Dealing With Pain

Greetings Readers!

I'm having a bit of a flare up today, so I figured I'd give a big post of "Crippie's Tippies" on dealing with pain. Before I begin I should state that what works for me will not work for everyone, and that if you are in a considerable amount of pain, please consult a physician.

Crippie's Tippies For Dealing With Pain

-Find a pain medicine that works for you. If basic pain meds like Motrin don't work for you, see a pain management doctor. Pain management really helps me go through my day.

-Heat or ice. Either or directs more blood circulation to the area that is causing problems and relaxes the area. I prefer heat, but ice works wonders too.

-DISTRACTIONS!!! If the pain won't be going away any time soon (which is mainly my case), nothing works quite like a computer game where I can set things on fire.

-Mental Healing. I've tried things like breathing exercises and Reiki. They didn't necessarily work for me, but they have done wonders for some of my friends.

Again, everyone's situation is different. I live with chronic pain. Today a tumor behind my knee cap got tangled with some muscle or tendon. This is a general flare up for me, hopefully it will only last for a few days.

On a side note, I'll be posting some very good news soon. So keep checking in over the next few weeks! :D

Designer Wheelchair? Count Me In!!!

Whuzzup (I figured I'd spice up my greeting)

So while I was at the SPD portfolio event Monday I obtained some free magazines. One of said magazines was "Metropolis" magazine. While skimming through it I found a most interesting article about a Norwegian company Krabat. Krabat makes designer wheelchairs, not just any designer wheelchairs though... they make them specifically for children! I had to use a wheelchair as I child and I cannot even begin to describe how excited I was to see this. This wheelchairs not only look freakin' awesome, but they promote activity and health (they improve your posture, which can suffer with a normal wheelchair). Check out the article here.
Take a look at this thing and try to tell me it's not awesome!

It is so important for kids with disabilities to feel good about themselves. I'll go into detail later about what I'm doing with this cause, but for now... THIS WHEELCHAIR ROCKS MY WORLD!!!

Crippie's Tippie of the Day- Necessary doesn't have to mean ugly 

If You Can't Fly...

Salutations,

Yesterday I had a rather eventful day. I attended "SPD's March Madness Portfolio Review and Seminar" in NYC. I had an awesome time, and no one said my portfolio sucked. If you want to see my portfolio btw you can click HERE. While I did have an awesome time, due to my disability special considerations had to be made.

How "Normal" person would have attended this event...
1) Obtain a ride to the train station
2) Take the subway
3) Walk to the event
4) Enjoy said event
5) Repeat 3,2, and 1

Unfortunately, that wouldn't work for me. Apart from the fact that I have chronic fatigue and wouldn't have been able to walk from the train station to the event. I also cannot go on the subway, the vibrations from the cars travel up my legs and it hurts. So I had to go about this in a slightly different manner.

1) Obtain a ride to the event itself
2) Have a bunch of coffee because I wouldn't be able to stay focused otherwise
3) Enjoy said event
4) Obtain a ride back and fall asleep in the car

So, it's not what my peers would have done, but I least I went. Just goes to show you, as long as the destination is the same, who gives a crap it the journey is different.

Crippie's Tippie of the Day- If you want to do something, find a way to do it.

Look on the Bright Side

Salutations,

So, some good things and bad things happened to me this week. Let's get the bad out of the way first. Over the past week I started noticing that my left leg is getting weaker. It kept buckling when I wasn't walking with my cane. I also noticed that my left ankle doesn't move at the same speed as my right ankle. This is not good. I haven't done anything in particular to make my leg weaker. Sadly, this is just natural progression of my MHE. The tumors in my leg and ankle, plus years of using them have weakened my leg. I can't help but think of what this means for my future. Will I have to wear a brace on my leg? Will I have to walk around with a cane everywhere, even really short distances? How long before it gets worse? I wish I could answer these questions but alas, I can't. In the meantime I will just have to do some physical therapy exercises in an attempt to regain/keep what mobility and strength I have in my leg. This also goes back to my Crippie's Tippie a few days ago, APPRECIATE WHAT YOU HAVE WHILE YOU HAVE IT. It's discouraging that I will be losing function in my leg, but at least I still have function and I can still walk.

Now for the good news: I was able to color my hair on my own for the first time ever. Thanks to issues with my shoulders and neck I cannot properly reach the top of my head to color it. Recently, Clairol made a new type of hair color in foam form. This foam is much easier to apply that other methods, thus I am able to do it. This might seem like a really small insignificant event, but to me this is huge. I gained a small bit of independence. I was able to do something I thought I would never be able to do! And the best part? I didn't screw up my hair color that much! Sure, some parts are kinda uneven but it looks like high and low lights.

So let's recap shall we? I found out that my leg is getting worse and I was able to color my hair own my own for the first time. So do you think I had a good week or a bad week? MY WEEK WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!! Sure, my leg is getting worse, BUT I WAS ABLE TO DYE MY HAIR!

Crippie's Tippie of the Day- Always look on the bright side of life. Try to focus on the good things that happen in your life, it makes you feel better about the crap.

Pointy- A Tribute

Greetings,

On January 11th I experienced a loss. My favorite tumor, Pointy, was surgically removed from my wrist. I wanted to pay tribute to my favorite lil' tumor with a lil' blog post.

Pointy was a little bad-ass tumor. He liked to be very visible on my wrist and freak people out. He liked being visible with out being painful. I liked that in a tumor. He was my display tumor. When people asked what was wrong with me I showed them Pointy and they got the picture. One day Pointy decided that he needed to spread his wings and he started growing. He grew so much that he could have broken the skin given the opportunity. So I decided to give Pointy the Ol' Yeller treatment and set him free.

(yes, that's actually Pointy) If you're grossed out by that, try living with it in your wrist.

So now I am fully recovered and have a dandy new scar on my wrist, but the memories of Pointy will always remain. Fare well Pointy, I hope you are enjoying annoying the crap out of things in tumor heaven.

Crippie's Tippie of the Day- Naming your tumors and paying tribute to them is an awesome way to freak people out.