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My day has not been awesome. I have had one of the saddest days of my entire life in the midst of the scariest month of my entire life. But today is one of those days where I log on to Something Awful and even though I am gutted and drained, I can see that it will get better. I can see that the world has people in it who talk about access to medical care thoughtfully and with compassion for both patients and medical personnel; that there are people who donate hundreds of thousands of dollars in charity to sick kids, bombing victims, and bees; that there are people who spend hours on this site educating on and learning about everything from advanced physics to obscure musical instruments just because it's worth doing; that there are people here who fall in love, and get married, and have babies, and dress those babies up in costumes to match their cats; that there are people here who rescue others from accidents, disasters, and themselves, and there are people who are here because someone took the time to rescue them. It would be entirely appropriate to mock me into the ground for being this attached to an Internet forum. Go 'head, this is kinda pathetic. Heck, people write this corny stuff about 4chan and Juggalos, but usually with more typos and unnecessary pictures of dicks. It's difficult to have a filter sometimes when you have brain damage, especially during times of stress, so I may as well own it. I know any community has the potential to be a good influence and solace. Neither are Something Awful members all good and kind and accomplished. It depends on which messages you choose to take from here, I suppose. With so many members and even more lurkers, it's a rare thing to know if what you say has any impact. "Fighting the good fight," whatever your good fight happens to be, often feels like a futile exercise with questionable impact. I'm on one of those "tell people they matter" kicks at the moment, and I just wanted to share my appreciation for the diversity of ideas and experiences here. As weighty as my problems have been lately, even they pale in comparison to the amount of good being done by the members here every single day.
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Apr 29, 2013 04:08
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 17:45 |
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January 2012: 5'3" ~220 lbs. size 20/22 XL Today: 5'3" 165 lbs. size 8 M Holy loving poo poo
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May 12, 2013 02:08
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GoGoGadgetChris posted:I was stressing over how I haven't attended class all semester and forgot to write my term paper until it was time to move out of my dorm, but then I woke up and remembered I graduated 8 years ago. Phew! I thought those would end when I became a professor but instead I stress about a class I was supposed to teach and have forgotten about until now and I have to walk in the door to that classroom and hand them a final...
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May 19, 2013 00:26
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My husband kicked me out of the house. He retrieved my camper, packed up my travel stuff, packed up my medications, packed up clothes and hiking boots, gassed up the truck, and practically dragged me out of the house. Now I am on the other side of the state about to enter a part of Colorado most people don't even know about, much less have visited. (Brown's Park National Wildlife Refuge and all points north.) "But I hurt!", I said, because last night my circulation tanked. "You'll feel better once you're driving. Get your rear end out." "But I'm siiiiiick!" And he argued with me for an hour and a half about whether I was too sick to travel or not. You know what love is? It's having a partner with dementia, and noticing that she's becoming agoraphobic before she notices because you know her that well. It's arguing for an hour and a half, the same argument you have had with her every single time she goes somewhere, and being patient and cheerful in that argument because the dementia makes her afraid and irrational sometimes. It's knowing who she is, deep down, without her disease, and sometimes being firm but gentle so she can take risks and get that independent part of herself back again. Because you know that it's not gone yet.
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Jun 16, 2013 03:59
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No structures damaged or lost. Thank you, firefighters, for saving my town today. 
AltoidsAddict has a new favorite as of 06:44 on Jun 28, 2013 |
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Jun 28, 2013 06:06
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After being bullied and injured at a Walmart by a customer three times my size a few weeks ago because I had dementia (with no response from Walmart) I started a social justice campaign for myself. Or rather, the part in my brain that is damaged, the part I call Captain Dementia, got pissed off on my behalf. He has never been an ally before, at least not one I've felt comfortable with. And this time he controlled himself for the most part. In dementia, you lose your voice so quickly in response to incidents like this. I get nasty comments and worse every single day I go to the grocery store and use the simple accommodations I need to shop for myself, but I'd never been bullied to the point of injury. I was just responding like a dementia patient would, which is I now can no longer do the shopping for myself. Captain Dementia said "gently caress that, it's not right!" When I realized what was happening - that I was actually sticking up for myself because Captain Dementia was doing something right for a change - it was pretty awesome.
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Jul 16, 2013 22:37
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I filed my first ADA claim! I am so not used to actually standing up for myself when it comes to disabilities. Even better, because of the social justice campaign I started, a store in Washington saw my post about how I was bullied and injured in Walmart for having dementia, and decided they are going to have a training for their employees on how to be welcoming and understanding of customers with invisible disabilities.
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Jul 19, 2013 01:00
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It's Colorado Day! And tomorrow my uncle is flying in to visit! I get to take him on an acquisitions trip to a book & paper fair and then Saturday we're going to a huge party where I'll play some music and see lots of people I haven't seen in years.
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Aug 1, 2013 11:39
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"You're not lazy and you're not nuts." - my neurologist, a half hour ago. What a gift to have a doctor who believes in your instincts for a change. I may finally get the stroke rehab my old insurance denied me. Regardless of the outcome or diagnosis, when the hospital releases me in a week or two, I will be getting a home health aide to reteach me how to cook, clean, bathe, dress, shop, and keep a schedule. None of the potential diagnoses are good, and right now even the best-case scenario is someone else's nightmare, but I am getting some loving help for this at last.
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Aug 27, 2013 05:10
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 17:45 |
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Night Danger Moose posted:Today was my first day of school since high school in June 2004. Took a long-rear end time to get my financial aid in order, but I'm glad I'm able to start on my post-secondary education. First person in my immediate family to go to college. Congratulations! I love hearing about stuff like this. A good portion of my students are "firsts" for their families as well. In fact, my best students are usually "firsts." My awesome thing: The guy in the room across from me has been moved to neuro rehab. It's not his fault, but he is very disoriented and instead of pushing the call button he just shouts into the hallway at anyone who passes that he needs whatever or that he hates where his IV is (join the club) or he just doesn't feel good or, as I suspect because he was shouting and complaining until 4 a.m., he is just lonely and scared. He reacts poorly and doubles his whine volume when people in the hall are like "dude I'm just visiting I can't get you water or remove your IV but I can get your nurse." And if there's nobody in the hall he would shout louder until someone responded. Of course he's in here for serious reasons, and I'm glad the nurses and doctors are being patient with him and not sacrificing quality of care just because the guy's brain is making him do something really loving annoying. But I also have my own rotting brain to deal with. I'm not allowed to close the door to the room even if I was allowed to get out of bed without assistance, and hearing the whiiiiiine start up every few minutes for hours on end sure wasn't making this any more pleasant. Next guy might have a bullhorn and a stereotypical case of Tourette's for all I care as long as he knows how to use the call button that they literally attach to our clothes.
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Aug 27, 2013 22:40
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