Spoonie Crisis

I'm a chronically sick & fed up chick! It's been very hard for me to find products that are compatible for me as well as keeping my regimen goals on track. I really want to get my life back- or at least some of it give or take. I do not have sponsors, I pay all of the stuff I use out of my own pocket. I am also not a skin care or weight loss professional. Pretty much all of what I'm doing have been & will be trial & error, however I have found some products & methods that have worked & stick. It may or may not it will help with all of you spoonies out there, but at least it will give us some hope.

[spooniecrisis]

Can someone tell me who's racist grandma this this? I was getting Starbucks & breakfast this morning. As I was leaving the shopping center a man with a huge trailer was blocking one side of the lot so I couldn't turn over to my side of the lane to turn left out of there. An old couple in a Lexus took a sharp turn into the lot and instead of passing me up they drove towards me. They signaled me to move my car or back up for them when CLEARLY they had AMPLE room to pass me. They didn't move. At all. A van behind them passed them up & crossed over but they still stuck to their guns. Finally the wife came out & snapped a picture of my license plate. As she approached me she was "explaining" to me how to drive. I'm assuming she thought I was Mexican or illegal for them to start trouble with me because that's what a lot of people have been doing these days. But I answered her telling her that she should've passed me over. I snapped a picture of her because she was too close to my car and I told her I will see her on Instagram before I snapped a pic of her license plate. I've been subject to racism pretty much here and there all my life but never been bluntly like this. I felt like the lady assumed I was illegal & wanted to get in trouble. I'm not sure if she called the police on me because I saw her used her phone before getting out & snapping a pic of my car. First off, my car registration is updated, car is paid in full, I haven't had a traffic ticket in years in my records, & even my oil change is current. If you want me to whip out my birth certificate & show you that I was born in one of the founding states I can flash it to you because I have a copy in my purse. I pay my taxes, I just served 2 jury duty services this year. And if we are talking accent she is has a thicker accent than me with her Texas accent. I'm posting this because I want to make it known that the stigmatism has been really bad. I am an American born citizen. Just because I'm a person of color doesn't give you the right to target me. I have rights.

[spooniecrisis]

I’ve Been Really Sick (Again/As Always)

I’m really sorry that I have not posted much this month. I have been dealing with a bad bladder infection and have been in & out of the doctor’s. I just have been miserable, especially yesterday when I was in so much pain I gave myself a panic attack. I’ve been wanting to post more entries because there’s a lot of topics, reviews & specific products that I like to talk about. I honestly really enjoy blogging and I noticed I started having a lot of followers and reposts. So hopefully when I’m well again I can start posting again. 

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

“Learn to trust the journey even when you do not understand it.”

— Thedailypositive.com

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

Always defend your right to heal at your own pace. You are taking your time. You are allowed to take your time.

Unknown (via onlinecounsellingcollege)

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[onlinecounsellingcollege]

“I know this transformation is painful but you’re not falling apart; you’re just falling into something different, with a new capacity to be beautiful.”

— William C. Hannan

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[onlinecounsellingcollege]

Pain doesn’t just show up in our lives for no reason. It’s a sign that something in our life needs to change.

Mandy Hale (via onlinecounsellingcollege)

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Golden Girls Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Dorothy Confronts Dr. Budd

Dorothy confronts the doctor who dismissed her illness. This is the experience of far too many sufferers of chronic illness.

I saw this yesterday on my Feed and I shared it with my Spoonie friends. Being sick can be really frustrated especially when people don’t believe you and dismiss you. What really made me taken by this clip was when Dorothy said she wished all doctors came pre-sick so they could really understand how their patients really felt. I do feel that really hard, especially with people that I have to deal with on a daily basis. I get really fed up with the ignorance and insensitivity. And when they do get a whiff of what I deal with they go all over the place like it’s the end of the world. There is a lot of pain involved and even if it’s very briefly for them, it is forever for me. I feel like at a point where I don’t want people to understand, but to be more considerate. Kind of like how in Bambi when Thumper’s dad told him that if he didn’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

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Dealing with Massive Hair Loss with Hypothyroidism

I just have a feeling that some reader is on my page reading my blogs and all that I’ve mentioned with my chronic illnesses are diabetes and psoriasis. What in tarnation do I keep tagging and talking about autoimmune diseases for?! That’s because my dear fellow spoonies, I also have hypothyroidism. At times when I talk to other spoonie friends I feel like we should have like a pack of disease training cards and just take turn drawing and trading them among each other because when it rain, it definitely pours!

My first year diagnosed with hypothyroidism I lost a lot of hair. I would just stare at the drain hole and with all the wads of hair in my hand when I’d shampoo in the shower. It affected me in a fearful and depressive level because I’ve always had thick hair. It just wasn’t my head but my eyebrows and even eyelashes as well. I mean as stressful as it is with other thyroid symptoms to deal with, this, this was just the tip of the iceberg. If you’ve just been diagnosed with any thyroid disease and happen to stumble onto this post. First off, I am sorry. But you will be okay- meaning it will be hard but you can survive by adapting to it.

Every person is different. We may share the same disease but depending on what else we have going on and how are bodies react we may not have the same symptoms. Like diabetes for example. I know quite a few people with type 2 diabetes like myself, but everyone is different. Some people have a hard time losing weight, or their eye sight goes super bad. Or some like me who end up with really bad skin issues and a messed up liver and kidneys. I think thyroid is the same. I have hypothyroidism and diabetes (I call it “thyrobetes”) and those two always like to fight each all the time. So my methods may or may not help or be effective. I tried in the past using hair masks, all these vitamin treatments, castor oil, etc. All barely helped my hair loss, and I was not about to try Rogaine! I ended up reading up on an article about Biotin. I mean if you go to the vitamin aisle every skin, hair and nail supplement always have Biotin in there as an ingredient. I drank it every day religiously for about 1 1/2 years. And yeah, it did help. My skin is always gonna be bad but it helped my brittle nails and my hair. I’m Asian, I don’t have body hair but since taking Biotin I do shave my legs every 2 months instead of 3-4 months. My hair isn’t as thick as it was before, plus I’m a lot older now but it is better than it was before. That goes with my eyebrows, the only thing I saw great improvements were my eyelashes. They got a tad thicker. But I will warn you, Biotin doesn’t discriminate. Hahahahaha. If you’re a somewhat hairy person you will be a tad more hairy. Like I don’t have much arm, armpit hair, etc but after taking Biotin I did see hair. Not extravagantly or anything. I still shave it in like 2 months when I shave my legs. But for me, it works.

I take 10,000 mcg of Biotin a day. I’m not keen on any particular brand, just whatever you can find. If you like to be like a friend and splurge you can get those fancy kind that implements on “skin, hair and nails” and throws in a few other types of vitamins in it too and charges up the wazoo. Read the labels, don’t get yourself jipped! I have consulted my doctor about taking Biotin and my doc was cool with it. But if you’re not sure ask your doctor and/or what other recommendations if you suffer from hair loss. AND if it’s just vitamins like Biotin don’t get a prescription from a doc for it. You’re wasting your money. You can go to Walmart, any grocery store, drug store, etc & get it. There’s ALWAYS coupons & deals. 

[spooniecrisis]

12 Myths About Autoimmune Disease That Make It Even Harder to Live With

"I’d be rich if I had a penny for every time someone told me I’d 'feel better' if I’d only change my diet and/or get out of my house and do something."

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This is another product that I totally swear by. I am a person with type 2 diabetes and with diabetes it’s a very “universal” disease in a sense. Meaning unlike certain diseases that focus on a particular destruction, diabetes just destroys everything in it’s way all over your body. I have friends with type 2 diabetes who doesn’t have skin complications like I do. Diabetes gave me not only psoriasis and acanthosis nigricans, it also messed up my immune system and healing factor. I started getting boils, occasional warts and all. I honestly did not know what to do it with and it would last months and months until it would go away. But it was when a spider bit me earlier this year that really messed me up and I had to find some type of ointment to cure it. It was swollen up, aching, and I started running fevers and body pains. I went online to find something for it because it wasn’t a regular bug bite. I came across PRID. PRID saved my life, seriously! The spider bite finally healed from it. Then when I started having those nasty boils again I used PRID on it and it subsided. It’s a very good product. I recently used it on some warts and it did the trick too.

Some people said it didn’t work for them, some people said it did. I’m saying it did for me. It works on my skin. If you have diabetes and you get a lot of boils then you may need some drawing salve. In the past I tried using or cleaning it with alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, witch hazel, chamomile tea bags, etc. Nothing helps. I recently tried it on pimples too, like the really nasty volcanic ones and it actually helped it popped “naturally” instead of me picking on it. What I usually do with PRID is that I would shower or wash my face clean before applying it. I used a Q-tip to apply a small bit of the salve onto the infected area (boil, pimple, cysts, bug bite, etc) and cover it with a band-aid. Usually I do it before I go to sleep (after I showered) and in the morning I re-dress it and apply more PRID to the area before I go to work. You can definitely see the salve working when you take the band-aid out. I did tried it on my psoriasis a few times when it was very irritated, scratched and cracked. I only applied a very thin gloss over it and it helped. However if you have psoriasis the best thing you can do is always keep the rashes hydrated so it doesn’t get so dry.

Don’t go on Amazon to purchase this, they will rip you off! You can buy it at Walmart for 1/2 the cost. 

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

“Healing doesn’t mean the damage never existed. It means the damage no longer controls our life.”

— Akshay Dubey

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17 'Rude' Things People With Chronic Illness Do for the Sake of Their Health

"I am learning to be 'rude' to keep myself safe."

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Since I’ve gotten sick my view on the world and the people in it has changed drastically. It made me learn to love myself more and cut off any unnecessary bullshit.

Lisa Castle

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