Vocabulary

Some explanations of the words and acronyms that I use Frequently:

Crip	AKA Cripple, stumpy, Aspie. All words that I use to refer to my own impairments and/or general state of being. I'm not from the pity school of disability at all. These are re-claimed words and I hate language that evokes unnecessary pathos, e.g. 'suffering from...', 'Victim of...' etc. In another part of my existence I'm a Disability Equality Trainer and unpicking the language around disability is a big part of enabling people to think about it from a different perspective. Specifficaly that it is not our individual impairments that disable us, it's the attitudinal, physical and informational barriers that cause disdability. The opposite of disabled is not abled, nor able-bodied, differently abled, or even, stricly speaked non-disabled which is a double negative. It is ENabled. It is possible to have an impairment, or two or more, and not be disabled. It's possible in theory, but rthe reality is that we are still experiencing routine discrimination in all sorts of ways despite major changes that have been brought about by legislation.
Meds	AKA medicatons, 'scrit, pills etc. The daily cocktail of chemicals that keeps me functioning. The main ones being: Diclofenac -an anti-inflamatory Tramadol - opiate pain killer Amitriptyline - helps with nerve pain and sleep Tibolone - HRT
Rolley	My Rollator. It's called Rolley (to rhyme with Trolley) because I thought that the Occupational Therapist was asking if I wanted a trolley - as a substitute for carrying trays - but instead a Rollator arrived. It was a horrid mobility equipment burgundy colour and I didn't really think I'd use it but I quickly realised that it had its advantages, namely: 1. I can go further using it than I can otherwise. 2. It has a basket under the seat so I can putting shopping in thre rather than carry it on my back. 3. I can sit down whenever I'm in a queue or if people stop me in the street to chat (that happens a lot in Lampeter). The only problem with it was that I had to rest my right forearm, or what's left of it, on the narrow handle and that could be quite uncomfortable after a while. So I spoke to a Physiotherasit I know and she said se has an old deconstructed 3-wheel elbow rollator that I could take parts off and asked the blacksmith to merge them together. He did a good job of inserting the elbow troughs but in attempting to fit the brakes to both work from the left, ended up mounting the former handles and breaks in such a way as the whole thing looked like a prop from Mad Max. Not only that but it kept falling apart as the vibration from the pavements shook the screws loose. So the next step was to get a local bike expert to source a double brake lever and mount it up just in front of my left hand. Finally I had a totally functional and comfortable ride. At that point I sprayed it blue. It's not easy having an unusually disfunctional body, just to get a sensible piece of mobility equipment involved an Occupational Therapist, Physiotherapist, Blacksmith, Bike repairer and 2 cans of spray paint. And it's called Rolley, because it's not a Trolley, geddit?