April 2023 has been filled with several medical appointments, eye surgery and the development and preparation of a new business venture.
Crip Life™
As I mentioned last month, sadly Disability Horizons closed after 12 wonderful years. This then led my colleague Joanna and I to start our own online publication called Crip Life™.
We have spent the past few weeks designing and developing our site and we are excited to say it will be launching tomorrow – Monday 1st May – at 11am.
You’ll be able to access the site at https://criplife.co.uk from 01/05/2023 at 11am and can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
We’d appreciate all your support on our new site, whether that be subscribing to our newsletter, following and sharing us on social media or even considering advertising with us or donating to us.
We’d also value any feedback about our site, whether that be the content, layout, style or even accessing it using assistive technology.
Crip Life™’s mission is to dismantle disabling barriers one article at a time. We hope you can join us on this venture!
Health
As I also mentioned last month, I was scheduled to have eye surgery at Southampton Hospital. I had the procedure (chelation) done on the 4th of April and spent two weeks recovering at home.
Although I’ve had this procedure done several times before, it still wasn’t very pleasant at all and I was in a lot of pain and discomfort throughout the surgery (despite having sedation) and several days after.
I seriously think I have a lower pain threshold due to my cerebral palsy. Does anyone else with CP relate to this?
Three weeks on from the surgery, I have felt my vision has not improved as much as I hoped. I went for a checkup and they suggested I continue the eyedrops I was given post-surgery for another two weeks and then come back for another check-up.
To be honest, I feel that this could be the best my vision can be as this operation removes more of my cornea, which can make my vision worse over time.
I’m expecting no more improvement and instead of having more medical treatments, I’d rather find other ways to manage my vision with more assistive technology and support.
Away from my eye health, I also had to attend an appointment with a mouth specialist to examine a white area on my tongue that my dentist has been concerned about for a year. It has not caused me any pain or discomfort and personally, I was not concerned.
As expected, the consultant said there was nothing to worry about and it is most likely that I’d been biting my tongue accidentally to cause this white area.
I am now hoping that my dentist will no longer worry about my tongue and just concentrate on looking after my teeth instead.
Donkey sanctuary
The only bit of light-hearted fun I’ve had this month was visiting a donkey sanctuary on Hayling Island.
Back in March, as a gift for Mother’s Day, I adopted a donkey called Dylan for my Mum as we have both been going on about donkeys for ages and I thought it would be a fun, unique gift.
We got to explore the entire sanctuary and met loads of donkeys. Sadly, Dylan wasn’t in the mood to come and say hello but Mum got a few nice photos from a distance.
Due to my vision, I couldn’t really see the donkeys from a distance but fortunately one or two did come up close to me and I even got to briefly stroke one called Percy.
We will definitely visit again and hopefully this time Dylan will be in the mood to come and say hello to us.
Foo Fighters are back
The greatest news ever was announced this month – Foo Fighters have returned with a new single and an upcoming new album.
This is the first music since the sad passing of their incredible drummer Taylor Hawkins last year.
The new single Rescued is the most incredible comeback single and is very emotional and poignant for the situation the band were in. I have been listening to it non-stop for the past week or so and I can’t get enough of it.
Fingers crossed they will be back on tour in the UK later this year. Who the drummer will be is yet to be known.
Books
I finished reading Who I Am by Melanie C earlier this month. It was an interesting read but it felt rather long at times and rather depressing when sharing about her mental health issues. It’s great to share those things but I thought it got a bit too dark at times and I wanted to hear more about her music career and other positive achievements.
I then read the newest book by Danielle Steel, an author I’ve read a few times over the years. This book was called The Challenge and I initially thought it would be a whole story about teenagers stranded in woodlands and the parents having to rescue them but sadly that was just a small portion of the book and it went onto other challenges such as moving to high school, bereavement, new relationships and divorce. I understand why now the title was called The Challenge but it wasn’t what I was expecting and it was a bittersweet ending.
I’m now partway through reading the newest novel by Ruth Jones called Love Untold, which is about the relationship between mothers and daughters in a fictional part of Wales. So far it’s been a good read with drama, humour and emotion. I do hope there is a happy ending.
TV
I finally finished the complete series of The Vampire Diaries. To be honest, I was a bit disappointed by the ending and felt that the series should’ve been cut to six series rather than eight. But overall I still really enjoyed the series.
While recovering from my eye surgery, I decided to binge-watch the complete series of Stranger Things again. I chose to watch it again simply because I already know it well and it is the best fantasy fiction series ever.
During my recovery, I also watched The Piano on Channel 4, where amateur pianists got the opportunity to play in a train station in front of the public, while two professionals were judging them. The professionals then chose four pianists to perform at a special event in London. My favourite pianist was 13-year-old Lucy, who not only was blind but had autism and global developmental delay. Her ability to play with sight loss didn’t shock me but her understanding of music with a learning disability was incredible.
I’ve also started watching I’m A Celebrity South Africa, which has been good so far but I feel it doesn’t have the same excitement as it would do during the live show as this series was all recorded last year. On the plus side of it being pre-recorded, ITV could include audio description.
In addition, I watched a stand-up show on ITVX called Disabled Coconut performed by Aaron Simmonds. I first discovered him when he performed Naidex in March. Then the other day I was scrolling through ITVX and came across a stand-up show he did at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival a few years ago. The show was hilarious and I felt Aaron and I have a lot in common – we both have CP, a great sense of humour and are Harry Potter fanatics.
Audio Description petition
My campaign for audio description has continued throughout April 2023 and the petition has now gained a total of 3675 signatures, which is incredible!
But I’m eager to reach thousands more. The more signatures we get, the more likely changes will be made within the TV and film industries. Please, please, PLEASE continue to sign & share my petition!
Guest Bloggers Wanted
I’m still eager to collaborate with even more bloggers in 2023. So, if you’re a lifestyle, disability and/or music blogger, send me your blog stories. Plus let me know if you’d like me to feature on your blog as a guest blogger.
I’m flexible with any type of blog post – life story, disability awareness, music event, musician promotion – basically anything to do with life, disability or music!
In addition, I have a guest blog series called “RFD Question Time with…” where I interview disabled people and/or bloggers. If you’d like to be interviewed in this series, please also contact me.
Blog post roundup
In case you missed any of my blog posts this month, here is a roundup of them:
- Music Interview: Yuval Lavi
- 8 TV programmes that should have audio description
- Music Interview: Processor
5 favourite blog posts
Here are my 5 favourite blog posts I’ve read this month:
- Finding Out Who I Really Am: Part 1 & Part 2 at Brains On Wheels
- Your A-Z guide for social media accessibility at Life of a Blind Girl
- Curam Care: hire carers within hours at The Life Quadriplegic
- Four Reminders at From This Window
- Dealing With Uncertainty In Life at New Lune
