Chronic Illness
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My Story Isn’t Your Story, Your Story Isn’t Mine
“Before the IDEA, children like my son were stigmatized, stereotyped, and institutionalized.” Senator Maggie Hassan Oh what deep grief, abundance of lessons, and remarkable joys come with pain and struggle. What is life if we cannot allow our story to become part of the greater story of helping each other place one foot in front of the other? Senator Hassan has passion, conviction, and pain- if you have been in the special education ebbs and flows of the past 40-50 years, like my family has, you find yourself talking to the tv, shouting “Amen! Preach it!” I am not bringing this to your attention today for any political reasons. To…
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I’ve Been Here Before
My parents and I are currently going back and watching the West Wing TV show (1999-2006), many, many relevant lessons and applications for our world today, but more than that, I would like to share a quote from the series… “This guy is walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can’t get out. A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, ‘Hey you, can you help me out?’ The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts us, ‘Father, I’m down in this hole can you…
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80 Hours
I didn’t forget about ya! Last week got wild and I just couldn’t get a post written and posted, I am sorry. A little snapshot of last week… I was in the midst of one of my not so kind summer migraine multi-day battles, overwhelmed and completely at my “it’s never going away” moments. There were repairs being done at our house, so my normal “comforts” were in a room I couldn’t get too. My Mom was literally the only comfort I had. I ended up sitting in the corner of her bathroom on the cold floor (cold calms my nerves) and just crying. Frustrated with my lack of progress…
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Russian Roulette Healthcare
Jumping right in today… If you are not aware, RFK jr. has been in a bunch of hearings this week for the HHS budget. And as the quote above states, I am always looking for even the slightest bit of change. An apology, even a “oops, I didn’t mean to phrase that comment that way,” something! I have watched half of today’s hearing and I am sad to report, nothing of the likes have occurred yet. Although, as an information and facts junkie, I was curious to find out how the administration was defining two phrases that they use repeatedly, and seemingly to deflect giving real answers. Allow me to…
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The Gift of Release
Release: verb: to set free from restraint, confinement, or servitude. Noun: relief or deliverance from sorrow, suffering, or trouble. Synonyms: set free, let go, turn loose, dismiss… If you have ever battled chronic pain or illness, or a pain or illness that has lasted for an extended period of time, then you will understand what I am going to describe today. If you have not, then I will do my best to give you a picture as close as I can. It’s no secret that I have migraines, and that I always will. They are triggered by things that I can control, and more of things I cannot. I am…
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Care for All Noggins
Jumping right in to it this week… Behavior, communication… all depends on the way our brain is wired… Mental Health. It’s real. It is something that if it hasn’t touched your life, in some way, I would imagine it is hard to grasp the severity of the moment we are living in at this moment. It’s one of those health avenues you either completely ignore and disassociate yourself with (red flag!) or you live it, watch it, and/or advocate for better. Real tragedies, current and resurfaced/documentaries, have sparked my interest in why state mental hospitals were closed. I read a couple of books about Dorothea Dix in the past couple…
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Speaking From Experience …
Laughter. Tears. Speechless. Frozen. Numb. Want to Scream. Want to hide. This week my life experiences have felt like a mess, a wreck of emotions, or is it that my experiences make me pay attention? I believe it’s all the above 😊 It’s all happening at once. I know ya’ll just love when I write about vaccines, but the so called “recommendations” coming out of the CDC this week, are something I have experienced before vaccines were available for two of these viruses and I will not stay silent. When children are literally dying from diseases that have been almost non-existent and hardly ever fatal, because of “grown-ups” not getting…
- "Life" Books, Aunt-ing, Children, Chronic Illness, Consider This..., Family, Friends & Neighbors, GRANDparents, Let's be Real, Memories, Pass it On...
When “Showing Up” Looks Different
“I’m learning to love the pauses, the quiet stretches, where nothing much is happening, but everything feels okay.” -Unknown The man in the picture above, my Paw-Paw, is the closest thing to being a “show up” legend for his grandchildren and even other children he loved! He wasn’t perfect, and he wouldn’t want to be seen as such. But when he started to get to weak to make his two a day visits to my grandma in the nursing home, it was a huge sign that he was extremely tired and his body was giving out. He worked in human resources for quite a while at the end of his…
- "Life" Books, Adoption, Aunt-ing, Being "Single", Chronic Illness, Family, Friends & Neighbors, Grief, Jesus, Let's be Real, Migraines, Mommy, My Little, Single Parenting
Worth Fighting For
“Fighting Words” by Ellie Holcomb Fear is like a broken recordSame old songs of accusation playLike “Who are you to speak the truth”“Just look at all your failures and mistakes”“And if they really knew you”“There’s no way they could love you anyway” The enemy keeps talkingTelling me to hide my face in shameWhispering that everything I’ve done will drive the Father’s Love awaySaying, “It’s too late for hoping”“That something in your heart could ever change.” My debt is paid, oh, I’ve been set freeAnd You gave Your life up to rescue meYou say that I am worth fighting forAnd Grace is like waves that keep crashing on the shore Fight…
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Keep It Boring!
Please excuse my absence last week. Life caught up with me and just had one of those weeks. If you know me, you know how true this quote above is! 😂 I began writing this post this past Sunday, just to put some of the wording in perspective 😉. And I will be wrapping it up with today’s thoughts. I just finished an hour of making med bags for 14 days. I’ve gone through every possible way of trying to attempt to make taking medicine easier on a daily basis, so I ask that you hold back you opinion on how many baggies this takes in a year or how…
