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Our veterans go through a lot in the service of our country, so it is no surprise that this population is more prone to disabilities, both physical and mental. Fortunately, having a service dog can make your life easier when you're running errands and handling other daily activities. They can also help during periods of heightened anxiety or panic attacks. Today, SPORKS! outlines some ways that your new friend can improve your quality of life and enhance your overall happiness.
Have you thought about launching your own ecommerce businesses? If you’re looking for ways to bring in some extra income while still being around to care for your kids, becoming an entrepreneur might be the perfect path for you! Parents with disabilities can thrive in entrepreneurial roles that offer freedom and flexibility unmatched by traditional employment. Of course, starting a business is always easier said than done.
I’ve never been a fan of stereotypes. The stereotypical woman has a wardrobe full of handbags. Not me. No siree. Mine’s full of stoma bags. Not quite as fashionable but arguably far more useful. Life with a stoma alongside multiple chronic illnesses has been a rocky ride, but this Gucci bag stuck to my tummy has taught me a few priceless lessons along the way.
And why not? Humans, we’re a complicated bunch, and for most of our history, we have tried in various ways to understand ourselves. One of the best, and most devastating ways, is through measurement. It makes sense: if someone has the most number of something, whether it is money, land, or children, then that is measured by the rules of their society as success. But this can lead to terrible things, ranging from eugenics to genocide. If someone does not measure up to the rules that the governing party that oversees them, then life can--and usually does--become incredibly difficult for them.
As I bring out the tomatoes and pull out an 8” kitchen knife my right arm grows tense and my palms start to sweat. The weight of the knife all of a sudden feels firm yet alien; it feels almost too comfortable in my hand. I pretend to not stare at the few thin residue scares from bleak years before that faintly decorate my wrist. An hour earlier I had a tumultuous confrontation with a close friend and so my funneled thoughts overturning each said word makes my mind and body feel separate from one another. I feel distant but desperate to reach a mental conclusion to the argument so that I can stem the bruised emotions. My obsessive mind can’t move forward without resolution, so it gets stuck in a mental cycle of repeated half-assed solutions. My soul is dying to stop being tormented by the sickly familiar parasite that randomly turns thoughts into a low pressure-chamber.
Dating is not always easy and everyone experiences uncertainty about whether they are reading the signals from their potential partner correctly. However, when you throw autism into the mix, this can complicate things further.
If you are on the autism spectrum, it’s only natural to want to tell if a girl likes you so let’s look at some of the signals, both via text and face to face, which can make reading the situation easier.
It is a Tuesday night and we are waiting for someone to die. This is the fifth time that I have waited anxiously for a phone call from the hospital to tell me that this stranger has died, and if the hospital is offering their kidney to my partner. On this particular night this patient on life support is a young man who overdosed. He did not use drugs intravenously, is under thirty and his kidney is in the top ten percentile as a match to my partner’s.
Being the parent of a child with special needs brings a particular set of challenges with it. There are the numerous doctors’ appointments, and specialists’ appointments, as well as trying to work “therapy” into everyday routines at home. Often, it seems like there isn’t enough time in the day, or the week, to get everything accomplished for my children that I’d like. This can be very frustrating, and it often makes me feel like a failure as a parent. But there is another, more insidious issue that can affect parents: the undiagnosed special need.
The doctor was a kindly older gentleman, with the white hair that inspires confidence in patients in hospitals the world over. He was in our room on the family floor of Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. I remember seeing his nametag as he walked through the door, but as the attending physician on the floor, I’d never seen him before, or would again, so I can’t remember what his nametag said. He’d come to us to deliver, what, in his mind, was tragic news. Our son, Timothy, less than a day old, had been diagnosed with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum.
I have tried to ease the sometimes confusing and daunting rules and regulations when traveling to Hawaii with one’s service dog. Hawaii has been, and continues to be very strict when allowing service dogs, and all pets, to travel to our islands as Hawaii does not have rabies and ticks that can cause Lyme disease. Understandably, the state wants to keep it that way!! Accordingly, there are several steps one must take well in advance when traveling to Paradise with their service animals. There are a few interrelated steps, so you may read a few points a couple times.
