PSA: Some wheelchair users can *GASP* walk

annieelainey:

tiny-seedling:

annieelainey:

annarosewanders:

questionall:

cutieyama:

annieelainey:

Wheelchairs are used for many disabilities; it could be very painful to walk, one may lack the strength to walk, have hyperflexibility, shortness of lung capacity, fragility of joints, muscles, skin etc. 

REBLOG so people STOP harassing wheelchair users when they stand up and even WALK out their chairs in public.

I hardly ever add comments to posts but i feel the need to add on. A couple years ago i was in a wheel chair because of my chronic illness. I went to an amusement park with my school and each time we’d go on a ride the people who work there must ask if i was able to walk onto the ride. A lot of people found this offensive (my sister is working at disney world and she told me that whenever there is a wheel chair the cast members must ask if they are able to walk.) I of course told them i was able to walk and when i got out of my wheel chair i got so many bad glares. After that field trip i was bullied the rest of my highschool life because people thought i was faking it. It got to the point where these girls from church ended up breaking my wheel chair. Please please stop harassing people who use wheelchairs.

There are many times when due to breathing difficulities I’ve had to use a wheelchair or motor cart in the store or other places. That doesn’t mean I can’t walk or others can’t walk but it does mean we can’t go far and we do need the assistance. It’s no ones business judging people who need the help. No one should feel bad for using what the need when they need it.

I grew up with a bone deformity in my feet in ankles that was not visible to the eye and I was still able to walk. After walling for any more than about 30 ft my feet would begin to hurt so bad I could barely function. My family took a trip to disney world when I was 9 and I needed to use a wheel chair. I specifically remember hearing a woman scoff and growl about how lazy and disgraceful I was but also my family for raising such a lazy child. And this was just because I got out of my chair to go hug Tinker Bell. Please stop harassing wheelchair users who can still walk. You made an 8 year olds first trip to disney a lot worse than it should have been.

Keep telling your stories ❤

I remember a trip to the museum back when I was 10 and my Complex Regional Pain Syndrome was just starting to spread. I hadn’t been able to be in school much, so I was so excited to finally be able to be a part of a normal, exciting day with all of my friends. I hesitantly borrowed a museum wheelchair in lieu of using crutches; I felt very vulnerable and sort of embarrassed needing to be pushed around, but I wanted so so badly to be a part of the big day. After a couple hours, I set the wheelchair aside to go to the bathroom, and then lowered myself into it when I got back out. A museum guard went fucking ham, telling me I was lazy and entitled. I hadn’t fully explained my disability to a lot of my classmates, so when they gathered around to watch the shit show, I was so crushed and embarrassed. Because of that one incident, for years, I was hesitant to ask for extra help when I needed it and I ended up worsening my condition long-term. Respect ALL wheelchair users. Treat everyone you come across with respect. You are not always entitled to an explanation.

Gonna reblog this every time I see some foolishness on or offline about someone thinking a wheelchair user is “faking” because they stood up and walked some. This time it was a YouTube video and the comment section, a curse on both their houses!!!!

I have narcolepsy, and there are some days where I can feel the exhaustion so severely that I know it’s more likely I’ll have a sleep attack or cataplexy episode. When I’m feeling that, I use the motorized carts at stores so that if I do have a sleep attack, I won’t fall and will just slump over in a seated position since that’s the safest way for it to happen (and this is exactly how it has played out a couple of times).

I’ve gotten looks when I walk over to the cart, leave, and while using it. I don’t “”look”” like I should be using it. I’m young and appear to walk well from an outside perspective. The judgement I’ve received and the fear of being harassed are so strong that sometimes I will foolishly not use the motorized cart even when I know I should. At least once, this has ended in me falling onto the hard floor and risking hitting my head or other injury. One of the most difficult things I’ve had to grapple with is learning to put my own safety above the opinions of others, and I still have awful anxiety and paranoia when I need to use a motorized cart.

I spent a half hour examining every square inch of my room TWICE because I was looking for my DS Lite, which I distinctly remember finding the other day. I even remember exactly where I found it, and I hadn’t moved it. But it wasn’t there. It wasn’t anywhere.

I’m starting to suspect that I only dreamed about finding it. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the exciting world of hyper realistic dreams.

Education Grumps

This is gonna be long, but I implore you to bear with me.

Today’s episode Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was fantastic!

…except for a passive joke Arin made towards the end. You can say I’m being overly sensitive, but at least hear me out before you do so.

NOTE: I fucking love the Grumps and have been watching them for years. I’m not trying to draw hate to them or anything of the sort. I just wanted to take this scenario to raise awareness, because I believe this came from a place of ignorance and not an intent to harm.

In today’s episode (July 2nd, 2017), Admiral Bobbery joined the party for reals this time. For those who watched the episode or have played the game, you’d know that Bobbery is convinced he’s going to die, and thus closes his eyes so he drift off to the afterlife. Except… he’s not dead. He’s asleep. Take note that he closed his eyes of his own volition, purposefully laying back to “die” (fall asleep in actuality).

“Cut to the chase- what was so offensive?” said the Straw Man™ across the room.

Before I put it to words, I’ll first put the quote here as well as its context:

[A Sleepy Sheepy item was used on Mario and Bobbery, though only Mario was affected. Thus, Mario fell asleep while Bobbery remains awake.]

“Bobbery the sleeping fucking narcoleptic bomb doesn’t fall asleep?”

Okay, let me do some explaining. For starters, “narcoleptic” is not a casual adjective. It should never be used to describe someone unless you are talking about someone who does have narcolepsy. The reason is simple: narcolepsy is a serious illness. Throwing around the term as if it’s nothing trivializes a condition that will affect 1 in 3,000 people for their whole life. There is no cure.

As you may have surmised by now, I am someone who has to live with narcolepsy. It’s something that affects me every day, some days moderately and some days extremely.

Someone proposed a possible explanation to the effect of: “Well, Bobbery abruptly fell asleep earlier so maybe they actually think he has narcolepsy.”

That is a good thing to consider, but I earlier explained how he fell asleep of his own volition, not against his will. Not only that, but he was (more or less) easily roused from his sleep. Furthermore, people with narcolepsy cannot be forcefully woken up from a sleep attack; they have to just wait it out until they wake up. That aside, I do not think Arin actually thought Bobbery had narcolepsy. He has made a handful of passing jokes about someone being narcoleptic in past Game Grumps episodes.

The media either never talks about/shows narcolepsy, or when they do show it they show it as a trite stereotype. If that’s all people see, of course they won’t know that it’s not a joking matter? I won’t preach for too long, but I’d like to describe a bit of what narcolepsy is really like.

Narcolepsy manifests differently with each person, so I’m describing what is typically the most common experience. That being said, let’s talk about sleep attacks. You don’t slowly lull into a sleep attack. With absolutely no warning, at any time or place, it occurs out of nowhere. Every time, there’s the risk of being unlucky and causing trauma to the head (I am fortunate for this to not have happened). My body is consistently spotted with bruises from the falls caused by sleep attacks. When it happens in public, it’s mortifying. I become a public spectacle if someone I know isn’t with me to stop them from gawking. For me, these episodes last up to 20 minutes. Some of the worst places I’ve had sleep attacks are the middle of the mall, the grocery store, the middle of class, the hallway… you get the idea.

And that’s just a fraction of what narcolepsy really is. I figured this illustrated my point enough, and the reason that it upsets me so much when people throw around the term as if it’s a synonym for “sleepy”.

Once more: this is not meant to be vindictive or judgemental. Instead, I wanted to use this opportunity to make this post because I’m pretty certain just about everyone reading this also wasn’t aware of why it’s a big deal.

If you’re a Grumps fan and wanna pass some knowledge on, feel free to reblog. I encourage it!

roaringstream:

macleod:

lorenzo-of-slytherin:

theoldaeroplane:

living400lbs:

fabulousworkinprogress:

theriversdaughter:

tharook:

asksecularwitch:

vincentvangozer:

derinthemadscientist:

mickeyrowan:

having a flesh vessel is so annoying?????? like they have to be constantly watered, they have to be in specific temperature range to be comfortable, i’ve had a headache for like seven hours and nothing i do will get rid of it,

physical forms are so inconvenient??????????????

I knocked mine over yesterday and scraped off some of the outer barrier and it keeps sending me really annoying warning messages about it

blood.dll has caused an access violation exception

I still can’t figure off how to turn off the monthly compile time. It goes for like 7 days wrecks all the system and takes so much CPU time. 

I got the wrong model, too, and there’s no returns or exchange policy. I’m trying to make do as best I can with aftermarket modifications, but even that’s a real bind. And then I have to deal with all the purists who try to tell me I should be happy with the model I was given.

Mine has a short in the warning and alert sensors, and keeps tripping the alarm system for absolutely no reason.  It’s been taken to the mechanic many times, but the best they can do is recommend daily chemical baths for the wiring to keep it from arc-faulting constantly.

My uterus keeps trying to install this shitty bloatware that comes with certain dll processes and I keep refusing the update, then it goes through the whole defrag process deleting all those files.

My histamine system is faulty and triggers for no reason. I keep turning it down but I have to keep reapplying the patches daily. 

On the plus side some of the case mods you can do are sick as hell.

My optical system’s permanently stuck on a really close focus setting, so I had to have extra camera lenses custom-made to sit in front of the vision chamber before it’ll notice anything more than 50cm away. 

I want to be able to dual boot to another OS, this one is too minimal and sluggish for what I want to do.

I need to find a way to add more RAM because mine can only input so much data before everything crashes. Anyone else having this problem?

Mine has a glitch in the neural processing system- I’ve gone into the mechanic many times now but they can’t find the source. My vessel seems to have a faulty sleep-mode. It activates and shuts off at random, making it hard to reliably complete tasks. Has anyone else run into this, and if so, are there any updates that can repair this issue?

“You shouldn’t drink so much caffeine, it’s terrible for you!”

Originally posted by dexterfuckingmorgan

Ah, yes, let me abruptly stop one of my sources of functioning, putting myself in the position for withdrawal migraines and excessive daytime sleepiness at full force. I wasn’t aware you were a doctor, but clearly you seem to know my medical situation and the best advice for me personally.

Bonus: “You wouldn’t need the caffeine if you had better sleeping habits!”

rougherthanconcrete replied to your post:

To My Spoonie Followers:

yes my narcolepsy has already stopped me a bit hey

Same– I’ve been super gung-ho about catching Pokemon, but I still need to make sure I’m not putting myself in a position where I’ll be exhausting myself… plus I don’t plan on going out walking unless my girlfriend is with me. The last thing I want is to be heading down a trail and having a sleep attack when I’m alone…

I don’t think I ever posted about this because I’m about as active as a slug- since about 6th grade I knew I wanted to be a psychiatrist. For 6 years I knew for a fact I was going to major in biology and go to med school.

During winter quarter, I took chemistry. I took the chemistry lab with it as well. Things went okay; I’m not a huge fan of chemistry but it’s a necessity for the major.

Towards the end of the quarter, I had a sleep attack during the lab. I hit the concrete hard. I wasn’t holding any glassware or chemicals, thankfully. I ended up fine, but then it brought up something important.

If I major in biology and pursue a medical career, I will be constantly taking endless labs. What happens on the day I am holding a vial of a dangerous chemical, or I hit my head on concrete?

I talked with my family about it, and now I’m on the road to community psychology. I was pretty damn depressed for a while, that for my own safety I had to give up what I was so passionate about accomplishing.

I’ve been thinking about it lately, since I just wrapped up my first year at the university. I plan on applying for my major in the winter, though it’s not what I had planned all along. I’m pretty much over it now, though it does cross my mind now and then.

It’s kind of exhausting that I’m often measured by my ability to mimic a genuine able-bodied neurotypical™.

College Chronicles

I’m seriously tearing up right now.

I had a sleep attack at home- it was the first time I had one in front of Peaches.

I don’t know how long I was out, but when I woke up, she was curled up against my stomach, and my face was damp and sore- she’s been licking my face apparently.

When I woke up, and sat up, she couldn’t stop jumping at me and licking my face. She was the most excited pup- Peaches is such a gift to the world.

Do you ever lay down for a nap, but for some reason your body won’t sleep even though you’re tired and you just end up tossing and turning for a while? That pisses me off. I demand a full refund of my time- transfer me to customer service right this minute, dammit.

Able-bodied People: “Don’t you wish you were….you know….normal?

ive-lost-my-spoons:

fightinginthenameofnothing:

ive-lost-my-spoons:

Spoonies: 

Are you kidding me?

All the bullshit I’ve been through with doctors, meds, physical therapists, school administrators and nurses, wondering if I’ll actually graduate, putting off college, the inability to celebrate my own birthday, missing out on important events with friends, having no social life, not getting my driver’s license until I was 18, not participating in normal high school activities like prom, becoming a jaded, apathetic, cynical person, and you think I wouldn’t trade all of that to be normal because of some aloof sense of superiority due to the fact that chronic illness isn’t a regular occurrence among the human race?

You think any of us wouldn’t trade all the pain we’ve been through, emotional and physical, just because we’d be like everyone else, normal, if we didn’t have it?

There is much more to myself and a lot of other chronically ill people than our illnesses, and if you would rather be sick than normal, well congratulations on being really special.

Before you flip shit at me and call me “really special” because that’s not offensive lol, maybe consider the way you take a post may not actually be the posts meaning.

Honestly I do often take the mindset of the original post- not because I want to be sick. On the contrary, I would LOVE to have days without chronic pain or the threat of collapsing in public. It would be incredible to not take a handful of pills every day just to function at a somewhat productive level.

But that’s not realistic. I can wish all I want, but my migraines aren’t going away any time soon.There is no cure for narcolepsy. I don’t want to be sick, of course, though I’m fed up with people acting like I should be constantly grief-stricken and loathing of my illness. There are people who will insist I’m not really as sick as I say I am because I don’t spend every waking moment hating my illness.

In reality, I try to keep that despair out of my mind, even though it is the first feeling to rise when I think about my illness. There is no cure for my illness(es)- giving in to the grief and frustration will do me no good. There’s nothing I can do to be cured, so why on earth would I let myself continue to be perpetually miserable?

I’m chronically ill. I don’t want to be, but I am. Me being ill won’t change any time soon.

I refuse to hate myself for something that I can’t control and can’t get rid of. I refuse to hold on to the daydreams of being healthy- all they do is make me feel worse because I know I can’t get rid of my illness. It’s just not realistic to constantly hope and wish I’ll get better. It just traps me in a desperate mindset.

So I swallow the truth. It takes a lot of time and I still am not perfect, but over time I learned to accept my illness while also acknowledging I’d give anything to be without it. I learn to be able to enjoy life instead of spending every waking second longing for an impossible outcome. Every day I do all I can to get away from that pitfall of self-pity.

And yet, able-bodied people love to drag us back to that awful mindset, whether they mean to or not. They expect us to live in that constant state of misery, as if we couldn’t possibly enjoy anything as long as we’re ill. And you know what? I would have been inclined to agree at some point. But I’ve worked my ass off to be away from that state of mind.

I am sick. I hate being sick.

Though do you want to know what I’m really sick of?

People treating me like my entire life has to revolve around pining for the impossible instead of striving to be as functional as I can- not focusing on the incurable, but how I can live a fulfilling life in spite of an illness I cannot get rid of.