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What To Expect From a Knee Arthroscopy
Surgery is nothing new to me. Going into this surgery, I felt a sense of ease that I would recover quickly. . To some extent, that was true although it wasn’t always exactly smooth sailing. I ended up getting a knee arthroscopy to remove the fat pad in my knee. They were also planning to do an exploratory search to ensure no other part of my knee was affected. My fat pad was seen on the MRI as being inflamed. The surgeons went back and forth about how successful surgery would be. After failing out of physical therapy again, it was clear surgery was the only option. I can’t say…
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How To Increase Productivity
If you’re anything like me, productivity is something that comes in waves. Dealing with a chronic illness, I have to respect my body. Sometimes that means being less productive than I’d like to be. Due to this, I’m always looking for ways to maximize my productivity when the mood strikes. Here are five ways that I maximize productivity. Working When I’m motivated This came with a huge learning curve for me. I came from a mindset of constantly trying to be as productive as possible. When I was unable or uninspired to be productive I’d get critical of myself. It was a terrible cycle that ultimately led to less productivity…
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A Review of Who Gives A Crap
Recently, I was scrolling on Tik Tok and came across a sustainable brand I had never heard of, Who Gives A Crap. I was intrigued as it was branded as an impactful way to sustainably purchase toilet paper. Paper of any sort can be bad for the planet. The toilet paper I purchased was 100% recycled 3-ply. Let’s get into the process and my thoughts. Ordering through their website was super easy. You get a variety of options, including a subscription service. I opted to subscribe because I am constantly forgetting to get toilet paper as my rolls run out. I ordered 24 rolls every eight weeks. When I signed…
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I moved…again
Last week, I only posted one blog article. I wanted to come on here and say officially, there was a good reason. I moved. Only three months ago, in July, I moved to South St. Paul. I have absolutely loved my apartment and the space I live in. Everything, except one detail has been relatively perfect. I was living on a second floor. Since I live in a house that was converted into apartments, there’s no elevator and climbing up and down stairs is fully necessary. That started to take a toll quite quickly. Not only on my heart but on my joints. About a week ago, I got a…
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Surgery is Scheduled
Happy Monday Last week, I did something that I haven’t done since January. I scheduled my first knee arthroscopy. I say first because while my left knee is being put on the chopping block first, I will have to go back in to get my right knee done in January 2022. Surgery has always come with a lot of emotions for me. On one hand, I’m hopeful and excited to be one step closer to a relatively chronic pain free life. On the other hand, surgery always seems to feel like I’m testing fate. There was a lot of back and forth about whether this surgery will be effective as…
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Collaborating with CreativeClaire
Happy Friday! As I mentioned in my previous article, I will be collaborating with CreativeClaire! You may be saying to yourself, “What is that?” Let me explain. CreativeClaire is someone that creates planning, lifestyle tracking, and other printables on Etsy. I’ve found her stuff to be incredibly helpful in my own life and so I wanted to share it with you! I reached out to CreativeClaire because I was interested in doing a collaboration. I wanted something specifically for people with chronic illness/ people with disabilities. As someone who needs to track a wide variety of information, I was looking for a service that would help me do it. I…
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5 Things I Wish People Understood About Chronic Illness
I was reminded this week that the general population has no idea what it is like to live in a state of chronic illness. There were two occasions where I left a conversation furious. It was so clear that they had no boundaries when it came to asking questions or approaching the topic. So without further ado, here are five things I wish people understood about having a chronic illness: You Don’t Have a Right to My Information This is something I address relatively often. For some reason, people feel entitled to know what is going on in my body. I don’t owe anybody information on my personal health. It’s…
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Crush is Going Back to School!
As we celebrate back to school, I have felt a little somber. I miss school, I honestly love school. That being said, someone is going back to school and it’s Crush! For those who haven’t been following my journey long, Crush is my service dog. Crush is currently trained for mobility assistance and medical alerts. His medical alerts are restricted to a behavior alert for my allergies. Crush has also alerted me to my blood pressure but because this isn’t a trainable alert, I can only reinforce it when he naturally does it. Crush has done his job diligently for almost two years. He’s very good at it. He’s extremely…
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How Self Care Changes
Self care for anyone comes in a wide variety of forms. I enjoy meditation, mindfulness, the typical self care activities. Some people enjoy reading or writing. There’s no end to how you can take care of yourself and the best part is that it’s completely tailored to you. You can’t do self care incorrectly, as long as you’re listening to your own needs. For me, I often get into patterns of taking care of myself. I do things during the day that I know fill me up and then I don’t have to think about it. Obviously, overtime my needs change. If I’m not actively reflecting on what works and…
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A Review of Pela
Happy Wednesday! Today I am going to be doing a review of Pela! About a month ago, I started looking for a new phone case. I wanted it to be sustainable and not have a significant impact on the planet. When I googled sustainable phone cases, the companies that came up were Casetify and Pela. I personally have never bought from Casetify but I’ve heard a lot of mixed reviews. After looking through their website a bit, I decided that it really wasn’t for me. I moved on to Pela. I fell in love with the Honey (Bee Edition) Wallet Case. It drew me in immediately. They actually had quite…
