Ceara

Introducing myself - a thread. I've never been very active on Twitter, public tweeting worried me as a Psychologist. Now I have metastatic breast cancer at 34 and it's a terminal illness. I have decided to approach the time I have left with radical transparency (1/6)

Elon Musk convinced me to leave, but @purplepingers brought me back. At least for now. He's the hero we need.

Should we just be calling them NDIS plan reviews + S100s? Planner didn't actually know what specialist treats me - but thought she knew what 'treatment' was (hint: physio is not, in fact, a treatment for either cancer or life-threatening immune dysfunction).

NDIS Planners: Support worker 2 hrs/day to help you with ADLs is reasonable and necessary Also NDIS Planners: If you want to use some of that support work time to help walk your dog since you can't do it yourself any more, go fuck yourself, disabled people don't deserve pets 🫠

Death is coming for me So I wear rainbow I live I live I live I am full of joy Death is coming for me So I laugh I shine I shine I shine I am ephemeral Death is coming for me I am grateful And life is beautiful I live I shine

Sometimes I think about the fact that being constantly mocked for being fat and then developing all the symptoms of social anxiety as a result does not lead to a social anxiety diagnosis per the DSM criteria (would instead be one of the trauma or stressor related disorders).

The average weight for a man in Australia is 87kg. If you advertise a hoist for disability access, but the weight limit is 90kg, you're not providing genuine access because you're excluding a huge proportion of the population.

Disabled and chronically ill. I'm not a bad person for wishing there was a cure for my terminal illness, which also happens to result in disability. The voices of chronically ill disabled people matter too, and we shouldn't be ignored or forgotten.

Ugh. The unwritten rules. I grew up poor and away from academia, didn't know them. A lecturer once chewed me out for following university procedure when I was sick for an exam. They implied I wouldn't get into postgraduate programs because of my egregious error.

Publisher asks for submissions for Growing Up Neurodivergeant in Aus. Gatekeeps and uses medical language. Very different to how Growing Up Disabled was done!

Tonight I played around with digital painting. But finished, maybe never will be. Creating art is a transcendent experience. Tonight I was the bird and the bird was me and together we leave an ephemeral impression on the world, pixels of light, gone as soon as you scroll away.

When I lived in Tasmania, I *loved* chasing the Aurora Australis. Turns out you can do it in SA too, although here we see more of the red tops of them rather than the greens and pinks I've seen in Tasmania. This photo is just a few minutes from my house. Magic!

Just over a year ago, I tried to access my local SA Pathology and could not even enter the building as it was not accessible. I complained, repeatedly, doggedly, politely but firmly. I just got an email today to let me know the works have been completed!

I really should update my introduction post soon. I need to include that I'm now a board-approved supervisor for provisional psychologists here in Australia. That means I am approved to oversee internships before people can practice independently. Exciting!

I have 2 family members sick with respiratory bugs :( Lovely to get a call from them to let me know, and to tell me they will stay away for Christmas. They know I can't go if they do, and they want me to be safe and able to celebrate. Thanks, family!

I heard back from Parks Tasmania. Surprise, surprise, ramps are on buses are for disability access 🙃 I suspect someone somewhere along the line told the drivers otherwise, given how remarkably consistent they were with 'wheelchairs only.'

Story on @abcnews re chronic illness today. The reason why people with chronic illness need support is because we are disabled. Say the word! We don't need to split disability into chronic illness and other disability. We just need to support disabled people properly.