FREE SOS feature on your phone

October 4, 2018October 4, 2018 ~ msgracefulnot ~ 20 Comments

Recently, I had to start doing research on devices that would allow the user to activate a panic or sos button that would notify friends or family that they needed assistance. While I still have not found the exact device to suit my needs, I did stumble across some very useful information about a FREE feature included on ALL cell phones regardless of model or provider, without having to download an app or pay for a service.

If you are interested in hearing more, please keep reading!!!

Let me start by telling you what this feature does, or how it works after you do an initial setup and then I will post screenshots on how I set it up on my phone.

Once you have completed the initial setup, if you need to send an SOS message, you simply click your power button 3 times quickly. Doing so, enables the front and back cameras on your phone to take a picture. It also makes a 5 second audio recording, and sends all of this information including your GPS coordinates to a pre-selected contact.

Too good to be true? I thought so too. So of course I had to test it out numerous times to try to find a flaw. I’m happy to say that I couldn’t find any.

Each time I tested this, either myself or my contact received the message within 30 seconds. The camera does not use the flash, so their is no indication to an outside party that you have clicked an alert. The GPS coordinates were accurate to within 200 feet.

The steps I used to set this up on my phone are as follows:

Go under your settings tab
scroll down to privacy and emergency
turn on send sos messages
select a contact
on the final screen you have the option to attach pictures and/or audio

From what I can tell, this feature is available on all makes of phones regardless of your service provider. While each person I have talked to about this, has been able to set this up on their phone, FOR FREE, the steps were slightly different than the ones I used. If you are interested, Google… ” how to set up sos messaging on your phone”.

Let me know if you tried this, and any opinions or concerns you might have that I might not have thought of. I am very curious to know if it also works in other countries besides the US.

Better late than never

May 4, 2018October 5, 2018 ~ msgracefulnot ~ 11 Comments

I’m sure by now most of you have seen, heard, or been nominated for the 3 day quote challenge. Way back on April 18, 2018, my dear friend Steve Markesich nominated, challenged, or otherwise taunted me to participate in this challenge. As with most things, I promised to get around to it as long as I could adjust the rules a bit.

The Rules as they have been explained:

1. Thank the person that nominated you.

2. Write one quote each day for three consecutive days (3 quotes total)

3. Explain why the quote is meaningful for you.

4. Nominate three bloggers each day to participate in the challenge

My translation of the rules:

1. Thank the person that nominated you.

Thank you Steve. BUT, not only for the nomination. Thank you for being a great sounding board, my being a friend, for being an inspiration to other “MSer’s”, and thank you for the cup of coffee you will be buying me for “participating” 😛

2. Write one quote a day for 3 consecutive days.

I can barely commit to taking a shower every day for 3 consecutive days in a row, so HAVING to write for 3 days in a row…not gonna happen. BUT, I will say that I really liked the quote you used and your explanation of why it’s meaningful to you.

You can either accept your new reality, confront it head on, and make the best of a bad situation. Or, you can curl into the fetal position, say whoa is me, lament about all the things that you’ve lost, become obsessed with the shitty hand you’ve been dealt, and wither away. In other words, you can get busy living or get busy dying.

I did watch the movie, and I really enjoyed it, so THANK YOU again for the recommendation.

3. I don’t know if it qualifies as a quote, more a clip from the movie, “The Green Mile”. “I’m tired Boss”. Why it’s meaningful to me is because I AM TIRED, as John Coffey says in the movie….

Mostly, I’m tired of people being ugly to each other. I’m tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world every day. There’s too much of it. It’s like pieces of glass in my head, all the time… Can you understand?”

4. I’m not going to nominate 3 bloggers to participate in the challenge, instead I am going to challenge EVERYONE (well anyone who reads this)…. If you can’t be part of the solution, please don’t be part of the problem. For one day, if you don’t have anything nice to say, Don’t say anything. I am convinced, if everyone could do this for one day the world would not only be a better place, but it would also be a quiet one.

If you have nothing nice to say….

May 3, 2018October 5, 2018 ~ msgracefulnot ~ 29 Comments

My parents taught me at a very young age, if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all. (I may still have the handprints on my face or belt marks on my ass to prove it.) Although, I don’t necessarily agree with the methods used to teach me this, I do think that it is a very important lesson to have learned.

Lately, I haven’t had anything nice to say….so I haven’t said anything. This isn’t to say that my life is terrible, but to be honest, I don’t even like being with myself lately …..so I say nothing. I don’t like that I am getting angry over small things, and more importantly I don’t like that I don’t understand why I’m upset.

A friend said to me today, “Are you ok Grace? I’m worried about you.” My response was “No I’m not, but I will be.”. I KNOW that I will be. I don’t know when, but I will get through this slump whatever it is, just like I have 100x before.

For those of you that use music to relate or express your emotions….the song Downtime by Jo Dee Messina kind of sums up what I am feeling at the moment. If you listen to it let me know what you think. How do you handle those days when you’ve got nothing nice to say?

How did I get here?

March 6, 2018 ~ msgracefulnot ~ 29 Comments

I woke up this morning feeling, I would like to call it “recharged”, but it is better than that, and I really can’t find a word to “define” it. Liberated? Free? Optimistic?….I guess the definition doesn’t really matter, but the feeling is INCREDIBLE.

Today, I was “supposed” to run electricity with my dad, but the weather changed our plans. As I reached for my “to do list” to fill up my day, a thought hit me. I really LIKE this feeling. Instead of rushing to fill the “free time” with some other task, I decided to do nothing, just for a minute…. Did I mention I like this feeling??!?!? I still don’t have a word for it, but I really like it.

Those damn feelings of CO-Dependency kept trying to creep in. Someone, somewhere must need something. I am positive that I am forgetting something for the wedding, maybe I should start packing now, so I can recheck it 50x before we leave Friday morning? STOP IT GRACE!!!

I looked at the calendar, everything is right on or ahead of schedule. How the hell did that happen? The last two? three? weeks are kind of a blur.

Okay so how did I get here?

I reread some of last weeks blog posts. Oh yeah, I kind of remember doing that…. maybe? I’ve been living on auto- pilot. I have been “going through the motions” and not letting myself FEEL anything.

Yesterday, when I arrived at the hospital for my Tysabri infusion, the nurses kept asking me if I was ok. “Are you sure, you’re ok?” I replied, “Yes, I’m good, just overdue for this infusion and I’m really tired.” and then they asked again…”Grace, are you going to be able to drive home after this?” I responded, “I’m not driving, I promise…my parents will be here in a little bit.”…. one more time….”Are you sure?”….. uh huh…..and I was out.

I woke up to my dad’s voice in the hallway calling out my name to see which room I was in. The minute, I saw their faces, tears came pouring out of my eyes. What the hell is this, why was I crying? It didn’t really matter, it’s not like I could stop the tears anyway. So I just let them flow.

I don’t remember anything else from yesterday. I know my parents brought me home. I know I ate at some point etc etc. and I slept. I really slept. I still don’t have the adjective to describe this feeling and I am going to let that be ok.

In the past two hours that I have been sitting here, drinking coffee and reflecting I have “learned” some thing about myself.

I can “handle” physical pain, but I do everything in my power to run from emotional pain, in fact, I think I have done this my entire life. I stay busy all the time. I go out of my way to try to make people feel better all the time, because I can’t handle tears. I can’t handle watching someone who is grieving suffer. I literally would rather go to the dentist, get shot, jump off a cliff, you name it, than to FEEL emotional pain.

My first thought, was “that’s just pathetic”. But then I asked myself, “Why?”. Who says it’s pathetic? Seriously, who’s voice is that judging and belittling me? The voice was my own. There is no one to blame. It’s that VERY FRICKING LOUD “little voice”, in my own head trying to sabotage myself. When I type it out in black and white, it looks just plain silly.

Ok, so I have some work to do on myself. (But not today). Today I am going to just be. I am not “planning for tomorrow”, or “thinking about yesterday.” Today, I am just going to be.

Will I ever learn?

March 2, 2018October 5, 2018 ~ msgracefulnot ~ 27 Comments

Will I ever learn patience or to slow down?

Nope, probably not. (Hey don’t shoot me, I’m being honest here) My whole life I have struggled with patience, and I have always been “in a hurry”. When My MS is at it’s worst though, my body won’t allow me to be impatient or in a hurry, and when I try to, I get hurt.

Yes I got hurt again 😦

I got hurt, but I’m not dead. I will explain what happened in just a moment, and you can even “yell” at me if you think it will help, but first let me explain, well try to explain why I did it.

So I wrote the other day that a trailer “fell into my lap”. I had help for a couple hours, I moved what I set out to do and that’s all I was going to do. My dad told me that since he thought he was having surgery the trailer was free for a couple weeks, and I might as well have the kids drop it at Einstein’s since he wouldn’t be using it. (That way I could take a “slow and steady approach” to loading it.) Thing 2 and her boyfriend “D” dropped the trailer off in Einstein’s driveway for me, when they were done moving the bikes.

Just because I am proud of my daughter I took a video of her backing the trailer in. This is funny to me because “D” doesn’t “trust her” to drive HIS Truck, but knows she is better at backing up a trailer than he is….That’s MY GIRL!!!! but I digress….

BUT THEN….

The temperature changed, not just the outside weather temperature, but the temperature in Einstein’s house wasn’t as frigid. I will write more about that another time and in another place, ( I think a new blog is coming ) but the verbal knives weren’t flying anymore and I started “getting cold feet” about leaving, so I HAD TO GO.

Einstein had been complaining about where the trailer was parked, and had even tried to move it by hand…. I did not say out loud “THAT”S NEVER GONNA HAPPEN”….but it did inspire me to make a call….

There was help available. A young man that I had friended a year or two ago while I was taking classes, was willing to help me move. We will call him “J”. (He said, “Hell I’ve got a truck, trailer, and plenty of friends”) just pick a day. That’s something that I would say, not something I am used to hearing so….ok “How about NOW?” came out of my mouth.

and that’s how it all began……

When you have help you take it!!!! “BUT don’t you EVER take help without working your ass off just as hard as the person who is giving you help!!!!” This one I think was literally beat into my ass as a kid, so no way is it going away anytime soon.

Einstein was NOT happy that I was having a “DATE” (as he called it ) over to help me move, so it was only “J” and no friends. Einstein moved most of my furniture to the doorway in preparation. (Did I mention a new blog coming soon?….when I don’t live in HIS house)

So the trailer was quickly loaded, and my car was filled, and off I went. Almost all of my furniture that can not be strategically shoved in my car has been “deposited” in my new place. (Of course it wasn’t until I had set up my big comfy couch that I realized there is no electricity run to the wall of the west side of the “living room”) But that is another story for a different day.

So what did I do?

I worked my ass off!!!!….and then some….I THOUGHT I broke my foot again. I remember the doctor saying, “this is going to hurt a bit”, as he stuck a needle in my foot. There was quite a bit of pain. (enough to make me vomit and then pass out) His orders were keep it elevated and iced all day. Back in the boot or use your wheelchair for one week…and of course take these drugs. I give in, not up, but I give in…for now.

The “moral” of the story is I did what needed to be done and now my body says IT’S done. I didn’t PURPOSELY over do it or rush. It’s so hard not to “overdo it” when you ARE feeling well, considering you KNOW that the “NOT feeling well” is just around the corner.