Author Archives: Tessa

About Tessa

Teresa (Tessa) Smeigh at 60 plus is still going strong despite her disabilities affecting both physical and mental abilities. She has bipolar disorder (mental), Fibromyalgia (nerves), degenerative disc disease (spine), and arthritis (joints). Her new journey's include Diabetes controlled by insulin. She is also working on 2 fiction books (mysteries). The books will probably never be finished. She keeps her blog filled with useful content, occasional devotionals (She is a Christian), stories and poems. Plenty to keep you busy. She has also been interviewed by blogs and had other posts published on many different blogs. She is from Southern, NJ. Her family and blog keep her busy.

Senior Hi-Rise Almost Shut Down

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The USA is now the highest in the number of coronavirus cases. NJ is really up there with over 8000 cases alone and a lot of deaths. New York is the epicenter and that state borders NJ which isn’t helping. There is talk of closing our borders as the New Yorkers are running from their state. Yes, I live in NJ,

My son was living in NC for over a year and he just came back to NJ before they do decide to close down the borders. He wanted to be with family so he left a state with not a lot of cases and came to a very highly contagious state. I got to see him today for a couple of hours from over 6 feet away. He is family, but we haven’t been living together so he was highly conscious to stay over 6 feet away from me. I happen to be one of the more compromised cases with my severe asthma and diabetes, plus my age.

I no sooner said goodbye to him that I learned upon re-entering the building that we are no longer allowed visitors. Someone can deliver food and medications but then must leave immediately. No interactions between residents in the common areas and they are now closing the laundry room for most of the day. Only open for about 4-5 hours per day. 100 apartments already using 4 washers and 4 dryers. How are we supposed to do laundry? If you need essential repairs in your apartment you are expected to stay on the other side of the room away from the man repairing whatever is broken.

We can still leave the building for food and meds but otherwise expected to self-quarantine.

This is scary times. Curfews and everything except for gas, food stores, and pharmacies are closed. My hair is getting way too long, but a haircut is out of the question.

My father is in a nursing home and they are at high risk. He is 88 and so far no one there is sick, but of course, they are not allowing visitors. Just staff, but one staff member could wipe them all out.

I bought as much food and water as I could afford for the month so on payday I am going to have to get my meds and food again. There is no way to tell how long this will last. Who would have thought that our “great” country would be worse off than a third world country? We need thousands and I mean many thousands of ventilators to keep people from dying, but the numbers are rising quickly both in new cases and people dying. Our healthcare workers are getting sick despite protection.

My daughter is a nurse in dialysis. She is essential and must work because those people can’t live without it. I worry non-stop about her and she is the one with the new baby.

I now have a medical alert button in case of emergencies. My kids insisted since I am having so many problems especially concerning my breathing and falling.

God bless us all!

Tessa – 

Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses, also a devout Christian

Author – http://www.finallyawriter.com (this blog contains my old work mostly although occasionally I do add something new here), new work is mainly on this blog http://www.tessacandoit.com

Author of a book, a work in progress on the blog, https://tessacandoit.com/government-property-a-memoir-as-a-military-wife/

Highlighted chapters are done and ready to be read.

 

Fighting Viruses When Drugs Aren’t Available

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This is good sound advice in these perilous times.

All About Healthy Choices

An illustration, created at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), depicts the 2019 Novel Coronavirus

We’ve all been told steps to take to minimize exposure to Covid-19

 What has not been stated often enough are the ACTIVE STEPS one must take to strengthen the immune system prior to potential exposure to this disease?

 Consider including these five essential components:

  1. Get adequate sleep:

Approx. 6-9 hours of QUALITY sleep is required to repair and restore the body to maximal function from normal exposure to environmental toxins and physical activities of daily living.

  1. Manage stress:

Discover constructive methods to deal with stress. Activities that positively impact the way you FEEL inhibit damaging hormones from weakening immune function.  Everyone has stress; learning to effectively CHANNEL it is the key to successfully managing it.

  1. Eat intelligently:

Don’t deprive yourself from foods you enjoy. These foods, however, should only be eaten AFTER a healthy, well balanced meal is consumed. Food provides both nutrition and INFORMATION…

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Language Impairment in Fibromyalgia and CFS

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Language Impairment in Fibromyalgia and CFS

https://www.verywellhealth.com/language-impairment-in-fibromyalgia-cfs-716024?utm_campaign=list_chronicfatigue&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cn_nl&utm_content=19764760&utm_term=

I hate when this happens as it is so embarrassing. My last job before I went on disability was in a call center. I would suddenly stop while talking to the customer and stumble over words trying to tell them what I meant.

Tessa – 

Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses, also a devout Christian

Author – http://www.finallyawriter.com (this blog contains my old work mostly although occasionally I do add something new here), new work is mainly on this blog http://www.tessacandoit.com

Author of a book, a work in progress on the blog, https://tessacandoit.com/government-property-a-memoir-as-a-military-wife/

Highlighted chapters are done and ready to be read.

Fibromyalgia Pain From Clothing and the Coronavirus

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Fibromyalgia Pain From Clothing

https://www.verywellhealth.com/fibromyalgia-clothing-pain-715962?utm_campaign=list_chronicfatigue&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cn_nl&utm_content=19659601&utm_term=

I quit wearing a bra and I am large chested, but it is just too uncomfortable and I rarely go out in public and if I do, tough bananas!

I only dress for the outside on the few occasions I leave my house and that is even less now that the coronavirus is all around me. People in my building are sick. We’re only allowed in the lobby if we are leaving, getting our mail or going to the laundry room. They closed our community room and stopped all our activities. No standing or stopping in the community areas. I am surprised they still let us get on the elevators together. Someone in management was overheard saying that will all that is going on here that they should shut the building down. Well, the law says you aren’t allowed to evict anyone from their living spaces in the time of this virus. At least around here. They can’t cut off your utilities either for non-payment and so many people are out of work right now. We have an 8 PM curfew. If you are on the roads after that you had better have a really good reason. The number of cases in my state is rising rapidly. I don’t know for sure how many people in my building are sick, but I am aware of 2. It is like a ghost town around here. Supplies are hard to get. I managed to stock up on food and water at least. As long as they don’t shut down the electric. They can’t cut us off for non-payment but if the grid goes down there’s nothing we can do and then I have a problem. I do have a good bit of water though.

Oh, and the doctors offices are either shutting down, using the phone and video chats, making you call inside to be told when you can enter the building so you are waiting in your car not the waiting room and in one I had my temperature taken before I was allowed to enter and all non-essential appointments are canceled.  There is no furniture in the waiting room so they don’t have to keep wiping it down. Weird experiences for sure.

My pain doctor is giving me less and less pain medication and I can barely stand it. And she isn’t seeing patients so I couldn’t even plead my case. I am furious with her.

Tessa – 

Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses, also a devout Christian

Author – http://www.finallyawriter.com (this blog contains my old work mostly although occasionally I do add something new here), new work is mainly on this blog http://www.tessacandoit.com

Author of a book, a work in progress on the blog, https://tessacandoit.com/government-property-a-memoir-as-a-military-wife/

Highlighted chapters are done and ready to be read.

Problems Showering With Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS

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Problems Showering With Fibromyalgia and ME/CFS

I can’t shower by myself due to the chance of falling. I am applying for Medicaid which would provide a home health aide to help me shower and dress among other things. My pain makes it hard to clean the back side of my body as well.

My pain doctor is not seeing patients due to the coronavirus. The most I can do is get a refill as long as I am not sick and they are putting off as many people as possible. I don’t know if I would run out so I have to go tomorrow and I am not sick. The problem is I wanted to talk to the doctor about a different pain medicine, but all I can do is get a refill of what I am taking. Which is better than nothing.

Tessa – 

Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses, also a devout Christian

Author – http://www.finallyawriter.com (this blog contains my old work mostly although occasionally I do add something new here), new work is mainly on this blog http://www.tessacandoit.com

Author of a book, a work in progress on the blog, https://tessacandoit.com/government-property-a-memoir-as-a-military-wife/

Highlighted chapters are done and ready to be read.

A couple of weeks until NANOWRIMO camp writing session.

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I have been trying to remember my childhood as that is the portion of my memoir I plan on working on at this session.

I am not doing much right now as I am in serious pain and pain doctor will not give me the strong medicine I need due to my accidental almost overdose. It was a freak accident and nothing else is working so I don’t do much, but sit around or lie around or cry. Lots of crying going on here.

My life really sucks right now. I thought it was bad before, but this is the worst imaginable pain and nothing I can do about it. I can’t imagine living another 20 years or so with this pain and it is only going to get worse. Whoever heard of Degenerative Disk Disease that reverses and goes away. No one I know of. The arthritis won’t go away and neither will the Fibromyalgia and now because of a stupid freak accident, I can’t have pain medicine.

And now we have this coronavirus nonsense going on and they are shutting everything down where people can get together in groups more than 10. They shut our day room down so no more activities till something changes. The grocery stores have nothing in them. I can’t even get my medicines that have to be ordered at this point. I am in NJ (USA), not Italy or China so I can’t imagine what it is like there.

God Help Us All!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tessa – 

Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses, also a devout Christian

Author – http://www.finallyawriter.com (this blog contains my old work mostly although occasionally I do add something new here), new work is mainly on this blog http://www.tessacandoit.com

Author of a book, a work in progress on the blog, https://tessacandoit.com/government-property-a-memoir-as-a-military-wife/

Highlighted chapters are done and ready to be read.

Gearing up for NANOWRIMO in Camp this April

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I haven’t felt much like writing lately, but going to try and start another section of memoir, my childhood as a mentally ill child. I am not setting a large goal since we do get to make our own goals in camp.

Tessa – 

Advocate for mental health and invisible illnesses, also a devout Christian

Author – http://www.finallyawriter.com (this blog contains my old work mostly although occasionally I do add something new here), new work is mainly on this blog http://www.tessacandoit.com

Author of a book, a work in progress on the blog, https://tessacandoit.com/government-property-a-memoir-as-a-military-wife/

Highlighted chapters are done and ready to be read.