totally-sick-blogger

[totally-sick-blogger]

I need advice for Halo traction

hi internet people, I know it's been a month since I've written anything but I've been very busy and also not taking my ADHD pills.

Anyways, I'm going to be spending 12(ish) weeks inpatient at the hospital soon to do halo traction and I was wondering if anyone had any tips/advice about what to expect, things to bring with me, etc. Also what clothes do I bring? how do I get shirts over halo? Any advice would be so so so so helpful!

thank you much and have a wonderful evening everyone. I promise ill try to post something mildly interesting again soon <3

[totally-sick-blogger]

Disabled people are not inherently inspiring

The title pretty much says it all but essentially last week this (non-disabled) woman who I barely know came up to me and HUGGED ME without asking and then told me that I was "so inspirational". I was EXTREMELY uncomfortable and I snapped at her because wtf why are you hugging me I don't know you? I'd met this woman twice before this encounter and at our last interaction she SINGLED ME OUT IN A CROWD OF 12 PEOPLE and called the "accessibility guru" which made me want to throw up because

why are you singling me out in a group of people?

I am not the one singular authority on what is and is not accessible and it's weird to suggest that I am because different people have different access needs than others so her statement was objectively untrue

this woman has spoken to me as though I am an infant during every single one of our encounters

The main point that I want to address in this blog post is that disabled people are NOT there to be your inspiration. Just because I'm doing an everyday activity (in this case it was delivering a stack of books to a school library) and also happen to be disabled does not mean that I'm inspiring... I'm just disabled and existing. And while yes, I do spend a lot of time doing advocacy work for the disabled community does not mean that I want to inspire you. I am very firm in my stance that I want to be inspiring for children, and disabled youth. NOT random middle-aged people who are able-bodied and have no concept of boundaries. And even then, my goal isn't to be inspiring, it's to make the world less shit for other disabled youth. I just want to help people, I could not care less about looking good.

That's all for my little rant! Goodnight everyone (Or good morning depending on your time zone, but I'm writing this at 11pm)

Love you all <3

[totally-sick-blogger]

Make pride accessible for everyone!!!!

I made a post about this last year and the year before, and thought if I did it this way it gives people and orgs something to work towards. Often people forget that disabled people aren't just wheelchair users, and even those who are, need more than just that ramp!

My first ever pride, not only as a wheelchair but my first ever EVER pride, I went in expecting to feel at home.

Obviously I wasn't, I'm disabled, so why should I?

Instead there was just a ridiculous amount of uneven flooring, a steep ramp to the disabled toilet, no sanitary towel bin in the disabled toilet (???) no allowances to be let out of the festival to fetch things from my car, no where quiet and organisers who seemed genuinely surprised to see a wheelchair user!

My next pride, three years later, I was a seller, and while they had sorted their toilet problem (still no sanitary towel bin???), the hill to get in wouod have been genuinely impossible for me to get to if I hadn't been driving to get my stall in anyway, even with someone pushing me, no quiet areas, plenty of kerbs for me to get stuck at and again, genuine surprise.

Why is it so surprising to consider disabled people might be at pride? Not only do queer disabled people exist, but parents and family of queer kids and people, vendors and even entertainers!

Making pride accessible is crucial!

ID available in Alt Text

[totally-sick-blogger]

Sustainability is rarely accessible

This post is dedicated to Audrey, hi king!

Like many people, I think sustainability and taking care of the environment is really important; however, something that I feel isn't talked about enough when discussing ways to be more sustainable is how it's often inaccessible to disabled people and low-income people.

A lot of "alternative products" aren't viable options for disabled people because of factors such as cost, how easy they are to acquire, or physical accessibility issues.

some examples include:

paper straws and wooden cutlery - I know that for me both of these products give me major sensory issues and as for wooden cutlery I'd also like to note that they're much more difficult to eat with which could cause problems for someone with poor dexterity or fine motor skills.

pre-packaged foods - a lot of disabled people rely on pre-packaged meals and snacks for all kinds of reasons such as sensory issues, having specific safe foods, fatigue, and physically being unable to prepare foods. etc. One example I see often is being told off for buying precut produce because why not "just cut it up themselves" when in reality, some people physically cannot cut it up themselves or don't have enough spoons to make that a priority; not to mention that frozen and pre-cut produce is often cheaper than fresh produce.

medical supplies - A lot the medical supplies that disabled people rely on every day are made up of single use plastics and most of the items aren't meant to be used more than once (though some products can be used for multiple days if cared for properly) that being said, disabled people tend to produce more plastic waste but it's not our faults so we shouldn't be getting flack for it!

Another element of environmental advocacy that a lot of people talk about is veganism; which is of course great thing to practice if that's what works for you but a lot of people (disabled or not) cannot be vegan for dietary reasons. This could be because of allergies, intolerances, restrictions, location, finances, etc. For example, I've got a soy allergy and I've got a friend with a severe nut allergy. This means that neither of us could be fully vegan because the majority of vegan products are made with soy and nuts. I also rely partially on tube feeds for nutrition and as far as I know, there aren't any vegan, soy-free formulas yet (and if there are they're probably absurdly expensive)

This brings me to my final point about cost. A lot of alternative options for vegan and sustainable products are significantly more expensive; making it much harder for people who are already struggling financially to afford those products. Not to mention people who live in food deserts (areas of a city that don't contain grocery stores) or rural areas. There are very low chances that either of those places is going to have specialty food stores or even have alternative options in the few stores that they do have!

In conclusion: stop blaming poor and disabled people for the awful state of our environment and start blaming billionaires and massive corporations!

[totally-sick-blogger]

Disability representation in Bob's Burgers

This is going to be a long post so buckle up and perhaps grab a snack

I am neurodivergent and physically disabled and Bob's Burgers is one of my two special interests so I feel very qualified to talk about this so let's just dive right in

In ~ my opinion ~ Bob's Burgers is one of the best shows overall in terms of disability and LGBTQ+ representation. Still, Today we'll be focusing specifically on disability rep and I'll be breaking it down by character and we'll be discussing both canon and implied disabled characters.

Tina Belcher - Tina is headcanoned by many (including myself) as being Autistic, as many of us autistic people find her extremely relatable and a lot of her symptoms to be obvious. She has a very hard time making and maintaining friendships with people besides her siblings, she does not understand most social situations, all of her "friends" besides Zeke are mean to her but never realize that they're being mean to her unless Louise points it out. She also displays heavy and intense interest in horses, and romance, which many see as her special interests. She also frequently stims both physically and orally; this is especially prevalent when she's in situations that she finds stressful. She's also known not to understand jokes or sarcasm (there's literally an entire episode with this as a running side plot, see season 7 episode 15) she also frequently tries to act like someone she's not and pretend to take interest in things she doesn't actually like in an attempt to make friends (see season 13 episode 14). There's also an entire two-part episode where she's a robot who's pretending to be human which was meant to be an allegory for her masking and she and Bob have an entire song dedicated to them feeling like they're unlikable and not knowing how to be "normal" and I find it painfully relatable and it has me in tears every time I watch that episode (season 12 episodes 21 and 22). The common argument against Tina being autistic is that within the first 5 minutes of the very first episode, there's a joke about Tina being autistic and Bob says "You're not autistic Tina" but my argument against this is that the Belcher family canonically does not have much money and getting diagnosed is very expensive. (also the entire family is very neurodivergent so it wouldn't shock me if no one in the family noticed that she was autistic)

Bob - Bob displays a lot of the same behaviours as Tina but also tends to be portrayed as the classical undiagnosed adult autistic man. He also has a strong tendency to personify and give names to objects such as his spatula; this however can be a sign of autism or childhood trauma which we also know that he has as it's showed and explained on many occasions that his childhood wasn't super great since his mother died when he was a young boy and his dad was not great at parenting and was showed to care more about his restaurant than his son.

Linda - Linda again is the classic undiagnosed adult auDHD woman. She's very hyper-active, and tries really hard to control situations but not in a malicious way. she needs everything to be perfect all of the time and takes extreme measures to make that happen which usually wind up making the situation worse (see season 1 episode 7)

Gene - Gene (in my opinon) clearly has ADHD. He's forgetful, can't get himself to do activities that aren't of his immediate interest, day dreams a lot and his very very extroverted. (Though not all ADHDers are extroverted). He also has a very hard time with rejection sensitivity which is common in people with ADHD.

Teddy - Teddy is the Belchers best customer and close family friend. He also displays symptoms of autism but on a more "severe" level than other characters mentioned. He eats the exact same thing for lunch every day at the exact same time, and literally has a breakdown if that changes without warning. He also has no social skills, is easily manipulated and has strong attachment issues particularily towards Bob and Linda. Also he's a hoarder but I'm not sure if that's relevant to this.

Gayle - I'm not really sure what's going on with Gayle or where to start with her but she definitely has some stuff going on in her brain.

Jimmy jr - Jimmy jr has a speed impediment and often displays his frustrations with his dad who wants him to go to speech therapy and get rid of his speech problems even though he'd rather spend his time pursuing his dreams of being a dancer.

Benji - Benji is a character who appears in a season 13 episode. He's a student in Louise's grade who uses a wheelchair and has a passion for puppetry and loves Jim Henson; though his mother would rather that he took wheelchair basketball lessons. (Also, fun fact: the voice actor for Benji also voices a disabled character on Sesame street, who's puppets were originally crafted by Jim Henson)

This post is already long enough so I'll stop here but I could go on for ages about this subject. I hope you all learned something and feel free to add to the conversation in the comments. Remember that some of these are just opinions and you're aloud to disagree.

Have a great eveing lovies and if you made it this far thank you for reading <3

[totally-sick-blogger]

This is your friendly reminder that your mobility aids don’t ruin your outfit !!

[totally-sick-blogger]

My favourite disabled characters in media

The other day I made a post about how important disability representation is and today I'm giving you guys a list of my favourite disabled characters from tv shows!

Quinnie Gallagher-Jones (Heartbreak High) - Autism

Felix (Heartstopper S2) - Wheelchair user + has a feeding tube

Tina Belcher (Bob's Burgers) - Autism (This is technically a headcanon but also not so I'll be making a post soon going into more detail about this)

Twyla boogieman (Monster high G3) - Autism

Ghoulia Yelps (Monster high G1) - Scoliosis

There's a ton more that I could talk about but these are my personal favourites. I'll be making an in depth post about the representation in Bob's Burgers as many of the characters in that show are extremely Neurodivergent. I'll also be making a post about the representation in Monster High because it has a ton of representation of all different kinds of disabilities (and it's my special interest)

Goodbye lovies <3

[totally-sick-blogger]

ALL EYES ON RAFAH. WE WILL NOT FORGIVE. WE WILL NOT FORGET.

This design is free to redistribute and repost. Download here.

[totally-sick-blogger]

A brain dump about disability representation

Hi lovies! I intend to do 2 or 3 more well thought out posts about this subject but this is just a general dump of things that I've been thinking about today relating to disability representation.

I was having a conversation about representation (specifically geared towards children but this applies to all ages) and how it's importants not only for other people to see positive representation of people that are different from them but also so that the disabled kids can also see themselves positively represented.

When I think about this in terms of my own expiriences as a disabled kid, especially in school I defenitly think that if we were shown more books, shows, movies, etc that had disabled characters it would saved me years of answering odd, uncomfortable, and usually rude questions from other kids in my class. I also think that seeing myself represented would have made me feel more "normal" and be neutral about being different from other kids in my school. It wasn't until recent years that I started feeling okay with and even positively about being different and I'm so happy that we are finally *starting* to be represented in media and I'm also so so glad that I get to be that representation for the kids that I work with.

That's all for today's brain dump! I'm thinking of probably doing a post about my favourite disabled characters in media and 2 deep dives about the representation in specific shows.

[totally-sick-blogger]

5 low energy activities for when you're feeling too unwell to get up but don't want to be on your phone.

Hi lovies!

I think that the title pretty much explains it. Still, I wanted to share 5 low-energy activities today because I know it can be really hard to find something to do when you're not feeling well but you've already been scrolling on your phone for hours. All of these are things that you can do from your bed, the couch, etc. and they are all very affordable!

Tip: If you're doing these in your bed (or somewhere else that doesn't have a good flat surface) you can use a cookie sheet/baking tray. If you don't already own a cookie sheet you can find them for really cheap at the dollar store or a second-hand store

colouring - this one is probably pretty obvious but I think it's a good one because it's pretty customizable. You can buy a colouring book from the dollar store or amazon or Walmart or wherever else. you could even find free printable colouring pages online. the same thing applies to markers/crayons etc. you probably already have some and if not you can get super cheap ones or super fancy ones.

2. crossword puzzles/word searches - I know these aren't for everyone but I love them and they're another thing that you can find paper copies of or online and you can buy a book of them or print them out yourself.

3. reading - This is another one that has lots of options for different price ranges and affordability. you can buy new books, or used books, borrow from a library, or do audiobooks or Ebooks instead. I know that some libraries have apps you can download with Ebooks and audiobooks that you can borrow as long as you have a library card.

4. bead crafts - I love making things with beads (particularly bracelets) because it's, easy, and requires no brain power. I'd also like to mention that if you have poor dexterity or fine motor skills (or want avoid eye strain) I recommend using pipe cleaners instead of string and using larger beads that are easier to pick up.

5. card games - If you have a friend, family member, or caregiver around you can play card games! they're fun, easy, you can do it laying down and there's tons of different games out there.

Bonus

6. This is bonus activity because it takes a bit more energy than the others but I always recommend finding a video essay or documentary on an interesting topic and taking notes and doing a deep dive on the subject!

that's all for today lovies, as always I hope this helps at least one person!

[totally-sick-blogger]

Girl meets autism???

It’s the middle of the night and I can’t sleep and I need to talk about this.

So lately I’ve been rewatching girl meets world and by “rewatching” I mean I let it play on my laptop at night when I’m falling asleep so really I’m not actually watching a whole lot of it. But I’ve just remembered the autism episode and need to to talk about it because it was so….I don’t even know what words to use here if I’m being honest so I’m just going to go point by point.

Why did they act like it something that they needed to cure??? That part catches me off guard every time; especially when Maya GRABS HIS ARM AND TRIED TO PULL HIM TOWARDS THE DOOR. Like did she think that they were gonna go to pharmacy and get antibiotics to cure is autism or something??

Why were they so shocked that he had autism. Like it was really obvious to me from the very beginning. So the way they were all like “but you can’t be autistic???? You’re just quirky???” And when Maya was like “let’s tell them you’re not” I think that part is funny in an ironic way because usually it’s the other way around when someone says “you can’t be autistic because you don’t *insert autism stereotype here*” whereas from my perspective, farkle is the most classically autistic teen boy that is portrayed in the media.

Do you guys remember that one tiktok audio that was like “I’m not autistic! I’m just a bit silly! And I cry when my socks are right…but that’s unrelated” I feel like that basically sums up the dialogue of this episode

They were ALL losing their marbles over farkle being autistic which made no sense to me because from my perspective Riley is definitely also autistic but it presents in her very differently than it presents in farkle and I always found them both to be very relatable. I’m a little bit confused about why they never made that connection especially after isadora told everyone that she’s also autistic and has been diagnosed for a long time.

On the topic of isadora- it made me so sad how she told farkle that she would accept him for who he was and that it was okay that he was autistic and she was so happy to finally have someone to relate to but then his friends somehow convinced him that he shouldn’t do that??? Like by the end of the episode they were all like “we think it’s okay that you’re autistic but just don’t act autistic” (this is paraphrased btw) which I’m pretty sure was meant to be them being accepting and open minded but really they were all being terrible friends.

Isadora was always the butt of the joke in every episode she was in and they were always so rude to her for no reason and I feel like they often went out of their way to single her out and this got worse in a way after the autism episode. Like generally speaking they were always so ableist towards her and I would probably classify their attitude towards her as bullying because they didn’t really ever have any actual reason to hate her.

I also would like to note real quick that in the show they used the word Asperger’s instead of autism during most of the episode but I’m saying autism because Asperger’s is outdated and also named after a….very bad guy… Also I feel like there probably weren’t any autistic people consulted on the making of this episode.

Okay I think that’s all of my points for now. If you want a more detailed, better version of this post you should all go check out Lulaloopsy’s video on YouTube. (I will try to link it here -> )

[totally-sick-blogger]

Low energy/low prep snack and meal ideas

I've been thinking a lot the last few days about how difficult it can be to find the energy to make food when you're having high symptoms or low energy so I thought I'd make and share a list of snack and meal ideas that require minimal preparations.

You can make one serving of these things when you're hungry or most of them are also great to prepare in advance on a day when you're feeling really good or when you can have a friend, family member, or caregiver help you out. Snacks

dried fruits

precut veggies and dip

trail mix

popcorn

apples with cinnamon

cheese and crackers

pretzels and peanut butter

crackers and hummus

yogurt and berries (greek yogurt has lots of protein)

pickles

peanut butter on toast

guacamole and tortilla chips (guac can be homemade or store bought)

Meals

Cheese quesadilla (this obviously is not authentic lol)

boiled eggs

ramen (neither is this. I’m talking mr noodles. Not the real thing)

avocado toast

canned soup

rice (can be mixed with eggs or veggies or whatever else)

I hope these were helpful and as always leave any other suggestions in the comments

Love u all <3

[totally-sick-blogger]

How to make an at home med cart (a step by step tutorial - sort of)

Good afternoon lovely people ! Todays blog is all about my med cart and how I set mine up! Hope this helps :)

Step 1. Find a cart/storage area. For mine I used the same kind of Rubbermaid storage cart as I used for my flare up cart. I keep my cart in our laundry room/pantry area which sounds odd but it’s the most accessible option for me.

Step 2. Decided what needs to go in your cart. Mine has medications, supplies, extra bottles of formula, etc.

Step 3. Fill up your drawers, shelves, or whatever else applies here. For this part I’ll give a list of everything I keep in each drawer

Drawer 1. My non daily medications, creams, Vaseline, gauze, medical tape, a few small syringes, Cotton swabs and Q tips

Drawer 2. The rest of my syringes, the little pointy end pieces that connect the syringe to my Gtube adaptor, the adaptors in question

Drawer 3. Gravity feeding bags, and sometimes formula

I also keep a small container in our medicine cabinet with two small syringes, one large 60ml syringe, one adapter and all of my daily medications in it for easy access and for going places.

Step 4. Decorate!! This is completely option I just really love stickers and put absolutely everywhere I possibly can but again, that’s optional.

Okay, that’s all for today. Luv you all and I hope this was helpful to someone and you have a wonderful day <3

[totally-sick-blogger]

Rating random fidget/stim toys out of 10

- tangles 5/10 - they’re fun but when they come apart I can never get them back together

- wacky tracks 10/10 - everything I love about tangles but without the things I hate

- large pop-its 7/10 - it depends on the shape tbh

- small pop-its 8.5/10 - they’re not my preferred fidget toy but I still really like them!! Especially the ones that only have 1 or 2 bubbles on them

- mochi animal thingies 7/10 - they’re very fun to play with and very easy to travel with but they make your hands smell weird and I don’t enjoy that.

- plastic rainbow wiggly slugs 8/10 - they’re kinda big which makes them harder to travel with but otherwise I have no notes.

- foam stress balls 5.5/10 - they’re always either fantastic or hard as a rock with no in between

- filled stress balls 2/10 - I have a love/hate relationship with these because they’re so fun to play with but they nearly always end up exploding.

- literally anything made out of that sticky rubber material 0/10 - I have no explanation I just hate these

- floam 10/10 - I am the number one floam fan

- play dough 7.5/10 - I like playing with it but I wish it didn’t smell as strong

- kinetic sand 5.5/10 - I have love/hate relationship with it and I can’t explain why

- bubble rap 7.5/10 - the og stim toy. But also it’s so loud and I don’t love that.

This was not nearly as helpful or well thought out as my usual posts but I hope you were at least entertained by it <3

Let me know your favourite stim toys in the comments !!!

[totally-sick-blogger]

ibuprofen is my pookie ♡

[totally-sick-blogger]

I don't understand the non-disabled view on needing supports

This is pretty much just me dumping out my thoughts about the non-disabled view of needing support into a few semi-organized paragraphs!

When I was a kid I had an IEP which was rarely actually followed but on the rare occasion that it was, the other kids in my class would get mad that I was receiving "special treatment" as well as looking down upon me for needing to have those accommodations. I could not and still do not understand this mentality.

Society has this weird obsession with independence and I've always thought it was strange. why are we putting people down and viewing them as lesser humans because they require support? I'd be very willing to say that this idea is likely rooted in white supremacy because many non-white cultures heavily value the idea of community and everyone helping each other. In fact, society would, in my opinion, overall be a better place if more people valued community and mutual aid.

A common thing I hear from non-disabled people is "Well it's not fair that you have this support and I don't" and they're right. Lots of people need help with lots of things like school, going to appointments, managing money, etc. and that is okay! Accessibility and accommodations benefit everyone, not just disabled people; so why aren't these supports offered to everyone? I'm sure there are lots of seemingly "self-sufficient" people who could benefit from having help and that's okay.

Circling back to the idea of people viewing needing help as a negative thing; I do not understand that either. Why do we think people are "bad" or "weak" or "lazy" for needing help? I think it's great to need help because admitting that you do need help and advocating to receive help is a very brave thing to do because a lot of people are very judgmental about it.

Community is also a great way to give/receive support. For example, if you are really great at cooking but have a really hard time with money management and you have a friend who's the opposite why don't you do these things for each other. Ex: you can cook them dinner sometimes and they can help you figure out how to budget?

In conclusion, I think needing help is just fine and everyone should have access to the support/accommodations that they need/want. (This would of course start with disabled people of all levels having access to their required supports which many of us still can't access)

As always have a lovely day/night and leave your own thoughts in the comments <3

[totally-sick-blogger]

Can’t believe this conversation is still going on but calling disabled people specially-abled isn’t as inclusive as y’all seem to think it is. It’s actively ignoring the struggles that we face everyday and hand waving it away. We actually suffer and most if not all of us would rather just prefer to be able bodied because being disabled fucking sucks and there’s nothing special about it. Yeah, I’m adhd makes me creative, but it also gives me executive dysfunction so severe that sometimes I do not get out of bed for days on end, not showering or brushing my teeth or eating or doing anything. And that entire aspect of my disability is ignored. And god forbid if you have a less than palatable disability or an invisible one because then you’re either fucking disgusting or just faking it and need to try harder. Where’s your support then, when people are actually struggling? Is it gone now that it’s not aesthetic anymore and actually debilitating to a person’s life? Does it make your feel fucking scared and guilty? Where’s your fucking support now?