Vivid-Dawn

Stroke Survivor - female
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About Vivid-Dawn

  • Birthday 05/18/1978

Contact Methods

  • AIM
    VividDawn913
  • ICQ
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Shared Information

  • Stroke Anniversary (first stroke)
    12-04-2004
  • Facebook URL
    https://www.facebook.com/VividDawn
  • Interests
    I love cats! (I own 3, foster various). Enjoy being outdoors in the forest in warm weather, and repairing small engines (lawn mowers, generators, etc.). In winter I stay in bed and goof off online ;)
  • How did you find us?
    Google Search

Registration Information

  • First Name
    Julia
  • State
    Utah

Vivid-Dawn's Achievements

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Member (3/10)

  1. Happy Anniversary Vivid-Dawn!

  2. Happy Anniversary Vivid-Dawn!

  3. Happy Anniversary Vivid-Dawn!

  4. Happy Birthday Vivid-Dawn!

  5. Marshmallow whip and PB are little angels compared to the fudge recipe my mom always made me help her with during the holidays. Holy cow, even using BOTH hands that stuff was like cement! By the time I was done mixing all that glop, I was too tired to even enjoy eating it.
  6. You like snow? Here, you can have Utah's! *hands you a foot of white junk* LOL
  7. Winter - finally arrived! I think we've had 3 or 4 little 'dustings' in the last few months, but today it DUMPED. I hate snow. It's pretty, but that's its only nice thing. It makes roads slick and driving dangerous, and that's AFTER you spend 15 minutes scraping all that white junk off the car (unless you have a garage, which I obviously don't). Why couldn't it have stayed as rain, like last night and this morning? Not that it's any better, as there were LAKES on the freeway. Not puddles... no, these were a good couple inches deep and spanned more than one lane in width! I was only going 45mph and still almost slid off the road a couple times. I wouldn't have gone out, but one of the kitties at the shelter needed her mouth examined by our medical person at adoptions, because I saw sore spots in it... hoping it wasn't Calicivirus, which already killed 18 of our other kitties. Luckily it's just a bad tooth and she's bruised on her gums. Getting her tooth (or a couple) pulled next week most likely. Work - new schedule, which I hope I can stick to. There's a client that posts hundreds of $0.77 articles. Usually I hate writing 100 words for less than $1 (actually, I hate writing less than 200 period, because I tend to feel I leave out so much info!), but these are nice and quick, and I can easily make $5 to $10 in an hour. Of course, they only post at 4am...and since everybody is desperate for work, since daytime orders are practically non-existent, they disappear quick! Yup, 400 orders are gone in 40 minutes. So at 5am, I just go back to bed and "nap" until about 9 and get up 'for real' for the day. I still need to stick to a decent daily schedule of working. Even if there's no orders to write, I really need to study up on my grammar to get higher scoring on my articles. Right now I'm a level 3, which pays 1cent per word…but there's no orders being posted. If I get up to a level 4, my pay goes up to 1.5cents per word AND there's always more work for level 4s… I keep looking at the daily list of 200+ orders and pining over it! Anyhoo, if I'm not studying, I could go find other sites to get orders from. But usually they're cheap and only pay $0.50 for 100 words... way worse than the .77 ones! I'd rather work smarter, not harder. I miss the 500 word articles for $5 and hope things pick up again soon for those! (partly then I could sleep from 10pm to 7am again, and not this 4am break... it's confuzzling my circadian rhythm!) Speaking of decent sleep... it's after midnight, I should go now. No work tomor-...er, today, as it's Sunday, and I don't work on the Sabbath. *kerflomps into bed*
  8. Normal is boring! *nods sagely* LOL And this might be a little late, but I figure I'll reply anyway. If it doesn't help, oh well...if it does, it's a good thing I posted! Sleep - Medications could very well be a cause of a weird sleep cycle, but try to keep a regular schedule. Even if you don't "work", you need to have things to do during the day! Practice your physical therapy, play with your pets, do whatever house chores you're able to. If you're too tired for such physical things, do something calmer like reading, sewing, word puzzles (great for keeping your mind active!), writing in a journal (or recording one by voice, if you can't use your hands). If you really need a nap, try to keep it under an hour, and do it on a couch or recliner chair. I try to only be in bed from 10pm to 7am, and it really helps to actually SLEEP at night, rather than just lay awake and end up being (more) tired in the daytime. Also, try to keep a regular schedule even on weekends and vacation. Muscle discomfort - um...since I'm recovered and don't have those problems, I got no advice *hangs head*. Though if warmth & massage is working for you, keep at it. Emotions - Crying is good for you! It's perfectly fine to cry, and in fact is good for you health....mentally and physically. It releases stress. You can also yell and punch a pillow for anger emotions, if that helps. Better to let your pillow suffer than you or anybody around you that might get it otherwise. People think you're strong if you keep things in...I think the opposite is true. Letting go on a regular basis makes it so it doesn't build up and make it feel even worse than it is anyway. Best wishes! Viv
  9. is excited for a new year!

  10. Happy Birthday Vivid-Dawn!

  11. Yes, and no. My in-laws (now "ex-laws"?) knew I have health problems, but since it's nothing "serious", always think I'm just finding excuses to be lazy. The stroke had no lasting effects, but it was still dismissed as no big deal. "Just push yourself" is a phrase I heard waaayyy too many times, when I was truly struggling. Yeah, I like being constantly weak and tired for the fun of it... *rolls eyes* They would insist on making me go to outtings and parties and all that social junk, even when I tried to tell them I wasn't up to it. And then they'd get upset when I wasn't being active, and would just sit on a couch or a chair off to the side of all the activity. On the other hand... My own family was very supportive, and didn't mind if I 'whined' about stuff ever so often. They're patient with me, if I have to take things slow sometimes. Of course, with the other health problems, so they're probably just used to it! LOL If I don't want to go out (which is often...I'm just not a social person), they leave me alone. I also have a new best friend that seems to understand. She knows that if I say I'm tired, we stop and rest. Or she'll ask if I need a rest, if I start getting sluggish. In fact, she says I try to do more than I should, sometimes! (which is true...old habit from the ex-family, I guess).
  12. MDC & CagedBird - I know exactly how you guys feel. My ex-husband and his family were always telling me "you're not trying hard enough" or "just push yoursef". Partly the reason I got divorced. I guess they just don't understand what heart failure is about, despite the fact I tried to explain that I'm getting worse, and no amount of effort/determination is going to make me better. While I'm not currently on the transplant list, my doctors have told me to plan for it in a couple years. I have optimism about what I can do now, but I'm also a realist in the fact that I know if I DO try too much, too hard, it'll just end up backfiring and turning out badly anyway. Sometimes other people can't just be happy with how things are, even if you've accepted it.
  13. So...wide awake, in the middle of the night...again! It seems that no matter when I go to bed, 9 P.M., Midnight, 2 A.M., I always end up awake around 3 A.M.! I probably shouldn't get up, but after laying there bored out of my skull, I figure I gotta do something productive. Anyhoo...here's my opinion on the subject of attempts and efforts in life. "Do or do not. There is no try" - Yoda I totally disagree. For example, climbing a mountain. If you go halfway up, that's trying! So you didn't succeed in making it completely to the top...but you also didn't stay on the bottom, either. When the issue of effort and attempts is being discussed, and somebody states this quote, it sort of irks me...as if they're saying that working at something is futile and worthless if you're not totally successful. I've always said "You never know, unless you try". Granted, you shouldn't be doing things that could be harmful physically, or detrimental emotionally/mentally. But you also shouldn't NOT try, if it's a reasonable goal. Lots of people on this site are always asking about recovery. In my opinion, you should keep at working to regain back whatever you lost. Want to be able to pick up a spoon with your 'off' hand? Might as well set the goal! Setting a goal with a time limit can be either good or bad. If you make the goal by the deadline, it's a wonderful ego and spirit booster. Though if you don't succeed - either on time, or with the results you wanted by that time - it can depress you. Again, though, my attitude is "slow and steady wins the race". Pick up a spoon within a month. Fine, set the goal... and if you don't make it, don't let it get you down. At least you spent that time trying, rather than never having bothered and probably always wondering if you could have done it. Speaking of trying, I suppose I should git back to bed and see if sleep will quit avoiding me now.
  14. (yes, I spelled that wrong, on purpose. I's a silly girl!) I went to the kitchen to get a snack. All the lights were out, except from my bedroom, so things along the way were just highlighted. Near the patio door, there's some stuff from when I went shopping that I haven't put away yet. I saw a couple of little lights near the floor, thinking it was just reflections off the water bottles. And then they moved! :yikes: The foster cat, who's black, was laying on the black 'runner' rug by the door. Maybe I should use white rugs, until she gets adopted! LOL Oh yeah, and earlier today, I got to feed a hummingbird by hand! ...sort of. I had just taken the feeder down, to go refill it, when the bird came buzzing to the patio. Poor thing flitted from the pole the feeder is usually on, over to the wasp trap (which has been empty & hanging against the wall for years), and went back to the pole. Aawww! So I stepped back out to the patio, and held up the feeder, because I figured clambering up the step ladder would scare it off (plus, I didn't want to bother with that anyway). It came over, and took a drink, not seeming to care that I was so close. Then it zipped off, and I finished the task of getting more juice in the feeder. ....I just got the hiccups. Now I'll never get to sleep!
  15. I really wanted to do a happy post this time, to counter-act my last grumpy one. Oh well. Yanno what I don't understand... seeing fancy cars in handicapped parking. I've seen Corvettes, Mustangs (old and new) vintage cars, BMW, Mercedes, Jaguars, brand new models, etc. Don't these people have medical bills? Because I sure do! $9,000 and counting! My husband said once, that "maybe they're gifts from friends or family members". Gee, I wish MY friends and family were that nice and generous! Yanno what else bothers me about handicapped parking... people who exploit the wheelchair loading zones! Those lines don't mean "wait while your companion goes into the store 'really quick'", or "motorcycle parking", or "put shopping cart here, because you're too lazy to walk a whole couple yards to the cart bins" (this one happens A LOT), or "put your precious, expensive car (with no handicap decal!) half in the spot and half in the lines so nobody will ding it when they open their doors". I have a friend who finally quit taking her husband shopping, because she could never get his chair lift to have enough room for him to get out. Even without the bulky lifts, some people still need a bit of room to get their chairs out and unfold them and stuff. Myself, I was going to get one of those folding Rascal/Hoveround scooters and have it in the trunk, so I would be able to get out if I had a regular parking spot. And I do try to get regular spots, if they're decently close, since I know other people need the special stalls more than I do. Another thing, is that it seems like I always get tickets if I don't have my sign up (like if I go with somebody else in their vehicle, and forgot to bring my sticker, or once it fell off my dash onto the floor and out of sight). But other people who don't have it, seem to always get ignored. Ooorr...since I look relatively normal, I get some people that think I shouldn't be there. Once I was at the mall or theater, or something...anyway, real public with lots of people. I park my car, turn off the ignition, and was talking to my friend or something - which made the pause long enough for some guy to come STICK HIS HEAD IN MY OPEN WINDOW (it was warm weather) and tell me I couldn't park there! I was like "I have a sticker" and took it out of the dash box to show him. He's all "Oh, okay" and walked away. Sheesh. Another time, somebody put a Post-It note on the windshield that said something to the effect of "If I was a cop, you'd have a $75 ticket". Again, I had gone in a different car than mine, and just didn't have proof...which I guess I can understand if they were trying to be a good citizen...but as much as it makes me upset that normal people park there, I don't go leaving notes all over their windows! And people wonder why I don't like to leave the house... Okay, I think I'm all vented out for now.