Tag: disability

So, I finally got a onesie

My mum and my little sister both love onesies. In fact, I’ve lost count of how many my sister has in her collection now. A bit like me with books, I suppose.

For at least a year, they’ve both been telling me that I should buy one too, to try help me keep warm in the winter. For at least a year I have resisted getting one, because I thought that they might be a bit hard for me to get in and out of, and because I thought that having to almost entirely wiggle out of it so that I could use the loo would get on my nerves.

I accidently bought a playsuit once, thinking that it was a dress, and not really being very good at using changing rooms, it wasn’t until I got home and tried it on that I noticed. I groaned a lot, but in the end I kept because it looks kind of nice. However, I hardly ever wear it for the above reason about toilets.

Anyway, my little sister has been telling me for ages that if I didn’t get a onesie of my own, then she would get one for me. I stood my ground and compromised by getting myself some large, long jumper-style things that you wear over pyjamas instead. The first one I bought was an owl one, and now I have one that is a panda, and one that’s bright red as well. I still didn’t buy a onesie.

No, I didn’t buy a onesie for myself. But my mum bought one for me.

Last week, it was my birthday, and when I unwrapped one of the gifts from my mother I found that that was what was hidden beneath the wrapping paper.

The look on my face must have been priceless because the room erupted into laughter.

I joked that I would still refuse to wear it, but we all knew that I would. They’d been kind enough to buy it for me after all.

Last night, I finally tried it on and found that it was a perfect fit. I didn’t find it too hard to put on actually, which was a nice surprise. I found it a bit harder to get out of, but it still wasn’t too bad. And they were right, I found it really warm. Admittedly, the huge fleecy PJs that I had on underneath it  could have had something to do with that too.

While I don’t plan on giving up on my big jumper-style things that you wear over your pyjamas completely, I will be wearing the onesie again because, yes, I do like it after all.

Thanks Mum. You were right, again.

Walking hard

Yesterday evening proved itself to be one where I was more achy and stiff than I am on an average day. I can’t say I was too surprised though because the weather’s pretty cold, I’m full of cold, and I think I’d probably pushed myself harder than normal on a walk that morning.

Oh well, lesson learned. I think. At the time, I didn’t really notice how tired I was getting at first. Then, I had my first sit down and noticed that I didn’t really feel like doing much more, but I made myself finish the walk I had started, and felt good knowing that I did so.

I could tell that I’d done the exercise by later on in the evening. I sure felt it.

It wasn’t just my legs either, my arms and shoulders knew about it too from pulling my walking frame Martha along behind me too.

I was kind of annoyed at myself for making myself work so hard in the first place, if I’m honest. But at the same time, I was glad that I did, just to remind myself of what my limits are. Although I must admit, I don’t plan on testing them (quite so much) again anytime soon.

After a good night’s sleep I’m feeling loads better.

A surprising shopping trip

It was my birthday earlier this week, and it was a really lovely day for me.

The weather was quite kind to us too on that day because it was dry instead of rainy, and I went out for a shopping trip with my friend. I decided that I would take my walking frame Martha with me instead of my wheelchair like I might choose to do if I was going to be out for the whole day.

I haven’t walked as much as I would have liked to over the past couple of weeks. I didn’t really leave the house all that much in the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas, and when I did,  I mostly used my wheelchair because of the wind and rain that we had.

When I went out, I was expecting to need to take more rest breaks than I would usually have needed to because of all of this, but actually, I surprised myself by not needing as many as I was expecting to.  I think that this is mostly because I took advantage of the seat that my walking frame has on the back of it. I could just unfold the seat and use it while I was waiting for my friend when she stood in line to pay for her things or use shop changing rooms to try things on, so I think I took most of my walking and standing breaks in more frequent, shorter bursts throughout the day. I think this probably made a huge difference. Don’t get me wrong, I still had a couple of long sit downs, but I’m still quite proud of myself on the whole.

A couple of years ago, I really don’t think I would have been able to handle walking around the place that we went to because of the size of it, and so I always used to take the wheelchair with me. I still do go there in my chair if I’m having a bad day, but I like to think that me being able to use my walking frame there now, even with lots of breaks scheduled into the day, is a sign that the effort I’ve been making in recent years is paying off.

While I am feeling rather tired today, I think that has more to do with the fact that I don’t think I’ve quite managed to catch up on my sleep from the past couple of weeks just yet. I think a couple of early nights are in order from now on.

Happy New Year

I just wanted to wish you all a very happy New Year. I hope that you all achieve the things that you set out to achieve, and have one that is full of happiness and joy.

The other day I wrote a post talking about how I was still trying to decide if I should make any New Year’s resolutions for 2014. I haven’t done them for a while, but this year I’m going to try again with them. Here is my list

  • Comment on more blogs – I love reading other people’s blogs but I don’t always leave comments on them as often as I should, so from now on I’m going to try and do more of that.
  • Get better at trying to cook for myself – On this blog I talk a lot about how I don’t always find it easy to cook because my Cerebal Palsy means I struggle to do things like lift pans and chop vegetables. I’ve improved loads on this over the last couple of years, but I want to try and do better. I’m not really sure what form this will take yet. This could mean that I end up making my own food more often, or that I learn how to prepare new things in a way that is safe and easy for me, who knows?
  • Read 50 books – Okay, so I know that this one isn’t really relevent to what I blog about, so I probably won’t mention it all that often, but I would like to try and read 50 books this year. A few years ago, I used to read loads, (and would even wake up early before school to do so), but when I went away to university I didn’t really do much reading at all, and still don’t seem to do as muvh as I would like. So this year, I thought I’d set myself a challenge and see how I get on.

 

The post Christmas post

I was very lucky because I had a really nice Christmas. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with my family and friends. There was lots of quality time spent together, lots of good food eaten, and lots of good films watched. I am grateful for all of these things.

As usual, my family and friends were also very kind to me, and gave me lots of lovely gifts that I can enjoy. Some of them could prove very useful to me in helping me stay warm, manage aches and pains, and maybe help me to be more independent too. These included a foot massager, a mini massager type thing that I could use on my legs or shoulders when they get stiff or achy, and a microwave oven that might help me become more independent in the kitchen. I’m very excited about that especially. I’d love to be able to cook more, but I think a lot of you know that by now.

Of course, there were also lots of nice warm socks and big thick jumpers to wear over pyjamas that would help me keep warm.

I’ll blog about all of these things as I use them and let you know how useful I find them all.

Now, at this time of year, I start to look at the 12 months ahead and what I can do to try and make myself a better person during that time. For the last couple of years, I haven’t actually bothered making any New Year’s resolutions because I haven’t been great at keeping them, but I think I might try again this time around. I’m still having a think about what these might be, but I guess I’d better hurry up and decide.

It’s also my birthday later on this week, and then the day after that I’m off to physio for a review on how my new splints are working out for me. It’s going to be another busy week here, but I like being busy.

I hope you all have a great New Year’s Eve tomorrow, and a very happy new year. I’ll let you know if I decide to make any resolutions or not.