Gimpy Mumpy

Toby 20??-2006
Toby my love, my life, my little ray of sunshine is gone.  I thought I had hooked up his leash properly but somehow like a terrible magic trick he was loose and with a mischievous grin was gone.  Gone to chase those fast moving cars and trucks out on the main road where just a few minutes later he was hit.  It wasn't anyone's fault.  Mr. M was quickly on the scene and rushed Toby to the nearest veterinary hospital but in a stroke of bad luck most vets are were closed and he had to be diverted to a further location.  Toby made it there but we were told soon after that he fell asleep and didn't wake up.  I'm glad he's not in pain but I miss my "independent little man" the furry little friend whose been there when I was at my worst, who gave me a reason to get up out of bed even on my most difficult  days.  We brought him home and found a special place where we can still sit together in the sun with the flowers and the birds.   

We will never forget him.

To Be Continued.....

I apologize for my absence from the blogosphere this past weekend.  I promise to have a blog entry up by the end of the day explaining all but the circumstances are painful and I have not even begun to stop grieving yet.  I need a picture for my next post and that is partly why creating that post is so difficult.

The Patient-Consumer Parade #1

The first Patient-Consumer Parade is up over at The Patient-Consumer blog. 

A really great first effort and quite a feat gathering and organizing submissions during a week when many bloggers are on holiday.  Congrats Patient-Consumer!

Letter to the Editor

I've just finished reading about this over at the Disability Studies, Temple U blog and at Mauzy's Musings.  The mom in this photo was led to believe that this nice summer pool photo would be used on the cover of Indy's Child Magazine.  Well it was but not in a way that she could have fathomed.  Indy's Child, a parenting magazine, has used the photo on their "Maternity Issue" featuring a lengthy article about prenatal testing entitled "Understanding the Results is Key for Prenatal Screening Tests" with a woman quoted as saying, "We’re fortunate. Our child was born without Down syndrome".  The editors of Indy's Child should be ashamed of themselves and Jan has posted the address to contact the magazine over on her blog where she is feeling extremely betrayed at the moment.  So go ahead and write a letter to the editor.  It cannot undo what has been done, but perhaps it will insure that more responsible reporting is practiced at their magazine in the future.  Oh yah, and an apology to the beautiful people in this photo would be appreciated. 

Mother really does know best...

I've just finished reading "Being Caring" the newest post on Kathryn's column Mother Knows Best over at Crip College (yes, Kathryn is Christian Bagg's mom). 
Kathryn's post felt somewhat serendipitous since I have spent many long hours the past few days discussing the effect both my disability and the way I deal with it have on those around me, particularly those who have taken on the "carer" role.  The most illuminating thing I can say is that it is difficult for those who care about us and who care for us.  In my case that would be a difficult with a capital "D" since I fall into the category of fiercely independent, sometimes to the point of ridiculousness (yes I admit it and yes everyone can just suck it up).  In Kathryn's piece she illustrates some of the different family scenarios and how easily these can become tragic.  The example of those who quit their jobs to become carers only to have their loved one outgrow their care was one that made me a bit teary eyed, and yes feel a bit guilty.  The focus is often on the strength of the disabled person to gain their independence, control over their care and to move on.  But what of those we leave in our independence driven dust cloud?  I am not sure.  I don't have the answers, but it does seem worth thinking a bit about.

Penny Arcade: Men Are From Krypton

Since I'm not sure how Tycho and Gabe would feel about Miss Mumpy reproducing their wonderful comic, I am putting a link here to one of their new installments "Men Are From Krypton".  This ranks up their with one of my personal favorites "Pain Dot Com". 
The brilliance of MAFK is that this is exactly what it is like when you have food allergies.  The Superman analogy is perfect.  If you have a food allergy (Superman) and eat even a trace of that food (kryptonite), then you either become very sick (best case scenario, lots of fun on a dinner date) or you die (which is technically the worst case scenario but when you are bowing to the porcelain god and feeling like you are being turned inside out against your will then the latter option does have it's appeal).

**While on the topic there is a brilliant short-story in the collection Between Myself and Them: Stories of Disability and Difference, one of Mumpy's picks for the Best of 2005, Something Like a Vampire by Sara Scharf which draws the Superman vs Kryptonite and Vampire vs Garlic analogies to how life altering it can be dealing with food allergies.