You have to prepare to be emotionally ready to handle normal test results when you’re secretly hoping the tests will show something and you’ll have an answer.
Nurse: The tests were clear! 😀
Me: 🙂
Me: 😐
Me:
Me: 😦
Me: Well…. so what could it be? What… what do I do now?
Nurse: I don’t know! 😀
Me: :C
Tag: invisible illnesses
People love to talk about whether or not disabled people can work
but if you can work just fine and your disability is destroying your ability to have a life outside of work (because work takes all your energy and more)
Dead silence. Nobody cares.
File this under, oh you can be active for 4 hours? You can work part-time. Um no, I have to get ready for work (30 min) get to work (15 min) get home from work (15 min) feed myself all day (30 min) maintain myself, my home and my life (15 min, yeah right), which leaves 15 min for work and absolutely nothing else.
This is so accurate, back after I’d relapsed I wanted to try and go in for one class at school so I could still stay in contact with the education system. I let slip during a meeting that I managed to drag myself to that I could manage about 4 hours of activity a week, which the teacher sprang on to mean I was being lazy for just trying to get to 1 hour class. Never matter that it was 30 minutes travel, that I would have to get washed and dressed, that I would probably still need to recover for 3 days from it.
Far too often abled people see the things they do easily as “non activities”, they don’t realise that for many disabled people these things have to be carefully planned and measured, and sometimes they simply can’t be done.
reblog bc the non activities thing seems really important words
I get X number of pain-free steps per day right now, which means that, for large conventions (like SDCC), I need to be in a mobility device. I had someone ask if I used up my steps every day before transferring to the scooter, and look surprised and a little horrified when I said “no, I save them so I can go to the bathroom unassisted.” Like, they had never considered that walking is involved in peeing.
!
Reblogging for the important point that the term “activity” may mean something very different and much broader for a disabled person with a chronic pain or fatigue related condition compared to its meaning for a non disabled person. If you’re tired enough, simply sitting up in a chair rather than lying in bed is an activity that drains energy otherwise usable for other things. A thing I knew from other people with pain and fatigue related conditions, but worth reinforcing for followers who didnt know or had forgotten.
Remember when Disney treated emotional trauma as an actual physical ailment and not the stupid “just stop being upset” thing?
Big Hero 6 was a great movie
19 Things People With Chronic Pain Want You To Know
DO NOT DO THIS.
This makes me so angry.
If you work in a movie theater and you do this I have no respect for you.
My younger brother is Type 1 Diabetic.
When we go to a movie theater, we always get him diet soda. If he were to get regular when we asked for diet, we would not give him the insulin he would need for it. If that happens, his blood sugar level could go so high he could go into a coma, go blind, or even die.
If somebody gave him regular soda instead of diet without telling us, that person could be responsible for a nine-year-old being killed or blinded.
Just thinking about that makes me so angry. I get scared every time we take him to a movie in case the people working there saw this picture and decide to do the same thing.
Please signal boost this so people know.
This applies to other things, too. I’m ridiculously sensitive to caffeine, and when I ask for decaf, there’s a reason. If I get full caff sometime when I ask for decaf, I’m probably not sleeping for a day or two, and likely starting to get seriously worried about heart attacks.
THIS. I have so many allergies, it’s not even funny. And yeah, I’ve gotten sick from people screwing up my food. It’s why I almost never eat out anymore, and when I do, it’s at one or two trusted restaurants where the wait staff knows me very well, and are extra careful with my order.
This is possibly one of the most fascinating indirect ways in which I’ve seen the madness of diet culture endanger people’s lives. People get so resentful of the insanity that they will do stuff which blatantly endangers people because they just assume the people are being stupid.
I don’t have chronic pain but this artwork is so nice to look at *^*
Just because we’re not writhing on the floor doesn’t mean we’re not hurting. We’ve just gotten really good at hiding it and functioning with it, otherwise we’d literally starve in our beds.
This also works pretty well for numerous mental disabilities, or just generally for any “invisible” disabilities.
this is the most difficult thing to explain when it comes to depression and anxiety
I wear glasses. Can I manage without glasses? Well, yes, probably. I could squint a lot, constantly move up close to anything I want to see, take the bus or a taxi if I want to go anywhere. I could just accept that I’ll never be able to see eagles flying in the sky or whales jumping out of the ocean.
But why? Why try so hard to manage life when I could just put on a pair of glasses? No one would ever suggest a near-sighted person should just work harder. No one would say ‘Maybe that’s just your normal’ to someone that needs glasses. They would say ‘Let’s go to the eye doctor and get you a prescription so you’re able to see again.’
You shouldn’t have to try so hard.
My doctor (paraphrased), when I expressed doubts about going back on an anti-depressant. (via
(via squidilydink)
This is such a good analogy because nobody thinks about it like this. If you wear glasses, you literally need constant use of a medical aid to experience the world like most people do. If it were anything besides glasses, that would be considered a disability. But needing glasses is an extremely common, visible, and accepted form of disability to the point that we don’t even consider it one, we just accept that some people need glasses and that’s perfectly normal and there’s nothing wrong with needing to rely on them.
That is how all disabilities and illnesses should be seen, and how we should look at treatment for them. You have a problem, and you need help dealing with it, and there’s nothing wrong with either of those things. That’s perfectly normal and that’s okay.
(via ninjarobotclone)
Reblogging myself bc ^^that^^ was such a beautiful addition. ~JJ
(via teachthemhowtothink)
best fucking sign on the metro today:
Who needs this seat? You’d be surprised.
Not all disabilities are visible. That’s why it’s important to keep priority seating clear at all times. For more information on accessibility throughout the Metro system, visit www.wmata.com/accessibility
This is SO GOOD. This is a HUGE reason I don’t feel comfortable on transit.
YAY
depression is as real as a broken leg
“it’s an excuse to lay in bed all day."
"just get over it.”
“think about something else.”
you wouldn’t say any of these things to someone with cancer, cystic fibrosis, or a broken limb. so why do you think it’s okay to say it to someone who’s depressed?
let me tell you something: depression is the result of a chemical imbalance in the brain. just as cancer is a result of cell mutation, cystic fibrosis is the result of a gene mutation, and a broken limb is the result of trauma. ailments, diseases, pains—they have causes. mental illness is not an “excuse” to get out of going to the gym or finishing your homework.
just as a broken leg will incapacitate your leg, depression will incapacitate your mind. a broken leg and depression alike can prevent you from completing normal, daily activities.
with all of this in mind, i will argue depression is worse than a broken leg. a broken leg will heal in the span of a few weeks or months. depression can take years. a broken leg may have you on pain medication for a few hours; depression may have you on medication for the rest of your life.
will a broken leg prevent you from being happy? maybe at first. depression, on the other hand, makes it nearly chemically impossible for you to achieve true happiness.
i’m sick and tired of the bullshit stigmas surrounding mental illness. just because it’s not something you can always see with your eyes does not make it less real than a broken leg. just because it’s something you don’t understand does not give you the right to hurt other people with your ignorance and accuse someone of laziness and incompetence, when in reality, you are lazy and incompetent for not taking the time to think through what you’re saying or to research a disease you claim to not understand.
i don’t want to hear it anymore. there is not a single fucking excuse for treating someone like shit because you don’t understand what they’re going through. life is hard enough without people being assholes to each other all the time.
anyway. do not tell me depression is not as real as a broken leg when there have been days when no amount of pleading or crying could get the boy i love most out of bed. do not tell me depression is not as real as a broken leg when the boy i love most spends more time thinking about killing himself than he does enjoying his young, beautiful life. and don’t you dare tell me depression is not as real as a broken leg when people, every single day, choose to end their lives because they can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.
i am so fucking sick of people treating each other like shit because of ignorance. we’re in this life together and we have an obligation to be kind to one another. you have the power to make someone smile; don’t you dare use that power to hurt people.
The nerve!….This goes out to all the spoonies.
Read this:
“My name is Emelie Crecco, I’m 20 years old and I have cystic fibrosis. CF affects the lungs (as of many organs in the body) because of this I have a handicapped sticker. I’m not one to “abuse” the sticker, meaning I use it when I’m having a “bad day” (some days its a little harder to breathe). Today was HOT so I needed to use my sticker. I was running errands all day around my town, I pulled into a handicapped spot, placed the sticker in my mirror and continued into the store. Upon returning to my car I found a note written by someone, it said “Shame on you, you are NOT handicapped. You have taken a space that could have been used by an actually handicapped person. You are a selfish young lady.” I was LIVID. How can someone be so ignorant and cowardly? They clearly saw me walk out of my car, why not approach me? Not all handicaps are visible. I would love for you to share this story. It would help spread awareness for CF, but it would help open people’s minds to what handicapped really is.
Thank you for your time”
~Emelie CreccoA friend of mine fell over 20 feet and basically broke half his ribs, punctured his lung, broke his arm in three places that required many surgeries to fix and messed up a nerve in his leg. He had to walk with a cane for a long time after it and some lady in a restaurant thought he was just walking with a cane for the hell of it and she ripped it from his hands and grabbed his messed up arm and shook him and told him he was an awful human being for pretending to be handicapped. What the fuck people?
This is what real ableism looks like.
I have ulcerative colitis, an autoimmune disorder which causes my body to attack my colon, and I qualify for one of those stickers. I’m scared to get one, though, because I look healthy and whole.
-OrangeA mutual friend of mine’s mother has severe fibromyalgia (that gives her a handicapped pass) and as she was walking to her car after buying her groceries, a man actually lunged at her and started yelling at her about her “not looking handicapped”. It left her mother shaking and crying, of course, and it just makes me so angry how awful and ignorant some people can be.
Not all handicaps are visible
Can I just pin this sentence on every lamppost all over the planet please
Fucking assholes
Holding the Bowl 