Sifting through the emotional, administrative, and financial trauma of dealing with illness, being sick ultimately all comes back to the body. So for this installment of Patients for A Moment, we asked that bloggers submit posts about the down and dirty physical world of their disease.
Ever pulled a serious MacGyver providing your own home healthcare with saline solution and a turkey baster? Duncan Cross has and writes about it in on the Duncan Cross post Duncan 1, Hospital 0.
“I guess if I had a choice, I’d rather wake up next to some ugly guy that I don’t remember meeting – not that, that has ever happened to me before – because it’s really bad when the party you don’t want to wake up next to is yourself…” Need I say more about Leslie Rott’s post The Ultimate Coyote Ugly on her ever fantastic blog Getting Closer to Myself.
Most glossy doctors office disease brochures describe only the short list of limitations and side effects. In Rheumatoid Arthritis:Disability Makes Things Difficult, RA Warrior Kelly Young lists the longer version of things you can’t do when your hands don’t work. It’s shocking.
The flip side of limitation is the day dreamy, anything goes fantasy life of that Fibro Mom creates on Fibro World in her Top 10 Things in a Perfect Fibromyalgia World.
From their nose to yours? School your co-workers in why they need to stay home when they’re sick with this excellent primer Thank You, H1N1 Swine Flu from 21 year leukemia survivor Selena of Oh My Aches and Pains!
A shovel, knapsack, bowl of candy and diaper ointment. Not just for cancer patients, check out my post from last week Your 5 Must-Have Items from Surgery & Treatment Time?, along with over 200 reader suggestions.
Limitations, daydreams, MacGyver stories? Leave’em in the comment section. I’d love to hear.
“Everything Changes is, without doubt, the most forthright, emotionally sophisticated, and plain-old valuable book of its kind I've seen.”
January 13th, 2010 at 7:28 PM
I am very honored to be included in this installment, my very first entry to a blog carnival. I did want to mention, however, the frothiness of my blog post has only been possible in the last few months. I, like Duncan Cross, have had experiences of being admitted to the hospital through the ER with my daughter Dot, helplessly watching her being subjected to a myriad of a painful and often unnecessary tests like a spinal tap. Then sleeping on her bedroom floor for weeks when she was heavily medicated, had trouble walking and was in great pain. I am pleased that I can share something that will hopefully bring a smile to you all.
January 14th, 2010 at 3:18 PM
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by PAS, Selena. Selena said: Patients for a Moment blog carnival is in full swing again. Check out posts about The Down and Dirty Body! http://tinyurl.com/ya5mcgk [...]
January 15th, 2010 at 6:07 AM
I think Duncan might have the MacGyver award nailed! ;)
I’ve used a turkey baster post-op to help me flood stitches to clean them (when I couldn’t bend, and the house didn’t have a removable shower head.) But a turkey baster to irrigate a stoma - now THAT’s thinking on your feet!