Palliative Care
Palliative care focuses on easing symptoms like pain and nausea. They also can provide you and your family with extra support, including emotional and spiritual support if you're struggling with the mental toll of everything. Many providers are able to make home or telehealth to cut down on the amount of (often difficult) trips to a clinic or hospital. A relatives's provider will go to their house to collect samples for the lab or take simple x-rays.
The October Slide
What is the “October slide”?
Put simply, many disabled and chronically ill people have more symptoms during the transition from summer to fall - often in October. Though it may initially seem very strange, it does make a lot of sense! Major changes in the weather and barometric pressure often coincide with a flare; October often has some very drastic ones!
PEG tube basics: types and placement
In order to get adequate fluids, nutrients, and medications, a feeding tube may be needed. Most “tubies” have some degree of dysphagia (difficulty swallowing), and may receive one or more types:
Ask Aunt Lori - Finding a Job
Dear Aunt Lori,
I'm disabled but still able to work. How do I find a job? How would I get accommodations?
Job Hunter
Love & Other Drugs Review
The movie is about a man, Jamie, who is sort of the black sheep of his family: a lot of his relatives are doctors and generally successful people, but he sells stereo equipment. That is, until he slept with a coworker and got fired. His younger brother sets him up with a job as a pharmaceutical rep for Pfizer. Through this job, he meets a woman, Maggie, who has early onset Parkinson's Disease.
Assistive Animals
There are three main types of assistive animals: therapy animals, service dogs (occasionally miniature horses), and emotional support animals.
Ask Aunt Lori - Disability Benefits
Note: this is about disability benefits in the United States
Dear Aunt Lori,
How do you apply for disability benefits? What do I need to have?
Applicant
I wrote a memoir
I open with the first instance of my determination to live, no matter the odds; it's definitely foreshadowing. But the focus of the memoir is from January 26, 2016 to July 7, 2017.
Queer Disabled People in History
Disabled people and queer people alike are both likely to be hidden, but both have existed for as long as humanity has - as have queer disabled people. Those who rose to historical prominence often have those parts of their identities shrouded by the world - or at least it's attempted.
Andrew Gurza
Andrew Gurza is a Canadian disability awareness consultant with Cerebral Palsy who focuses a lot of his work in sex positivity and sex education in regards to the sex lives of disabled people.
Jessica Kellgren-Fozard
Jessica is a British YouTuber based in Brighton, England. She is probably best known for her videos on disability, queerness, and vintage fashion. She has multiple disabilities, including: Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), post orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), Hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsy (HNPP), and is deaf as a result.
“Brain on Fire” Review
This movie is based on the true story of Susannah Cahalan, a reporter for The New York Post, who suddenly is stricken by mysterious symptoms. It begins mostly with ringing in her ears, difficulty concentrating, and (guessing by her rubbing here eyes exactly how I did prior to surgery) severe pain in her eyes and head.
“Disabled But Not Really: Queer Eye S4E2” - Review
This episode focuses on Wesley, a man from Kansas City, Missouri, who became paralyzed from the waist down after gunshot wounds when he was 24. Prior to his injuries, he was a self confessed "bad boy" and involved in gangs, drugs, and the like.