Feeling the Pressure – Literally!

On my body telling me to pause. Again. #WordyAndWheelyWednesdays

Hullo my lovely readers

A content note for brief references to pressure sores and skin integrity (nothing graphic), and references to health services – and health inequities, especially those related to ongoing atrocities.

An early letter this week and, with it, an inadvertent return to the original posting day of this newsletter, and therefore Wordy and Wheely Wednesdays.

(This wasn’t how I hoped to get back to that original day but, now I have, I’m hoping to keep to it going forward, in case that’s useful to know.)

The reason for this early letter is that, following last week’s about the needed changes to my chair (and your kind responses to the complexity that that brings), my body has presented me with a pressure sore on my rib (entirely unrelated to my chair situation, but tricky alongside it). I don’t want this to progress any more than it already has, so I’m heeding my skin’s warning to pace properly.

[Image description: A photo of Jessi - a white person with short brown hair - lying in their bed with their eyes closed because they feel vulnerable, underneath a duvet that is many different shades of blue. Their bed is an adjustable profiling bed and it has a side up for safety, as well as various colourful cushions scattered around it. / End image description]

I’m also grateful to have access to district nursing care, as well as my wonderful wider team (including my marvel of a mother!), and the solidarity of disabled communities to help manage unexpected developments like these that add literal pressure to Disability Life.

It means I’m even more acutely aware of my privilege, and thinking of people who don’t have such access and support. Especially those whose infrastructures have been destroyed, and who have either become disabled as a result or are struggling to manage existing impairments in inhospitable environments.

So, with gratitude for you sticking with me whilst I rest, if you have capacity, I wonder if you might consider donating to Medical Aid for Palestinians, or offering support in other ways if you can.

Because, as I wrote in the first edition of this newsletter in November 2024 for the combination of my birthday and World Kindness Day (coincidentally exactly forty weeks ago today, which set out my fundamental themes and tenets for the newsletter), oppression is intersectional.

And that means our activism and work towards justice and liberation must be as well.

Thank you so much for reading, and love and solidarity until next time,

Jx