My blurred opinion

The bionic brunette

Rachael handler what is the recommended guest from my friend Jade, she is a person I met through a Facebook group, and we stayed friends and we support each other shows. She thought Rachael would be a great acquisition to the shell, and of course she end up being right.  Rachel's story starts with a rainy day on a highway or she gets into a minor car accident, which eventually turns into a tragic and a situation, one another car would slide into her and eventually cause her to have her leg amputated. She was a person I was very active and she loved to perform on Broadway, but after her accident she wasn't sure if she can continue on, due to the fact that she had never seen a person with a disability on Broadway. She talks about the miss treatment of people with disabilities, and how for a while she lost her love for performing because of how she was treated. And one of the things that I gathered from this episode was that her car accident really change the trajectory of her outlook on things she never really considered, and it made her a much stronger person, and strong willed person to never give up, and to fight for those who don't want to fight. She's not only a strong person, but you can tell she's actually very happy, and she has come to terms with her disability, and she very much so wants to continue to make changes for people with disabilities. 
Her website   http://rachelahandler.com
Her Instagram @bionicbrunette
 

How to get whole

Marcia is a Stroke Survivor, she had her stroke back in 2014, and for the next six years, her mission was to figure out how to go on, and how to figure out all that happened to her. She discusses the morning of her stroke when she wakes up and just feels like something is wrong because of the pain she was in, and when she went to read, her vision was all scrambled. She learned after her husband had come to check on her that she also lost the ability to speak. Her recovery took a long while for her to heal, she had people come to the house and constantly work with her, but nothing was easy, because she had to learn how to walk, talk, and every other normal function that we all take for granted. One of the things that I really admire about Marcia is her strength, she would set a goal like wanting to run a 5K run on her one-year anniversary of the stroke. Though maybe it was a unattainable goal at the time, just the fact that she wanted to put herself to the limit, and never did she short change herself and her thinking. She also has a condition called aphasia, which has to do with her ability to speak after comprehending what another person would say. Everything changed for her when she found a website that explained neurofeedback. She explains the procedure that is neurofeedback, and how after her first time though she didn't feel anything, she did notice a small difference in her speech. Now after a multitude of that same procedure, she regained the ability to say what she wanted to say perfectly. Even though it's not a reality for a lot of people with disabilities to almost fully recover, I am very happy for Marcia, and now I just hope she can enjoy the rest of her life to the fullest.
marcia@strokeforward.com
http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/marciamoran/
 
 
 

Backstroke

Grace hell is a person I met through a Facebook group, she reached out to me when I was looking for guests. she's a very sweet person, she likes to swim, paint, and she started her advocacy when she was 14 years old, which is when she had her stroke in the ocean in between the mainland and the island. Her brother had to come and rescue her,  once they finally got to dry land, he had to even perform CPR. She talked about how she didn't feel that she could ever have a stroke because she was so young and it's very rare for a group. She talks about her loss of functions to her limbs and how her face droped when she was in the hospital, and there was a difference of opinions between her family and the doctors on what was actually wrong with her. After the stroke, she also had many different mental issues, addiction issues, and even to this day she still has problems with the right side of her body even though it has gotten a lot better. We go deep into a lot of the challenges that she faced and continues to face to life with her mental health, but how she pushes through it through her advocacy.
 

God has a plan, and you mean everything

I met Charles Mickles through a previous guest Barbie Ingles, I asked her if she knew anyone with the condition Parkinson's and she said she had the perfect guest. As soon as Charles and I started to talk, I knew he was a sweet guy, who had been through a lot, and I wanted to share his journey. He explains his variation of Parkinson's and the differences between the other variations of Parkinson's. Charles was diagnosed with Parkinson's at a younger age because most people who have Parkinson's are a lot older than he was at the time of his diagnosis. His diagnosis in itself was a roller coaster ride because he had to go through many tests and take different medications to even try to prove what it is he had. They eventually found the right treatments and medication, but before that, he thought he would have to quit his job because he could barely make it through the day. He talked about how expensive these medications and treatments are, and how impossible it seems for the average person to be able to afford them. Charles is another person who took his pain and everything that he's overcome to the advocacy world, where he wanted to give back so others like him didn't have to suffer on the level he did.
His website http://www.minesparkinsons.com
 

Holding on by letting go

Heather Hutchison is a woman I came across on podmatch, and once I read her story, I knew I had to have her on the show.  She is a singer/songwriter, she has three albums, and is working on a fourth, she also has spent most of our time in either Latin America or Vancouver Canada. She wrote her memoir which is about her being a blind woman leaving in those countries while also struggling with her mental health. One of the most interesting parts of this conversation is when she realizes that her blindness is permanent, and how a little kid on a playground miss treating her or treating her differently because of her eye condition, she finally felt different and vulnerable. She talks about using her pain as an inspiration for her music. Mental health is a huge focus in this episode because during the pandemic she hit her breaking point and she ends up in a psychiatric hospital. As I've said many times will fall in the show sometimes you can find some very beautiful things in your darkest times, while she was in the hospital, and she came to the realization of wanting to die, she eventually found a reason to go on. I'm very proud of Heather for winning the ultimate bottle against her demons, but also for being so honest to share those dark times to help others not feel so alone. 
Please check out her website where you can find out all  her music , her book, and her social media.
https://www.heather-hutchison.com/
 

Dislocating to Nebraska

Melissa Schroeder is the current Mission Nebraska, along with other pageants that she has won along the way. She suffers from multiple chronic illnesses, but before she knew she had any of these illnesses, she was already advocating for kids with disabilities. They helped prepare her for what was to come down the road. She's a very unselfish person, she takes a part of the episode just to talk about people with disabilities and how others perceive us in what we can do, but the reality is we can do so much more. The main condition that she suffers from is called Ehlers danlos syndrome, why does is it messes with her flexibility and her blood pressure and it causes constant dislocations at Random times. Many people doubted that she was even telling the truth about her condition, but of course she knew different, and once she came to terms with what she had, and found others like her, she knew she had to continue to keep fighting. She's very inspired because she indoors so much, and still wants to help others, which is something that is lacking in this world.
https://www.canva.com/design/DAEcQ08fKXg/4frSQp0_TJ88kqmXgiBGMg/view
 

Putting the pieces together

When JOI and I met, I knew she would add something different to the show, because of her background, and the subject matter that we got to discuss. Before getting to know her I did not know much about the foster care system, other than knowing one of my friends that went through it. Her main goal through advocating is to make sure kids get the right homes, but also clear up all the misconceptions of the foster care system. We talk about the good, and the bad when referring to kids being adopted. She talks about her book which was inspired by her own struggles with being adopted. She did eventually find the perfect family for her, but still yearned to find her biological parents, something in her just wanted to meet them and also know why they would just let her go.
Her website https://www.findingjoi.us
http://Amazon.com/author/findingjoirenee
www.adopteerightslaw.com  provides information on the open records legislation in each state
www.tapestrybooks.com Publishing house where everything is centered around an adoption and foster care theme
www.miriamsheart.org An amazing organization that hosts information 
 
 
 

It’s peach

Jenevieve is a delightful woman who I met off of Facebook group that caught my eye because of her personality and her strong passion for advocacy.  She suffers from a condition called mitochondrial neuropathy atp deletion, which causes damage muscles, and nerves. One other thing that it does to her ,is that makes her tired and the only cure for it is to just sleep it off. Her nerves also tend to affect how she can use her hands to complete simple tasks like drinking water by lifting up her cup. Talks about how her family is the main reason and inspiration for her being so positive and strong. I really think her strength and positivity are her best qualities because now she's in pain emotionally and physically, she always finds a way to have a smile on her face, and it's absolutely genuine. I think that she wanted to stress the most in this episode is that she believes that people with disabilities can do anything, we just have to change the narrative
Here is a link to her book
https://www.amazon.com/Peach-Celebrating-Life-Shadow-Death/dp/198750142X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2RKKRAQYV2QXG&keywords=Peach+celebrating+life&qid=1643567569&sprefix=peach+celebrating+life%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-1
 

The Segway rider

This episode is with Johnny Favors my good friend, he suffers from a condition called limb-girdle muscular dystrophy. He explains how his condition affects him on daily basis and the different types of muscular dystrophy that are out there.  Johnny is a very sweet, and strong person, but even the strongest always get beaten down at some points in my life. He struggles with his mental health, his chronic pain, and the miss treatment and judgment of both. One of the things that we discuss in this episode is a situation that he was discriminated and denied access to an aquarium because of his Segway that he uses to get around because it's very hard for him to stand on his own. Please support him by filling out his petition, and show why we should never tolerate discrimination and ignorance
https://jacobsonlawandadvocacy.com/2021/08/16/tell-newport-aquarium-stop-discriminating-against-disabled-patrons-and-apologize/
 
https://thespeakfoundation.com/
 
 

Within the gray

This conversation that I had with Jennifer Ashlyn was a long but well-needed conversation to be had. She really is a powerful woman who should inspire many to speak up, she also has three kids one of who is autistic, so she has many challenges beyond just herself. Jennifer is a woman who dealt with abuse at a young age, went from relationship to relationship, until she found a guy that was kind to her, but his son passing would change the projection of how her life would return back to more abuse. She went from being molested as a child to being in a relationship where a man emotionally, mentally, and physically abused her. Jennifer goes in depth about how the abuse started and how we even manipulated her kids. She also battles severe mental health, and PTSD from everything that she has been through.  But one of the things that she wants to get across in this episode is that no matter how much you go through, you can get through it, and you can live a better life. She found the guy of her dreams, she's an advocate for domestic violence, a great mom, an avid pet lover, and she's written two books. Please support her because I love what she symbolize
Within the gray which is her first book https://amzn.to/3qGuMjRh
Sheila's men which is her second book
ttps://amzn.to/3eG0uYK