for a long time. Me thinks I'm gonna obtain some multi-vitamins for her to try. Yes, there are multi-vitamins made specifically for guinea pigs. I'll do a review of 'em if I ever get any.

Crippie's Tippie - Wanna make your own epic rage comic? This is probably one of the better sites to make 'em on.

NHBPM - To The Tweeter!

Greetings!

I hope y'all had a lovely Thursday. I had a very busy day, so I'm gonna try and get to bed at a decent hour... try ;)

Before I answer today's blog prompt I just wanted to mention that my super epic Scentsy Fundraiser for The MHE Coalition has officially ended. I'll be sharing the results with y'all shortly, but I can safely say that we have brightened the days of a bunch of children. I wanna give a big shout out to everyone who participated and donated your hard earned money to the cause, I cannot thank you enough! Also, if anybody else is hosting a fundraiser hit me up and I'll gladly help promote it.

Moving on, I'm actually going to follow tonight's blog prompt, INSANITY!!!!!

Why healthcare companies (or healthcare professionals) should use social media

This prompt is super easy to answer... they should be able to use social media because it makes it so much easier for their customers to scald them in public! Whenever any company screws me over, I take my complaints to the tweeter. I make certain to either use their twitter handle or some kind of hashtag that makes it painfully obvious as to who has pissed me off. This way someone from their company sees that I'm pissed AND countless strangers will see that I'm pissed!

Healthcare companies should with out question use social media. These bastards need to know how much they are screwing us over and how we are not ok with it. If people shopping around for insurance  stumble across a company's facebook page and it's filled with nothing but hate mail and negative feedback do you think they'd choose that company. I don't think so. Think of their use of social media as a scarlet letter of sorts... except the A would stand for assholes. Also, this is probably the internet female side of me, but I'd also love to see all their social media pages invaded by trolls. Let's face it, they troll the people on a daily basis... revenge would be freaking amazing. A little justice would be lovely.

Crippie's Tippie - Mad at your healthcare provider, bitch 'em out on twitter or facebook. They can't get away with being douche bags. 

NHBPM - To Share or Not to Share

Ello!

Yesterday I opted to take my own advice and sleep instead of blog, got to sleep at decent hour :)

Now on the NHBPM blog prompt... I wasn't thrilled with today's choices, so I went and picked one from earlier in the month.

Disclosure post. How do you decide what to share? What do/don't you share?

Alrighty, this blog is about me and being a cripple. Thus I share things relevant to that topic. If something of use occurs with my health I'll post it. I do want this blog to be an accurate representation of what it can be like to have a disability. There are many aspects of being a cripple that are by no means glamorous. Whether its having 17 staples on your butt, not being able to open your cup to pee in at the doctor, or having a tampon shaped scar on your wrist... it's part of my reality. On the same note, even though I try not to blog when I'm in a bad mood, there are times when a massive Crippie Rant pops up. While I'm not always proud of what I say in those, they're pretty good examples of some common cripple frustrations. That's why I don't delete 'em.

What don't I share? I keep most of my life private. I don't discuss matters pertaining to my family. That's mainly for safety reasons. While I talk about work in a very vague sense, I NEVER go into great details (as much as I might want to) cause ya know... I don't wanna get fired.

There is one subject though that I will gladly give 110% full disclosure on... MY ANIMALS! Yup! Maybe it's because they're so freakin' adorable, or that they won't care if I post their pictures here, or that I don't have to worry about hurting their feelings. But I love my piggies and pooches to bits, so if something out of the ordinary happens to them (good, bad, whatever) I'll post about it. If I take a cute picture of Nellie sleeping, you bet your ass I will post it sooner or later. Speaking of animals, Angel's second anniversary is this Sunday :3. We must prepare some special noms for her.

I guess to summarize, I am a rather private person... that being said I'll post anything that I believe to be relevant to the blog, and lots of guinea pig pictures. Lots and lots of guinea pig pictures.

Crippie's Tippie - When possible, try not to be in an overly bad mood when blogging.

NHBPM - Crippie Calls BS

Ohai Y'all

Happy Monday everybody! Me thinks I'll actually follow a prompt today... SHOCKING! Today's prompt is...

Call BS on something. What's something that's just ridiculous? 

Alrighty... I'm gonna call BS on myself today. Why? Well ya see, Crippie had a very long day at work (got home a little after 9pm). I then decided to take my melatonin gummies around 10. I thought it wouldn't make me overly tired or anything, so I wouldn't have to worry about being coherent or not being able to blog tonight. LOL NOPE! I got really freaking tired. Dumb ass me still thought I would be able to write and make sense. So I sat down and looked at the prompt... this was me for the next 30 minutes...

uuuuummmmm, uggggghhhhhhhhh *starts nodding off* NO I MUST BLOG! uuuuuhhhhhhhh, ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm *startings listening to Gangnam Style to stay conscious enough to blog* ummmmmmmmmmm WHY IS THINKING SO HARD

Eventually I realized that I was being an idiot, and with that realization I found inspiration for tonight's post. BUT I'm still about to pass out, yet I'm forcing myself to stay awake to blog. With that, I am ridiculous. I know that I really need to get my ass to sleep, I am ready to fall asleep, yet I keep myself awake. That's some straight up bull crap!

I'm going to go to sleep now, tomorrow I'm probably gonna read this and facepalm.

Night y'all

Crippie's Tippie - If you're tired... don't be an idiot... GO TO SLEEP

Insomnia For Gummies

Ohai

I hope everyone had an excellent Veteran's/Remembrance Day, may we never forget their sacrifices.

One day in and I'm already ignoring blog prompts... lawlz. Today's topics didn't quite inspire me. Besides, I have a better topic to discuss!

As some of y'all might remember I have been having a rather unpleasant bout with insomnia over the past few months. Honestly, I've had difficulty sleeping for as long as I can remember. When I was a kid I had terrible thoughts that would keep me up, solved by a TV in my room. When I was a teenager I was in too much pain to sleep, solved by a memory foam bed. In high school and parts of college I took Advil PM or Tylenol PM... they helped me sleep until I became immune to them. I got used to not being able to fall asleep and just kinda dealt with it until recently. While I was recovering from my surgery I had no reason to get up at any specific time so what sleep schedule I had got totally out of whack. I was falling asleep at 5 in the morning and waking up some time in the late afternoon. That was the straw that broke the cripple's back. I needed to do something about this whole sleep thing... STAT!

What to do though? I didn't want to take Ambien or anything like it, cause that stuff can royally mess you up. I recalled someone I know taking melatonin to help them sleep, so I went to CVS to see what was at my disposal. At first it seemed like there were so many choices of sleep aids, then I saw it... GUMMIES! Yes, melatonin gummies. Needless to say that me, being the mature adult that I am, bought the gummies.

So that night I took the recommended dose of 2 gummies. If any of y'all are wondering about the taste... they taste good enough. I prefer these over pineapple flavored gummy bears if that means anything. After a little while I started to feel tired. Not a "I'm stoned off my ass tired", just a normal tired feeling... which was a pleasant surprise. When I got tired enough to where I put my head on my pillow I was asleep within ten minutes. That's practically unheard of for me! I spent the next couple of days experimenting with timing and all that fun stuff. I found that if I take two gummies around 9pm I'm usually asleep by 2am (that sounds late... but that's pretty damn good for me). I've been taking the gummies every day for a little over two weeks and I've noticed a massive change in my sleep schedule. I've been falling asleep earlier, faster, and waking up in the morning has been sooooooooooooooooo much easier. The only "side-effect" that I've noticed is that I had some crazy-ass dreams for the first few days. My personal favorite melatonin-induced dream was that I was at a party, and then all of the sudden someone there tried to assassinate Natalie Portman... yeah... maybe it means something?

Me thinks it means that these gummies are freaking awesome. I really like how it just helps me get tired naturally, and when I do feel tired I don't feel like I'm drugged. Maybe one day I'll mess around with doses... but for now I'm pretty content.

Crippies Tippie - Gummy Vitamins are freaking awesome, regardless of your age

NHBPM - Crippie (Finally) Gets Back To Business!

Salutations!

It's been a long almost two weeks, but things are finally getting back to normal. We didn't sustain any damage during that lovely snow storm, we got our power & internet back, and the gas lines are starting to subside. All the pets are alive and well. The generator, blankets, fleece, and general fatness kept the pigs warm and toasty. I'm gonna be monitoring them for a few days to make sure no one is hiding a respiratory infection. Helen stayed cozy by dressing in her warmest attire, and Angel really didn't notice that anything was out of the ordinary. As challenging as the past two weeks have been, it's good to see rising up and helping out those in need. I dunno if it's a NY/NJ thing... but when something tries to knock us down we get up, help one another, and we rebuild.

I'll rebuild New Jersey when I wake up, okay Mommy?

Moving on, now that I FINALLY have teh interwebz, I can finally participate in National Health Blog Post Month. I'm 10 days behind... but whatever. I'll use the other prompts when I can't think of anything to write about. Anwayyyyyyyy, today's prompt is...

Should people post about their (or loved ones) health on Facebook? Why/why not?

The answer: sometimes. My general rule of thumb is, if it's something that other people will actually care about... post away. I usually only post about my health while I'm recovering from surgery. That's a time when people are worried and it's a good way to update a bunch of people at once. 

As for posting about a loved one, I'm fine with it as long as it something people need to know. I know someone who's young child had cancer, and they frequently updated their facebook with how he was doing. That's perfectly fine in my book, his illness was very serious, and I got to watch him kick cancer's ass via facebook! Also, if the person you are writing about is able to give consent, do make sure you have it before posting anything. My relatives ask for my permission before posting anything about me because they know it's my story to tell. 

That being said, there are times when people cross lines. Do I need to know every time someone has a headache? Nope. Should you make entire facebook albums devoted to a relative's stay in the hospital? I dunno about you... but I find them reeeeeaaaallllyyyyy creepy. Then there are  people who clearly flaunt their children's illnesses on facebook for attention. I don't know if they want pity or something, but I find that behavior revolting. Stop exploiting your damn kids for likes and get off the damn computer. I know people like that and they are BEYOND creepy and annoying. These people sound like crazy attention whores, and I don't care for them in the slightest. 

So yup, there ya go :)

Crippie's Tippie - There are alternatives to posting on facebook, if you want to keep people updated you can make a blog. www.caringbridge.org is a great site to check out. My grandma used to it blog about my grandpa's battle with cancer, you can check it out. 

I'VE GOT THE POWWWAAAAAA

Yo!

It took ten days but I finally got power back a few hours ago! Lets just say that this was the icing on Tuesday's cake. The interweb isn't back yet, but I'll take what I can get. Of course the power came on hours before ANOTHER storm is about to hit us. We are supposed to get some snow and high winds. I reaaaallllllyyyyyyy hope that we don't lose power again. That would just suck.

I'm eagerly awaiting the return of the Internet so I can get back to blogging regularly. I was planning on participating in the National Health Blog Post Month again, clearly I'm about a week behind. Meh, I'll probably just pick and choose the prompts I like. I also have other things to talk about, like how I'm successfully treating my insomnia! Lets just keep our fingers crossed that my Internet will come back so I can talk with y'all!!!

Crippie's Tippie - generators are freaking awesome sometimes, loud as hell, but awesome

It's Like Revolution Without the Social Unrest!

Greetings!

I hope my crippled comrades are well and getting back into the swing of things. We are STILL without power and it could be another 8 days until it comes back on. Power has been restored to most of my area, so maybe my lights will come on sooner rather than later.

Apart from the whole lack of lights the other issue for us is the general lack of gas. Most gas stations near me are either closed or they have a mile long line of cars waiting for gas. Thank God I gassed my car up last Saturday... I'd be screwed otherwise. Not to mention the fact that we've been using a generator electric and most importantly HEAT!!! If we don't get power back within the next few days, and if we can't get gas... we could be in big trouble. It's getting colder and colder and while the humans can manage in the cold my pigs sure as hell cannot. Worst case scenario we'll have to sneak three massive cages into a hotel. *Sigh* perhaps done PLEASE LET THE POWER COME BACK ninja vibes are in order.

All that aside, this week has been super weird. With no TV and limited Internet I feel kinda cut off from everything. Normally I like to keep check of all the election stuff, now it feels like something important is going on and I'm missing it. Thankfully the place where I go to vote has power, so I don't have to worry about that. Still the feeling like I'm missing out on stuff lingers. It's crazy how much I depend on electricity and teh interwebz. There are times when it kinda feels like "Revolution" except with fewer crossbows. Ultimately I know that I am one of the lucky ones in this storm. I'm peeved about my lack power... but it could have been sooooooooooooo much worse than this. That fact really has kept me sane over the past few days. I know this too shall pass.

Crippie's Tippie - For those of us affected by Sandy, if you are able to find gas, please try to post on Facebook where you were able to find it. We were able to find gas today because of a Facebook tip.

I DO NOT HAVE THE POWER

Ohai Y'all

I'm praying that all of you guys are safe and sound. Thank you guys so much for all of your well wishes, it seems like they worked! My house and trees stood their ground during the storm! That being said, we still lost power and we probably won't have it back for another week or two. It's inconvenient, but hey, it's nothing compared to what others are facing now.

Thankfully we have a generator so we have heat and water. The piggie's cages are covered in fleece to keep them warm and cozy. Angel and Helen are doing well and seem to be blissfully unaware of any changes ;)

I'm posting this from my phone because the storm also knocked out our Internet. I'll try to keep updating the blog, but my phone's reception is rather iffy. So I apologize in advance for short, sporadic posts over the next week or so... Bear with me :)

Crippie's Tippie - FLEECE, my pigs would be freezing right now without it