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I went on a short walk today to grab a drink from a coffee shop (driving felt like over kill since it’s like 3 ish blocks away granted with some decline/incline) and I wore my knee braces and I didn’t need my crutches to do it because of them. I’m so happy that I could do that today. Sure sometimes I need both my braces and crutches but the last few weeks I’ve been doing good with my braces and my cane occasionally! Also I feel like I look cute today so that makes me feel good too.

Also the pants I’m wearing today are from Halara (not sponsored lol I wish I was) and their so many of their wide leg “magic denim” or whatever it’s called pants that I have fit my braces under them so well and and make them barely noticeable which I like. I don’t mind my braces being visible but sometimes they make weird lines and stuff. Or when they’re showing they have a weird blue line on them (idk why honestly) so they can’t blend into black pants well but they can go under these well. My braces also fit really well over their leggings/tight joggers without moving which is awesome because as a certifiably sweaty guy my braces like to slide and those make them stay. Also just in general since my braces were custom made and molded to my legs they stay on SO much better than any other brace I’ve ever tried

I love that they are able to accommodate the penguins so well with their ramps and stuff. Accessibility icons. Also I just thought this video was cute

Anyway with that said we need more accessible spaces for humans too. It is so important that the world does its best to make spaces accessible to everyone. Everyone deserves to access the world and the ignorance, stubbornness, etc. of others has no right to get in the way of letting people live their lives.

Video transcript and description below break:

Showing a group of miscellaneous penguins walking on concrete at a zoo with a focus on a large brown king penguin fledgeling: “why does this baby penguin appear larger than many adult penguins? That’s right. This fluffy brown penguin is a baby kind penguin”

Angle or video has shifted but still focused on a group of waddling penguins with a focus on the baby brown penguin: “the first reason is that there are many species of penguins here. So naturally there will be differences in size. “

New shot of penguins in their exhibit. Ground is covered in snow and ice and appears to be rocky. There are several penguins in the shot still with a focus on the brown baby penguin: “the second reason is that it’s not actually fat. In fact it’s body is quite slim”

New shot of a very wet brown ba y penguin walking on a rocky shore. It’s feathers are clumped in awkward ways and it is waddling forward: “when the baby king penguin’s body gets wet it’s true size is revealed”

New shot of 5 penguins waddling through a group of people filming them: “but regardless of the penguin’s body size they all have one thing In common. Their legs are very short making their walks adorable. “

New shot of several king penguins walking through a park: “however their short legs also mean they can’t take big strides, which affects their ability to deal with steps.

New shot of a penguin on ice slipping and falling onto its stomach and sliding down a slope: “penguins easily trip”

New shot of a penguin o. Ice slipping and falling onto its back and sliding down a slope: “even on small steps”

New shot of penguins walking down a narrow ramp next to some stairs indoors: “that’s why some zoos install additional slopes next to stairs to help penguins walk down easily.

New shot of a penguin walking down a clear ramp above a pool of water. The penguin then pauses at the end and then goes to more forward and slips and falls into the water.: “sometimes these slope designs are also applied above water pools to serve as diving for penguins. However, due to their slippery surface penguins often slip on them”

I hate the look on able-bodied people's faces when you can't do a thing that you could do the day before. The look of disappointment, confusion, the "Oh but you could do it before. Are you SURE you can't do it?" Like yes, Brenda, I'm sure that I am in too much pain to function/move from my bed right now so going for a walk when I could move 50 feet yesterday without my cane IS too much.

Why are abled people so OBSESSED with telling us to go out and exercise!!! I have been in a flare-up for 2 weeks, I can barely move, I am dizzy as fuck, standing is fucking excruciating, GOING FOR A MOTHER FUCKING WALK WILL NOT FIX THAT!!!

stop villanizing disabled people. stop assuming we're just being lazy. stop assuming we could be trying harder. stop assuming that we'll "feel better" in a few weeks. stop assuming that we have the same energy levels as everyone else. thanks for coming to my ted talk.

I hate feeling guilty and letting my parents down for using my crutches because they see me not using them as “doing better”.

I’m literally an adult who lives in AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT STATE from my parents why does their opinion on my disabilities (or lack there of in their opinion) impact me to the point I have to battle myself every time I use them.

I just don’t understand how they don’t see that I’ve had so much pain and other issues my whole life with the sheer number of times we had to go to urgent care for my constantly hurt ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, hands etc. While I was growing up.

For context my parents are of the mindset that I’m lazy and just need to exercise and eat well and I’ll be fixed and have no more problems.

HOLY SHIT MY FUCKING LEGS HELP ME

I hate having to plan my outfits around my knee braces

don’t get me wrong I love my braces and I’m so lucky to have them (it took sooooo long to get them since I needed custom ones) but damn it’s annoying too. Like finding pants to fit my thighs is hard enough but trying to find pants that fit my braces too or that my braces can fit over is so hard gahhh

Who knows maybe I’ll start posting my outfits to help me feel more comfortable and confident with them

breaking: local bitch with adhd is STILL not doing the chores they've been saying they'll do tomorrow for the past 3 days. more at 10

The mind numbing anger of chronic fatigue is getting irritable because you're so fucking tired but you really feel like you SHOULDNT BE.

You SHOULD be able to sit at a desk and do work. You SHOULD be able to just watch a freaking YouTube video. You SHOULD be able to just eat fucking lunch.

But you can't. Because your eyes are closing and it's like temporary death is taking you.

My partner had top surgery a few weeks ago and they’re recovering great but they are still at a point where every day things are exhausting for them. And every time they mention how hard or sucky something is or how tired they are it’s made me realize that they feel how I do every day now. It’s kinda interesting to watch them navigate the world the way I have to and I think they are developing a deeper understanding of what it’s like for me fatigue and exhaustion wise.

I was really pushing myself for a couple weeks doing like everything all day and definitely felt it but I’ve reached a point that I can’t really do more than 1 or 2 big things a day now because I’ve pushed myself into a flare that if I want to shower that’s my activity for the day (yeah a shower is a big thing and I hate that that’s the case)

Sometimes I wonder why I’m exhausted all the time then I remember that I wake up a bajillion times every night feeling extremely nauseous and in so much pain that I can’t sleep for several hours

POTS really just is like microdosing death sometimes, feels like someone clicked restart

Does anyone else get painful pockets of blood on their bodies? For me they’re in my inner thighs and hurt like shit.

You may wonder, why do some disabled people not shower often? Well, you see, showers are actually quite intense trials designed to kill us. The steam? Makes the blood in our bodies go wild, fucks up our balance and tries to make us pass out. You have to be standing or sitting. Standing is hell and sitting is a peculiar purgatory. Reaching for bottles and soap and shit requires moving The Body, which is in constant pain that will only get worse the more we move and so will the fog that envelopes our brains and impairs our thinking.

Don't even get me started on drying off. "Why don't some of you shower often" I don't know, why don't you run marathons regularly? Because it sucks and you can't, that's why.

YES not all autistic people have the same symptoms

YES autism symptoms will not present the same way in everyone

YES sometimes different autistic people will have seemingly contradictory needs

NO none of this means that it's okay to act like one autistic person being able to do something means that all autistic people should be able to do it if they just tried harder

your autistic friend who eats vegetables just fine is not a weapon to use against autistic people who struggle with vegetables. your autistic sibling who can do small talk is not a weapon to use against autistic people who can't do small talk. your high empathy autism is not a weapon to use against low empathy autistics. etc etc. what happened to "if you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person"

i think some of the least helpful medical advice is when you ask how you would know if what you're experiencing is [thing] and they say "you'd know it if you felt it." i guarantee i would not that's why i'm asking

Long post incoming…

Long story short I went to Disney and was denied accommodations which made my experience and my friends experience (who are also like me autistic or have a lot of sensory issues) a lot more difficult and quite frankly a bit miserable. I was given no explanation or anything as for why we were denied.

Anyway I’m annoyed so yeah. Feel free to share any opinions or ideas or experiences yall might have I want to read them.

Below the cut is a long explanation

Ok so I went to Disney world last week and I was denied the DAS pass and I really do not understand why. I am autistic and have a lot of sensory issues which make waiting in long lines physically extremely difficult. This honestly is a bit ironic because my friends and I had to wait 2 hours in a line to even talk to someone about the DAS pass. Thankfully I had gotten a wheel chair to help with my other disabilities and could exit the line when I needed to. When I finally got up to the cast member I was asked so many invasive and honestly condescending questions about how I’m impacted by my “issues” and what problems could arise for me in line only to be denied with no explanation other than “the wheelchair is enough” which it was not. It really felt like being told “you’re not disabled enough”. I just want to know why. Was it my presentation? Was it my eye contact (that I make compulsively but the way)? Was it that I could advocate for myself? Was it really the fucking wheelchair? I just don’t understand. When I was done I was so overwhelmed and on the verge of tears only to be told no.

At California adventure all of the rides are “wheelchair accessible” and some rides in regular Disney are too (even though some of those ramps are steep as fuck), so I could wait in line for those in the chair but because of my sensory issues I couldn’t so honestly I feel like I missed out on a lot.

Thankfully we were able to get return times at some rides in Disney (but not California adventure) because I was using a wheelchair. But that was a whole other issue. You’d have to go through the exit and some of the hallways were so fucking narrow that two chairs couldn’t fucking pass each other. And ramps were so god damn steep. Like yeah the ground was pretty flat and not steep outside the rides big fuck guys trying to get to so many of the rides was impossible without a friend to like run push me up a hill. Space mountain, a ride I got a return time for, was like this. My friends tried to get the return time while I waited at the bottom but the cast member said I had to come up to get it even though I was somewhere they could definitely see me and from where I could wave/whatever to prove I was with them. But no I had to get up the inaccessible hill instead.

I still had a good time and am so grateful to my friends, one of whom basically gave me a tour of all the architecture and history of the park and Disney which was super cool. I also really enjoyed the rides themselves. And every cast member I interacted with was nice about everything (accessibility services person was nice but it felt condescending).

The one big thing I did like about the park though was the shape and size of the seats on the rides. I could actually fit on them mostly comfortably. Which for me is rare. I’m a plus size person (especially in the thighs and stomach) so I typically have a hard time fitting on rides other places so that was a nice change.

I think imma stick to six flags and universal studios in the future since I can actually be accommodated there. Sure six flags is not the best in terms for mobility issue accessibility since it is rather steep in many parts but I personally can cope with that better and they have elevators.

I get it. The world is always moving towards entropy and you have to repeatedly do things to maintain them as you want. But fuck, it would be nice if the results of my hard work could last. What do you mean I have dishes again? That dog hair is back on the floors by that night? Why can’t I stay full longer when cooking and eating with chronic illness is such a fucking chore? Why can’t the things I do to feel better last a bit longer than just a few hours? I know nothing lasts, just could it last a little longer?

Why do people think it's tragic when you use mobility aids? Can't you see that this is giving me freedom, that it's giving me my life back, that without it, I wouldn't be present? Let alone functional???

how can't you see this

it's giving me my life back.

Even when it's short term mobility aids like crutches for a broken bone, it's still giving freedom... it's allowing the bone to heal and for you to live as usual...

let alone people with chronic pain, paralysis, and long term injuries!

without them, I wouldn't be here!

how can't you see that is a good thing!?!? 😭😭