Sonny-ray-of-goth - Sunflower Grunge

happy ace day everyone!!!!

Nonbinary doesn’t mean “woman”

Nonbinary doesn’t mean “slightly female”

Nonbinary doesn’t mean “masculine girl”

NONBINARY ≠ AFAB

Chronic Illness Tools Master post

Hi! I'm Laura. I am disabled with Ehlers Danlos, MCAS, and POTS. Here are a few mobility aids, physical therapy tools, braces, comfort items, and other things that I have acquired over the years that significantly increased my quality of life. I hope it helps someone.

Mobility aids:

Folding cane

Instant seat

Shower stool (nice quality)

Shower stool (cheap but works)

Physical therapy tools:

Exercise ball (small)

Exercise ball (large)

Exercise bands (with handles)

Yoga wheel

Cervical traction

Resistance bands

Theraband (get that GRIP)

Foam roller

Grip strength resistance bands

Adjustable ankle weights

Braces:

Neck brace

Wrist widget

Thumb splint

SI Joint Belt

K-tape

Knee brace

Wrist braces

K-tape (non-bulk)

Back brace

Elbow brace

Comfort items:

Heating pad

Neck and shoulders heating pad

Massage gun

Hand fan

Acupressure mat

Large Icepack

Leg pillow

Neck pillow

Bulk epsom salts (guess this could also go in the next category)

SALT:

Saltstick fastchews (orange and watermelon are my favorites)

Salt pills (that don't upset my tummy)

Cell Salts (these help my migraines)

Misc:

Quercetin (for allergies)

Neti pot

Bug bite thing

Hand warmer

Bed tray table

Toilet seat cushion

Yoga swing (yeehaw cowboy)

Cooling towels

TENS Unit

Huge Mason jar pitcher thing (revolutionized my access to water)

Pulse oximeter

*Notice* All of the above are Amazon Affiliate links.

As I am a disabled artist, I do not make much money. As I'm sure you know, it is very expensive to be disabled. These links wont cost you any extra to use, but I will get a small amount of the commission if you buy any of these items within 24 hours of clicking the link. Thank you!!!! (please boost this if you can, thank you, ily.) venmo

Hey can anyone who has heds tell me if binders or corsets help with back pain? I’ve been having horrible back pain more frequently recently and I don’t have a way to ask my doctor for recommendations because I don’t have access to chat with him.

Please I’m in so much pain

Hot take but canes are not a limited resource. Most mobility aids aren’t but canes especially. Canes are $20 at a lot of stores like CVS, Walmart, etc. You aren’t taking that resource away from “real” disabled people (hint: you ARE a real disabled person) in fact buying more canes creates more demand and works to make more stores carry them for better prices. You aren’t faking being disabled or hurting disabled people, you’re working to make canes more accessible which is helping disabled people.

Get the cane.

I don’t think I’ve talked much about having a service dog on here, but maybe I should

Boom used to be my service dog, I got him the summer before my last year of high school bcuz I needed a nurse 24/7 to ensure I could eat/sleep/stay alive due to a recent very traumatizing event in my life and my mom came up with the service dog idea.

Getting him was hard. And expensive. No trainers were up to my standards. I, who could barely take care of myself, had to train my own dog. The problem is no matter how hard I worked, my own family or other trainers would ruin it all by messing up my commands, by letting my dog do things I had trained him not to do. It wasn’t training anymore, I ended up simply having breakdowns because everyone kept ruining my dog. People close to me thought they could be an exception to the rules I had taught my MEDICAL AID because surely my DOG would learn the difference between them and strangers.

Eventually I brought him to school. Printed papers explaining what a service dog was and how to behave around him and I plastered them all over the place.

People barked at him, petted him, tried to grab his attention.

His harness was hot pink, patches and signs on it that very clearly said “DO NOT TOUCH” and shit like that.

Someone defaced one of the papers.

Going to school was already hard, I could barely leave the house, my mom had to accompany me to the school doors every morning and then a social worker at school would greet me there and take care of me throughout the day.

I had my own locker at a floor mostly unoccupied so I wouldn’t see other people much and my dog wouldn’t be too distracted.

But it was still to much and I ended up dropping out four months before graduation.

I couldn’t leave the house. I had Boom but he wasn’t perfect yet. People kept ruining him.

But eventually I managed to leave the house. Go to a shopping mall from time to time with him to just walk and have fun.

Too many times people came up to me to tell me the gear I used was hurting my dog. Too many times people came up to me to tell me that their own dog died. Too many people came up to him and pet him without even acknowledging my presence. Too many people telling me they wished they could bring their pets anywhere. Too many people disrespecting me and my service dog.

I stopped going out. I stopped being with my dog.

All this stress and trauma drove a wedge between my dog and I. I consider him my mother’s dog now.

I had to learn to handle myself alone when I went out. It took me years to learn to go out by myself. Only last year I started doing that.

My dog doesn’t live in my room with me anymore.

Having a service dog did still save my life. But those around me ruined that. They made it about themselves. They prioritized my dog over me. My dog that LOVES working. If you tell him “do you want to go to work” chances are he’ll get so excited he will attempt to do a backflip.

We used to have a deep bond. That bond is now broken. People took that from us.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is:

Let people and their service dogs alone.

You are not an exception.

You are not special.

You are disrupting the dog’s training and distracting it.

You are endangering a human life because you can’t resist petting the cute dog.

This isn’t about you. This is about a disabled person trying to simply live their lives.

You don’t know what you’re talking about, your advice is unsolicited and lacks understanding of what the life of a working dog is.

Just leave us alone.

I don't think fic writers know how much they matter

Do you know how many times you distracted me when I was hurt or lonely? Do you know how many times a line or a scene from fanfic marked me so much that I remembered years later, even though I can’t recall my own phone number? 

Even if the fic isn’t perfect or popular or multi-chaptered… Sometimes there’s just one sentence that changed me.

You, miles and miles away, changed me.

So excited to have a flare up during my EOC exam tomorrow and not being allowed to have any of my diy treatments because the school refuses to accommodate me, so fun!!! /src

But seriously I had a flare up in the middle of my SAT and it caused me to not be able to finish a section due to incoherency and pain. Literally just let me have my salty beverage…..