Content Note
Mentions of chronic illness, medical procedures, and surgical planning.
Light humor used throughout.
Welcome Back to the Den
The lights are low, the rules are flexible, and nobody here expects you to be brave on command. Believe it or not, your resident disabled cryptid isn’t.
This is The Crippled Cryptid.
A soft-lit corner of the internet where disability, chronic illness, service dogs, and everyday survival exist without apology.
If you’re new here, hi. I’m Sky.
Professional cryptid.
Unwilling amateur cyborg.
Occasional chronic illness and disability advocate.
Medically interesting enough to make half my providers sigh when they open my chart.
I sigh too. Then I ask for coffee.
At the time of writing this, I’m back at the back table, watching starlings hop around the back deck eating birdseed on an overcast Sunday morning, drinking caramel vanilla coffee after what felt like the worst 14-ish hours of my life that started somewhere around 7pm last night when a thunderclap headache rolled in and knocked me out of the Den and onto my ass.
Full disclosure, I don’t get them often but there were tears, and I was delegated to Bed Jail™ by M&M, with instant ramen for the rest of the night, where I watched Doc on Hulu and rested instead of finishing this draft like I wanted to.
Which is why I’m spending my Sunday morning doing it.
Luna’s tucked under the table by my foot while I write this, on duty as always. My shadow with paws. My built-in “hey, maybe don’t ignore your body today” alarm system.
I live in a haunted meat suit with a deeply suspicious warranty, spend a lot of time in Bed Jail™, and am almost never alone thanks to my medical alert service dog, Luna.
Part guardian. Part shadow. Part “excuse me, Mama. Sit your ass down, right now.”
If I ignore her, I mean accidentally mishear her, she ups the scale to, “Mumther, we are absolutely not debating your poor decision-making skills today. Sit.”
Then there’s M&M.
My constant. My Player 2. The one who gives the 90% when I only have 10. Garden gremlin. Best friend. All of the good things wrapped up in a 5’3”, garden-gnome-sized package. Who is sometimes just as stubborn as I am, and more stubborn than the service dog when I get lax about my health.
This space is about showing up for ourselves even when our bodies refuse to cooperate.
Chronic illness without inspiration porn.
Disability without apologies.
Love without pretending it’s always easy.
Returning cryptids, welcome home.
New cryptids, pull up a chair.
We don’t bite but, some days we do use the word “fuck” whenever it is medically necessary. Which lately, is kind of often. Thankfully, there’s no swear jar.
If there was, we’d be in trouble.
The Lunatic Café is open. The Den is big enough for all of us.
On Today’s Menu: Chaos, Weather, and a Schedule That Actually Makes Sense
Hi there, hello, and… yes. Happy Monday.
I know. I said it. I’ll take my chances.
I hope your weekend treated you gently. Around here, we had a little taste of nice weather before it dipped right back down into “absolutely not.” We’re sitting at a crisp 46°, and my body has decided that means we riot. The up-and-down is doing what it does best and kicking my ass.
At least I have my Qulipta now, which is code for: we take our chances, but the migraine is semi-controlled. Ish.
Still. I’ll take it over snow.
But that’s not the main reason I’m here today.
We need to talk about the schedule.
You know, the thing that I haven’t been able to follow lately because I’ve been writing down every single thought that pops into my head, and giving you a constant play-by-play of the inside of my head.
Almost to the point of thinking that we need to change our name from The Crippled Cryptid to Inside the Cryptid Mind.
The Problem: I Accidentally Became a Content Cryptid Cryptid
What was supposed to be a neat little posting plan
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday… civilized, reasonable…)
…very quickly turned into:
• Posting every day
• Sometimes multiple times a day
• Half planned, half “I had a thought and now it lives on the internet”
Because I don’t have a PR team here to tell me, “hey Sky, that might not be such a great idea…” but somehow, I feel like that makes me a little more honest. I’m not here to put on a pretty face and show you what a perfect life looks like. I’m here to show you what real life looks like as a disabled person. As a person who wants to help other disabled people, and people who love disabled people, live in a world that isn’t built for us.
And if you didn’t already guess, it doesn’t mean brushing my hair and putting on makeup for a camera. Quite honestly, I can’t even tell you the last time that I put on makeup aside from my birthday in February. Before that? I have no clue. Maybe Christmas. Maybe not. We’re lucky I care about my hair so much or else it might not get brushed every day.
But not brushing waist-length purple hair can turn gnarly pretty quickly.
Because sometimes, that’s what chronic illness is. It just says, absolutely fucking not.
Which, to be clear, I don’t regret.
I did say that this was the void that I was going to be screaming into, didn’t I?
Did I plan to scream into it this often, this loudly, or this consistently?
…no.
But it is chaotic. And not the fun, intentional chaos. The “girl, are we pacing ourselves or are we speedrunning burnout?” kind.
And with surgery coming up (hello again, foraminotomy and DRG lead removal 🙃), I need something sustainable. Something that holds me when I can’t hold everything together myself.
And no, friends. That is not a dig at Lu Bean, M&M, or the Yard Yeti. All of them are doing their part just fine, I’m just really bad at asking for help and communicating my needs. I’m trying to do better.
The Solution: A Schedule That Matches the Vibe (and My Actual Life)
So, instead of forcing myself into a structure that clearly wasn’t built for me…
We built one that is.
Here’s the new official rhythm of The Crippled Cryptid:
🗓️ The New Posting Schedule
• Monday: Wyrm Workbench (writing life, behind the scenes, creative chaos)
I know, I know. You obviously know that I’ve been writing because you see all of my posts going up. But for those of you who don’t follow me on Instagram, and don’t see my silly little “look at what I’m doing” screenshots of the word counter app that I downloaded to my phone to help keep myself accountable, this is going to be the day where I tell you what I’m doing in the writing half of my life.
Maybe I’ll tell you about my novel. Maybe the folklore research. Maybe just me screaming into the void with snacks. Who knows.
• Tuesday: Cryptid Dispatch (life updates, personal posts, occasional rants)
You’re used to this. This is home base. Familiar ground.
• Wednesday: Folklore Wednesday (biweekly) (because we are nothing if not a little haunted)
The fun part. The “we fell down a rabbit hole and now you’re coming with me” part. But you already know that there are some weeks where, I don’t care if it’s an “off week” there might still be something rattling around in my head that we need to talk about. Hell, some Thursdays you might even get Folklore Thursday Minis if it can’t all squeeze into Wednesdays.
• Thursday: Cryptid Check-In (community, connection, softer conversations)
Because we’re not just readers here. We’re a community. Your health and wellbeing is important to me.
• Friday: Luna Takeover 🐾 (management insisted)
She’s the main character. We all know it. I’ve accepted my role as supporting cast.
So, that means photo dumps. Because I don’t take enough pictures of our girl, and this gives me an excuse to start taking more. If you’re not already, or didn’t know. She even has her own IG @Luna.the.Service.Dingo and I’ll be posting photo dumps over there too.
• Saturday: Chronically Cryptid Logs (chronic illness, lived experience, real talk)
Not always easy. Always honest.
Because as my core, this is me. Chronically ill. Disabled. In search of community, and looking to help other chronically ill and disabled people- or their families- connect better.
• Sunday: Bed Jail Broadcast 📺 (low-energy days, reflections, existing instead of performing)
Reviews, rambling, survival mode with commentary.
Sometimes movies, sometimes TV shows, we don’t discriminate.
And if you ever have suggestions for what I should watch next, definitely drop them in the comments or in a DM, we love suggestions here. We don’t care what genera, we love it all.
What This Means Going Forward
This doesn’t mean I’ll never post outside of this.
Let’s be realistic. I am still me.
If something matters, if something needs to be said, if my brain grabs a thought by the ankle and refuses to let go… it’s probably getting posted.
So no, the 3am insomnia rants are not going anywhere. I’ve seen what Ambien does to people on TikTok and I will simply be staying awake and making questionable decisions instead. We tempt fate enough here on this blog. Okay? Okay.
Live, laugh, toaster bath… and all of that silly shit.
But this gives us a spine. A rhythm. A way to keep showing up without burning the whole place down just to stay warm.
This isn’t about being more productive. It’s about staying present without burning myself out of my own life. Even if that life is just doctor’s appointments, bed rotting in Bed Jail™, and dreaming about tomatoes from the garden.
It also means that when surgery hits and I’m down for the count, I’ve got posts ready. The Den doesn’t go quiet. It just… breathes differently for a while.
Because I am planning ahead. I want things queued up. I want to be prepared.
There’s a reason why I tell you that I’m a medically traumatized cryptid with trust issues, and that’s because I am. But I’m also one who is starting to learn my limits. Starting to take the pressure off myself. Starting to not scare both my service dog and my humans half to death. At least, trying not to. And that counts for something, right?
But I also know who I am.
If I’m not two steps ahead, I feel like I’m already four steps behind.
And I’m trying to find a way to exist somewhere in the middle of that.
So… Be Honest With Me
Do you think you’re going to get sick of me?
Or is there a day you’re already claiming as your favorite?
Personally, I think my favorite days are the Luna Takeover days. I love getting to share her adventures with everyone, and I think they’re her favorite too. She’s convinced that she’s the main character, and honestly?
I don’t think she’s wrong.
Wherever you’re reading this from, I hope you’re taking today at your own pace.
I’m trying. My head is still throbbing from the thunderclap headache, so today is a slow one.
Filled with coffee, breakfast skillets planned for dinner- lowkey, and easy.
Before You Go
If today felt heavy, thank you for carrying it with me.
If it felt familiar, I’m glad you stayed.
If you’re here, you belong here.
Love you. Now say it back.
Same cryptid. Better map.
—Sky
© The Crippled Cryptid
Disability, honesty, and a little chaos.
🔗 https://linktr.ee/skylanarissa
There’s never pressure to donate. Reading, sharing, or simply staying is more than enough.
If you’d like to support the long, slow work of staying alive, stable, and mobile:
💜 https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-skys-journey-to-health-and-mobility
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