Stephanie Briggs - Handmade Knitting My Way Through Chronic Pain

Knitting by hand, owned by three cats and a manbeast

New Diagnosis: Costochondritis

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I’ve just been diagnosed with (tentatively) costocchondritis (inflammation of the cartilage in the ribcage). I’ve had bad rib pain for months and finally got up the courage to mention it to the doctor yesterday. When you have as many issues as I do, rib pain always seemed to get pushed to the back burner, but […]

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Tweeps are Praying Again

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I once wrote a post about activity, passivity and prayer in Twitter trends. It’s an ineffective social media phenomenon that is annoyingly still in use, which allows the people who do it to try and sound as though they’re actually committed to doing something actively about the situation, instead of remaining passive and moaning about […]

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Salford News: Rosie the Lurcher Injured by Staffie, Goaded by Drunk Owners

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A very upsetting headline on Thursday’s (March 15) Salford newspaper: early in the morning, around 0925h on Manchester Road, a man was walking his two dogs, one of them a grey and white lurcher named Rosie (both on strong canvas leads, hopefully, but the article does not say) while he had his 2 year old daughter […]

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Startle Reaction

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My adopted sister, Claire, is getting married (steampunk-themed!) on 26 May and I’m busily accessorizing my steampunk outfit and choosing a hairstyle. It’s really fun window-shopping!  I had a semi-freakout about something this evening: my startle reaction. It is similar to the Moro Reflex, which disappears in babies by the age of two. The startle reaction […]

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Thoughts on “The Phantom of the Opera”

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Because this music is such an all-consuming joy for me to listen to, this blog post may well continue to be refined and updated for some time to come. Perhaps indefinitely. I hope you enjoy reading along with me as I explore this musical. Three of my favourite pieces from The Phantom of the Opera (2004) film. […]

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The “Inspiration Derived from Disabled People” Checklist

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While writing my previous blog post, “On ‘Transcending Pain’”, I came across this article in The Globe and Mail. It contains a recurring theme in the media when writing about disabled people, and especially, disabled children.   Ian Brown, fhe author of the Globe and Mail article has hit all of the necessary components: 1) […]

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On “Transcending Pain”

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I’m a chronic pain patient on morphine. (Note: As of 2013, I am no longer on opiates, but every day I wish I could have something, just a little, to take the edge off.)  It amuses me when healthy people ascribe romantic ideas or evaluations of the experience of pain, especially chronic or severe pain […]

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