Iria Vasquez-Paez
Bio
I have a B.A. in creative writing from San Francisco State. Can people please donate? I'm very low-income. I need to start an escape the Ferengi plan.
Stories (411)
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The Source of Chronic Illness
Chronic illness is something that affects a person their entire lives if they cannot find a good treatment for it. The first woman to be cured of sickle-cell anemia by a stem cell donation given to her by her sister without requiring chemotherapy resides in Chicago. Her sister is a 100 percent genetic match for donation to Ieshea Thomas. Sickle cell causes underlying organ disease in addition to chronic anemia, as well as crisis pain in the chest, abdomen, and joints, with pain also occurring in the bones. Chronic illness is devastating to all who have it because some are easily treated and some are not. For example, diabetes requires the use of insulin.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Longevity
Why Companies Discriminate Towards Disabled People
Companies in this political climate are into blatant discrimination but that depends on the company since I mean, really, I have to disclose my disability because type 1 diabetes can turn lethal very quickly. I cannot spend my life hiding it if only because that gets dangerous. And if this scenario gets dangerous, well, a company can’t interfere with this. My brainwashing haunts me. “I’m disabled and can’t work,” what a silly narrative. This narrative is pretty bad. I’m trying to undo the brainwashing. I have tried to get this brainwashing system across to my career counselors, and some get it but others do not. Normal people who have not been mistreated run across abusers of the style I have had run-ins with my whole life.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Journal
My Super Strength
When in elementary school, my backpack was quite loaded with schoolwork. I thought that if I inhaled a deep breath, I could lift it up. Many years later in college, I learned that what I was using was chi and it was called Qigong. I took two Qigong classes when I was in college and that helped clarify what the super strength thing was. I can breathe in three sharp breaths and push somebody bigger than me, which is what I learned how to do in class. This was shocking to me. I mean here I was in high school also lifting heavy backpacks. In junior college, the process continued much to the shock of my family.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Longevity
How to Get More Spoons When Chronically Ill
Getting enough spoons means trying to get enough sleep. Many disabled people do not sleep the whole night, as some could have sleep apnea. Mentally ill people not on medication hardly sleep through the night on top of this. Spoons are not all created equal. Sometimes a chronically ill person can have more spoons on some days rather than on others. It depends on what illness somebody has. We diabetics are taken out by low blood sugar or, for that matter, its opposite, high blood sugar. People with lupus can be fine one day and sick the next. Somebody with sickle-cell anemia is not feeling well during a crisis. People with hypothyroidism or over-active thyroid also called hyperthyroidism definitely have varying levels of energy.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Longevity
There Are People with Less Spoons Than I Have out There
The spoon theory explains to normal people about why chronically ill people do not always have the time to get stuff done. Whether it is chronic pain or other things, chronically ill people are suffering from being tired while having pains in the middle of the night. People with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia do not always sleep well sometimes even while on meds. Some people have more spoons than others. If you are lucky, you do not have a chronic illness but then nobody gets enough sleep if you work full time. Or do you?
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Longevity
The T-Shirt Business
I’ve been copywriting like there is no tomorrow. I’m trying to make myself extra money since I need to pay-up the taxes, although I might wind up paying it a touch late, if I can manage. I applied to a bunch of work from home jobs. I’m also busy writing my stories to make sure that I can publish something so as to make extra money. I hear you can make decent money writing online, so I’m going to try it. If I make extra money this month, I will buy myself a new t-shirt. The question is, should it be: “Bill W. Sent Me” or others such as “I have Schizophrenia,” or maybe “I take Medication.”
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Journal
How to Establish a Health Care Rights Protest
Health care is a hot topic in this time period. We have to start mobilizing health care protests. As in, we do not want them to put in the pre-existing condition clause again, which is flat out denying people coverage if they have so much as a yeast infection. The state of healthcare in the United States is appalling. I’m lucky I live in California. I have fabulous doctors whose orders I follow well. I’ve been alive for 37 years and out of the hospital since 1991.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in The Swamp
Fight the Good Fight
Ableism means that somebody is not taking into account a disability. It is like telling somebody in a wheelchair to get up and walk when they can’t. Or pointing out a person with diabetes’ need for insulin, to tell them they are a waste of space. Great. Such a swell comment, because sometimes people will slip up and tell those of us with knee injuries to kneel in certain situations when we can’t. Ableism makes people feel ashamed of themselves. I have an enormous shame complex of mine that I’m working on ridding myself of. I spent my entire childhood sleep deprived.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Longevity
Diabetes Boundaries
Most of the time, I try to be very discreet when I check my blood sugar in public. It might upset someone to see blood, so I try to keep it discreet. It has come down to me that I should check my blood sugar outside of the mental health organization meeting room. Never mind people picking on me for my height, they pick on me for my disability as well. My diabetes wasn’t caught in time when I was a child. It defied a diagnosis, or somebody simply ignored it. Give or take, I was traumatized by a diabetic coma at ten.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Longevity
Ableism Among Us
I have just the material I need to discuss ableism. I took a class at my job training school on the job search. Class went by quickly for me because I was having a good time—until we went to the teacher’s office and I sat down. I’m around four foot ten and somebody was loudly discussing my height as though I wasn’t there. She said, “you are a foot tall.” I was waiting for my chance to use a job search website that searches by zip code. She was discussing my height with a male coworker as if I wasn’t there. I whispered at her something scathing that went like, “I know you are talking about me. I know when I’m being bullied. You need to stop.” Whispers intimidate people more than loud shouts.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Longevity
Disability Rights: I Need a Job
I’m very paranoid and insecure about working lately. This is purely a schizophrenia thing though, as paranoid tendencies are one of its symptoms. As in, nobody’s going to hire a type one diabetic who needs to infuse, whose risk of the infusion set going down can happen at any time when I leave the house. I take meds—another reason not to hire me, right? I’m feeling a touch down about this job business as the nutrition store hasn’t called me back in quite a while, as my resume was given to the hiring manager, and all jobs expect medication consistency besides.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Journal
How Psychic Ability Can Be Used in Archaeology
Debunkers would call psychic archaeology a fraud, but as I have an interest in the field of archaeology in general, I want to explore how my abilities can help me as an archaeologist. Archaeology is a field of many subheadings such as historical archaeology, or as known as the archaeology of the modern period. I’m interested in the actual science of real archaeology, not just pseudoscience as I want to be a real scientist, in addition to law school and my M.D. UCLA has an archaeology department besides the law department I want to enroll in when I go back to school and get my grades up.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Futurism
