Why is it the only time we can bring ourselves to talk about mental health issues out in the open is after a celebrity suicide?
Category Archives: blog entries
“Support” Staff Blocking Care
I’ve had a few instances now where I’ve really lost patience with healthcare staff as of late. As have other friends with their situations. It’s a growing trend that needs to be addressed. Some of these support staff are anything but.
Ableism in the Academy–It’s What’s For Breakfast
This was a thought provoking post. I realize that disabled identity is a complex issue within many communities & I had my own thoughts but the insights here are so powerful I felt this was worth a reblog. I believe the root cause here is as SK points out the assumption that physically challenged bodies are someone else’s issue. This long held belief also takes root in the complexities that many people who identity as having invisible disabilities also face. This post addresses academia, but I’ve felt many of these insights in other aspects of my life outside academia. But it’s a great springboard into many other conversations…Thank you Stephen Kuusisto for this post & your permission to reblog it. I’m happy to have connected with you on WP.
Ableism is akin to racism or homophobia but with one difference: the assumption that physically challenged bodies are “someone else’s issue” remains largely unexamined outside academic or activist circles within disability communities.
—Stephen Kuusisto, before his first cup of coffee
You can’t include the disabled in whatever is meant by “diversity” until the problem above is addressed.
—Kuusisto after his second cup of coffee
That the disabled belong in special offices, sequestered environments, is a a hangover from the 19th century. Just as people of color or women still experience cruel 19th century headaches, the disabled do also. The academy taught racial separation, “the White Man’s Burden”, eugenics, and promoted the medical and psychological inferiority of women and people of color throughout the 1800’s and long into the 20th. The hierarchies of post-secondary-education in the U.S. remain in an amnesiac state—you see, I’ve even chosen an…
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When Other Medical Teams Fail Their Transplant Patients
I haven’t posted a personal update in a minute. Part of it is because I’m extremely worn & frustrated & I don’t want that to bleed out and be perceived as whiny. I know it couldn’t be farther from the truth & it’s not, but still this is what my head tells me sometimes.
Even though I constantly tell other friends with transplants who feel similarly that they are doing anything but.
While rather lengthy this update encapsulates a few months of frustrating experiences which I felt important to share with others.
Review/Beta Testing: MySpiroo
I signed on to be a beta tester for this device a few weeks ago, maybe it’s a month or more now. (Things have been kind of a whirlwind). I was excited when I received the package with the Myspiroo because it’s a smart phone spirometer, which I have been hoping for even before I was transplanted.
Update – It’s Been Awhile
I was just talking to some transplant recipients down here this weekend at the Gift of Life Family House where I stayed after this hospitalization & realized I hadn’t posted an update to my blog in awhile.
Apple Health App: How It Has Helped Me Manage Transplant
There has been much buzz on both sides of the fence in healthcare about the recent news articles concerning the Apple Health app.
Someone Special Has Left
This is by far the hardest post I’ve had to make. I’ve endured many significant losses in my life. Some of them I’ve posted about here. But this is by far the toughest. I’m grasping for words.
It’s Been a Year…
Last night, I celebrated my one year transplant anniversary. At that time in 2016, I was coming off the ventilator & breathing my first new breaths on my own.
I still remember those moments. Still remember crying when my surgeon showed me my first x-ray of my lungs.
Remembering Last Thanksgiving
I posted this to another social account. But I felt it was worth sharing here:
AS I LIVE & BREATHE 