Tag Archives: psoriatic arthritis

The Disabled Diva’s Blog Weekly Recap April 15-19, 2019

Health issues, Weekly Recaps April 18, 2019 Leave a comment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Disabled Diva Blog Weekend Recap April 15-19, 2019

  1. Hospital Horrors: Leaving in more pain than I arrived in 
  2. Hospital Horrors Part 2: Desperate to be heard!
  3. Say Yes to a Foot Massage!
  4. How to Keep Bedrest From Ruining Your Life
  5. Make your bed more comfortable for under $50

Being put on bedrest (see post #2 for explanation) has put some kinks in my life… A little online shopping is smoothing them out…. Join The Disabled Diva’s Product Picks group on Facebook to find out what I purchased, why I purchased those items, and how they can help you too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Disabled Diva’s Blog Weekly Recap April 8-12, 2019

Health issues, Home Life, Oska Pulse, Product Picks, Weekly Recaps April 12, 2019 Leave a comment

weekly recap april 8

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Disabled Diva Blog Weekend Recap April 8-12, 2019

  1. Why PEMF therapy is a part of my daily pain management plan
  2. Why I fear doctors, hospitals, and test results
  3. Make your bed more comfortable for under $50

Stay tuned!! Next week I will share another more recent awful emergency room experience, a misdiagnosis, and what let to a surprising yet fitting diagnosis…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why PEMF therapy is a part of my daily pain management plan

Chronic Life, Oska Pulse, pain relief April 8, 2019 Leave a comment

Why PEMF therapy is part of my daiy pain management plan

 

 

 

 

 

 

Why PEMF therapy is part of my daily pain management plan

I don’t know about you, but when I find a pain relief medication/product/treatment that works, I make sure to use it every single day.

When that same thing continues to provide relief month after month and year after year, I have to tell everyone I know because I want them to experience the same relief that I have.

*Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. Meaning that at no additional cost to you, I receive a commission when you make a purchase through my links. The proceeds earned fund the giveaways I host in my Facebook groups.  I am not a medical professional and nothing I share should be mistaken as medical advice.  

Here are my reasons for including PEMF therapy with Oska Pulse in my daily pain management plan.
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How to plan the best summer vacation despite your chronic illness

Disneyland, travel April 4, 2019 Leave a comment

How to plan the best summer vacation despite your chronic illness

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does the thought of taking a summer vacation get you excited or does it send chills down your spine?  I loved traveling before I became chronically ill.  In addition to yearly Disneyland vacations, I loved exploring new areas in other states or within the ones that I lived in.  Weekend road trips without a destination were my favorites.

Soon after chronic pain became a part of my daily life I began to loathe traveling. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go exploring, instead it became too painful. Not only did my excursions increase my pain while away, it would take weeks and sometimes months to recover from them once I returned home. Not wanting to spend most of my time recovering I opted to stop traveling.

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Keeping My Chronic Illnesses Happy While Fighting an Infection

Chronic Life, Health issues March 26, 2019 Leave a comment

Keeping my chronic illnesses happy while fighting an infection

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Keeping My Chronic Illnesses Happy While Fighting an Infection

If you are like me, every illness and injury that you experience comes with a side dish of unwanted flares from your chronic illnesses.  That has been my story for as long as I can remember… Until now….

For the first time in my entire chronic life, I have been able to keep my chronic illnesses from completely freaking out while I am recovering from an infection that is unrelated to fibromyalgia, psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis, degenerative disc disease, and abdominal adhesions.

How can this be?

In today’s very short post I am sharing how I am doing it…..

*Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. Meaning that at no additional cost to you, I receive a commission when you make a purchase through my links. The proceeds earned fund the giveaways I host in my Facebook groups.

Listen and obey

If I have learned anything about my body and living with multiple chronic illnesses, it is that I have to listen to my body’s demands.

If it wants to sleep, I sleep.  To help me sleep comfortably, not just for the moment, but to wake up with less pain I use a foam wedge, neck, full body, and knee pillow.  When using the full body pillow, I use the knee pillow for my ankles.  I literally hurts to have any part of my legs or feet to touch each other when I sleep, especially when I am running a fever.

Lying in bed for extended periods of time increases pain in my sacrum and spine.  To avoid any unnecessary pain, I run PEMF treatments on those areas with my Oska Pulse.

When fighting an illness outside of my chronic ones, I throw my regular schedule out the window.  I do not force myself to do more than I can handle, before I am ready to do it.

Stay ahead of the game

Besides allowing my body the rest and sleep that it requires, I make sure to address pain issues before they become a problem.

Dehydration only makes the situation worse, so I force myself to drink plenty of water.

To help keep my muscles relaxed I use Good Night Lotion on my legs and feet.  I alternate between  BioCBD+ topical oil and Earthley’s Arnica Salve to relieve pain from my temples down to my toes.

When I have the energy, I take a bath with hemp bath bombs for extra comfort.

To stay ahead of nausea, I vape my favorite cannabis strains with my new dry herb vaporizer (review coming soon).

The most important thing I do is to not stress out about the time my body needs to heal.  Stress is a huge trigger for most of my chronic illnesses.  By remaining calm and accepting that my life isn’t going to fall apart in the days my body needs to heal, I prevent further complications from the symptoms that stress triggers.

I may not have gotten ahead on the projects that I had hoped to over the past few days, but I have caught up on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, General Hospital, and Coronation Street.  I watch them all on HULU where I never have to worry about setting a DVR and am able to watch my favorite shows without commercials.  Click here if you want to try HULU for FREE for two weeks.

With each passing day I can feel myself getting better and stronger…

In the meantime, how do you keep your chronic illnesses calm while healing from an infection or injury?

 

 

 

Is Your Social Circle Filled With Energy Sucking Vampires?

Chronic Life March 26, 2019 Comments: 6

 

is your social circle filled with energy sucking vampires

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is Your Social Circle Filled With Energy Sucking Vampires?

Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have people in our lives that just suck the life out of us.  Prior to becoming chronically ill I had a high tolerance for toxic people.  Now? Um not so much. 

*Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links. Meaning that at no additional cost to you, I receive a commission when you make a purchase through my links. The proceeds earned fund the giveaways I host in my Facebook groups.

Emotion sucking vampires

These vampires will suck the positivity, joy, and peace from your life.  They steal our attention with what is often self-inflicted drama.  They rarely have anything constructive to say.  Instead all they spew is negativity and often over react to the simplest of issues or events. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Toxic people don’t want solutions or advice, they just want to be heard and seen.  You might be thinking that you are able to handle hanging out with vampires because it’s their problem and not yours.  Unless you are somebody who is able to shield your heart and soul from other’s emotions you would be wrong. 

My chronic illnesses have increased my sensitivity to emotions, mine and of those around me.  Feelings like pain, sadness, despair, anger, rage, inadequacy, doubt, and worthlessness are felt deeper than before. 

 

 

Break out the garlic

I was ready to end my life after falling down the rabbit hole of depression a little over 4 years ago.  I had to work hard to climb out of that dungeon.  It takes an enormous amount of effort to remain positive and happy no matter what my physical circumstances are.

There was no way I was going to let an emotion sucking vampire destroy my progress, so I broke out the garlic.  Some vampires were easy to eliminate from my life.  They were mostly acquaintances, people that really weren’t part of my life.  I stopped taking phone calls or would walk away when they began biting. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, some of us are related or close to some vampires and cutting them loose isn’t always an option.  However, don’t let someone suck the life out of you just because you are related, that doesn’t give them a free pass. 

To deal with them I had to set boundaries.  Telling them I couldn’t handle their drama didn’t work, because they didn’t care about how their drama affected me.  They only cared about having an audience and instead accused me of not loving or caring about them.  That wasn’t true, but try explaining that to someone who just wanted attention and created reasons to get it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  I had to let a few go. Sad? Yes, but no longer feeling the stress or anxiousness that I used to was worth it.  My best weapon was offering advice or putting a positive spin on whatever they were lamenting about.  This stopped them in their tracks as like I stated earlier they weren’t seeking solutions nor did they want to see the good in any situation.  Once I started utilizing this cleaning tool their visits and phones calls began to dwindle. 

A drama free life?

I hope you realize that you deserve a happy life.  Decluttering my social circle has improved relationships with those who value my friendship or relationship with them.  These people are the ones who aren’t creating chaos and wanting everyone around them to get caught up in it too. 

There is always going to be some kind of drama in our lives, situations that we didn’t create or have control over.  Real friends and family want to help and comfort not suck the life out of each other. We laugh, come up with solutions, bounce ideas off of each other, and most importantly we respect one and other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spring Clean Your Chronic Life: Scour Your Social Media Feed

adhesions, Chronic Life, fibromyalgia, mental-health, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis March 19, 2019 Leave a comment

spring clean your social media feed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is time to apply some good old fashioned spring cleaning to our social media accounts.

Have you ever noticed a change in your emotions after scrolling through your Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter feed?

For example, maybe you were feeling down but cheered up after viewing some encouraging memes.

If happiness were the only emotional outcome of scrolling through social media, then I wouldn’t be writing this article….  Too often social media leaves people feeling depressed, anxious, unworthy, or angry.  These emotions, while normal, can and often aggravate chronic pain.

The good news is that there is a way to overcome it!  Read on!

*Disclosure: I am not a medical professional. I am not issuing medical advice. Consult with your doctor before making any changes to your diet or treatments. This post contains affiliate links. Meaning that, at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission from purchases made through my links. These pennies fund the giveaway funds for my Facebook Groups.

online therapy

 

 

 

So what do you do when what your friends and family post on social media has a negative effect on your mental well-being?  You take control!

Here are five options for taking control of your social media feed and emotional health.

Choose wisely

Don’t scroll through your feed.  Instead only visit the pages of the people and or businesses that won’t instigate unwanted feelings.  Need a pick me up? Visit the accounts of those who often brighten your day.

Get help

As I stated earlier, it is normal to feel the feels that many social media posts invoke.  However, if you find that you are unable to let go of them, they consume your mind, or they are affecting your health, it is time to get help.  I am not saying that everyone needs to seek out therapy, but if you find yourself drawn to posts that increase the intensity of negative emotions there is a problem.

Hide

You love your Aunt Sally, but she every day she goes on a political rampage.  Her posts are angry and hostile, which leave you feeling the same after viewing them.  Guess what?  You don’t have to endure those posts!  Do yourself a favor and hide her posts from your timeline.  Facebook allows you to be friends with people, yet to also NOT follow them!

To make sure you aren’t missing anything important, you may want to pop over to her page once every blue moon to see if she has posted anything of importance.  I have assigned someone to check the pages of those who trigger extremely unpleasant emotions for me.  It doesn’t bother them and it makes my life so much better.

 

 

 

Unfriend/unfollow

If hiding their posts doesn’t work, you may have to unfriend or unfollow them.  I save this option for those who lack personal boundaries.  For example, you can post whatever you want on your page.  I have the right to not go there and see it.  But you cross a line when you continually tag me or post your vile content on my profile page.

Just because you are related to someone or are friends, it doesn’t mean that you have to be their social media buddy too.  If socializing with them online is going to send you into a panic attack, cause you to socially withdraw, increase your blood pressure, or cause you to go into a rage, let them go!!

By the way, if the people in your life are the cause of negative emotions or activities, please seek out help with a therapist.  They can help you determine which relationships can be saved and which are truly toxic.

Leave

Your last option is to leave the platform that leaves you with the most destructive of feelings and thoughts.  Having a social media account isn’t a requirement of life.  Yes, they provide an easy way to keep in touch with and to connect with our friends and family on a daily basis, but if they are creating a problem for you, let it go!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feelings of sadness, anger, etc. are inevitable.  However, if you find that those feelings are becoming a way of life or all that you feel, there is a problem.  The answer isn’t threatening people to only post what makes you happy or to unfriend you.  The answer is first finding out if your reactions are typical, second recognizing just how much you can handle, then last but not least, taking action to protect your mental health.

With that said….. Before you decide to take a social media vacation, be sure to subscribe to my blog! I would hate for you to miss out on a blog post just because of a few rotten apples!  Click here to subscribe!

Click here to read my entire Spring Cleaning series

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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