-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
How I Create Habit Change
Habit change is something that often doesn’t come easily. It’s easy to say at 10pm that you’re going to wake up at 5 and exercise before work. At 5am it’s easy to hit snooze and forgo that plan altogether. I have fallen victim to that trend all too many times but then again we all have. How can you change habits most effectively? I’m no expert and I don’t want to speak out of turn but I know what works for me. That’s what I’m going to share with you today, five things that help me create habit change. Establish Priorities I find that if I don’t understand or have…
-
A Review of LMNT
Happy Friday! We’ve officially made it through another week. Hooray! Today, I’m going to be reviewing LMNT. This brand offers packets of drink mix with electrolytes in them. They’re comparable to Liquid IV. While they are comparable to Liquid IV, there’s a lot that sets LMNT apart. For example, they have no shower and only 2 grams of carbs per packet. It’s very heavy on salt, while including potassium and magnesium as well. I was sponsored as part of their Hydrate a Hero promotion and I got a free kit with a ton of products. They gave me about 5 of their various flavored packets. This included Mango Chili, Lemon…
-
A Review of Mary Ruth's Organics
Happy Wednesday! Today, we’re going to be talking all about vitamins. Unfortunately, I’ve been plagued by several different vitamin deficiencies. They eb and flow but I stay on a constant stream of supplements to avoid any significant drops. Over the years, I’ve tried a wide range of supplements. There are brands that I’ve loved and brands that well, really missed the mark. So where does Mary Ruth’s Organics fall on that scale? I honestly love Mary Ruth’s. There are a few different products I’ve tried. The range in which I like them varies but overall the brand would get an A from me. Let’s go through the products I’ve tried.…
-
Exciting Things Are Coming!
Hello All! I am back! It has been far too long since I posted and here’s why:Life has been crazy. July unfortunately challenged me in just about every way possible. Not only did I have several trips to the Emergency Room, I started my new job, and moved. While working at my new job, I continued to fill my position at my previous one. They didn’t have anyone to start when I planned to leave so I wanted to help them out. I was going to a wide variety of doctors appointments. All in all, it was just an overwhelming month. Let me catch you up on what is going…
