At the end of this month is "Organ and Tissue Donors Awareness Week". I wanted to say a few words on this because it isn't well known that Canadian Blood Services does a lot more than just blood. Through them, you can donate blood (of course), stem cells, umbilical cord blood, organs and other tissue. Even if you can't be a blood donor, you can often donate stem cells or other tissue. Personally, I can't be a blood donor. I want to be, but there are too many medications in my system. I could possibly donate stem cells, but I have a tendency to procrastinate and just haven't gone in to find out if I'm allowed to register as a donor. I'd also like to be listed as an organ donor if possible. Like I said, I have a tendency to procrastinate and haven't gone in. Here are some interesting facts about donating blood and other tissue:
Canadian Blood Services has clinics all over Canada.
So...want to help save a few lives?
0 Comments
We've all had our own versions of a "bad day". Maybe you woke up with a cold or realized last minute that a paper was due last night. Some people start off a bad day with an empty coffee tin, others are so busy that the bad day doesn't hit them until midnight.
I want to tell you about what a bad day looks like in my world. My bad days have nothing to do with coffee or a flu or an assignment. It's just part of my depression. Even with me, bad days can really vary: I don't want to get out of bed, I just feel "off", I want to hide in a corner and not come out, I want to cut again. I'm getting good at battling the bad days, but a few years ago, these bad days would have destroyed me. The funny part of this is that the bad days I experience now are exactly the same as the ones I used to have. The desire to cut or to hide and never come out is always there somewhere, and they get stronger on bad days; the difference is now I can cope with it. Not on my own, of course, but that's okay. I don't mind needing some help now and then...more than now and then. Everyone has a different way of dealing with a bad day. Some people go back to sleep or skip work/school or go buy expensive coffee and push through it. I used to push through it (without coffee...coffee is gross), until I shoved everything so far away that when it came back, I was stuck under this massive pile of "bad" and couldn't get out. I still push things aside, but I'm better at chipping away at it and managing it instead of letting the pile get out of control. A lot of the therapy I took was focused around coping - during, before, and after a "bad" moment. Even after all the therapy, I don't use all the skills because they don't all work for me. I do, however, have some favourites:
Bad days suck. They're frustrating even when they haven't happened yet. Sometimes you get stuck with it (like getting a cold), but sometimes you can get yourself through it with a little help. I have all these skills, and I still need a reminder now and then to keep trying them, especially on a bad day. So maybe, the next time you have a bad day, give these a try. There are a lot more out there, and you can learn more about Dialectical Behavioural Therapy if you want to (I learned all these skills in a DBT group). I hope this helps with your next bad day. It helps with mine. This last weekend, I got to experience the joy of a fire alarm nearing the end of its life. This is partly my fault, because I should have replaced the thing when I moved in 3 years ago and I didn't.
For those who don't know, here are some fire alarm basics:
In my case, my who-knows-how-old wired-in fire alarm started going off at 4:30 in the morning - making for a very groggy and grumpy me - with random beeps and screeches. The first time, I thought I had been dreaming because it didn't continue and I didn't hear a peep out of it until the next night. Well, the second time I knew it was the alarm, so I got up, checked the house to make sure the thing wasn't reacting to any actual problems, took a look at my CO detector and my downstairs alarm, and eventually started looking up how to shut the thing up. I pulled out the step ladder, checked to see if it had back-up batteries (it didn't), vacuumed it in case dust or bugs were setting it off, took it partway off the ceiling to see if the wires were loose, and ended up calling my mum at 4:30 in the morning. Now I have the breaker switched off, and my battery powered alarm is upstairs outside my bedroom until I can put in a new wired alarm. ...Before anyone yells at me, I knew there wasn't a fire because it was beeping randomly. One steady wail from it and I'd be out of the house. I checked anyway, though. Just in case. Here are a few neat things I've learned about fire detectors: An ionization alarm best detects the fires that make a lot of flame very quickly (flaming fires). These alarms have a constant flow of energy passing between two plates. When the smoke particles enter the chamber, they disrupt the flow of electricity and that sets off the alarm. These are also the alarms that go off all the time when you burn food. Photoelectric alarms are better for fires with less flame and more smoke (smoldering fires). These ones rely on the smoke to interrupt a beam of light. Inside the alarm, a light (visible, infrared, or UV) beam is shone at a sensor, and when the smoke interrupts that beam enough, the alarm goes off. There is a second type of photoelectric detector that is exactly opposite: the beam points away from the sensor, and when the smoke makes the light hit the sensor, the alarm goes off. This is why I tried vacuuming the alarm. Sometimes dust particles or bugs can set these alarms off. For people who have hearing difficulty, there are accessories that use strobe lights and pillow- or bed-shakers to wake the person up. I don't know what devices are out there right now, but I know that a lot of these are triggered by the shriek of the normal detector going off. There's some awesome info out there if you just look for it. Do, because it's worth it. |
AuthorA volunteer. A dancer. A teacher. An observer. Archives
November 2016
Categories
All
|