What is your disability and how does it affect you?

Question

I am a 34 year old disabled female from Washington, DC. I was diagnosed with a condition called Sensory Heriditary Nueropathy Type 5 at 6 months old. I use a wheelchair or scooter to get around.

Answer 1

Hi, I am 15. When I was three my mom (who was 26) and my sister (who was 6) were on our way to pick up my dad from his friend's house, and a drunk driver crossed over the median, and hit our car head on. My mom broke all the bones on the right side of her body, my sister, surprisingly just got some small bruises. A firefighter and a military man saw the car wreck and pulled me out, finding me blue and not breathing. They gave me CPR and I finally breathed. Although, they popped my chest and now its like a small dent. No biggy though. My mom was rushed to a trauma center, and I was rushed to a children's hospital. The doctors didn't think anything was horribly wrong with me, but I had bleeding on the inside. They had to take out my gall bladder, part of my intestine, and something else (sorry, i dont remember that one). It took them a day or two to figure out I had snapped my spinal cord. They didnt realize how much pain I was in, but once they did realize, they put me in a medically induced coma for a week. They thought I would be paralyzed from the neck down. I didn't see my mom for 8 days. Neither of us knew if the other was dead or alive. What a sad thing for a 3 year old to go through. After my mom was well enough to be transported, we got to have our own hospital room, and my mom could stay with me overnight and during the days! What a great thing to find out! One night my grandma was holding my hand and said "Bre, if you are able to, squeeze my hand", and sure enough, I squeezed it! My dad and mom and sister and aunt and uncle and cousins and grandparents all went to the nurse and told her what had just happened. She rudely said "oh, no, she can't do that. she was just having a muscle spasm". We called that nurse doctor death. Couple days later, I was moving my arms! We had to move out of the house we lived in before the accident because it couldn't fit my wheelchair. So we moved into a bigger house, closer to the hospital and closer to family.

So, I am a paraplegic. I cant move from the waist down. I still have to have surgeries now and then because of what happened to me 12 years ago. I have those surgeries done at that same hospital, and guess who still works there? Yep, dr death! I used to be angry that I was in a wheelchair, but now I know why this happened. God wants me to be an advocate about drunk driving. I go to the DUI Task Force/ Victims panel, and M.A.D.D. meetings and tell them my story.

If you go to my profile, you will see that I have entered pageants, and I have almost 25 titles all together, including state and city. My issue of concern is Drunk Driving Prevention/Underage Drinking. I also do print modeling for local stores and businesses. I am also taking acting classes.

I love my life. I sometimes forget I am in a wheelchair. It doesn't hold me back. I have a life that some people would love to have. Being a pageant queen, print model, and beginning actor, is a great accomplishment. Also making sure my story goes out to a lot of people to make sure that what happened to me wont happen to anyone else. I know that drunk driving wont end overnight, or in weeks, or months. I know it may take years. But if i stop one drunk person from driving, then I know i will have made an impact on a certain persons life.


Probably more than you wanted to hear... but at least its something to read : )

Answer 2

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Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
What is your disability and how does it affect you?
I am a 34 year old disabled female from Washington, DC. I was diagnosed with a condition called Sensory Heriditary Nueropathy Type 5 at 6 months old. I use a wheelchair or scooter to get around.

Answer 4

I am a 31 year old female. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 5 years ago. I am secondary progressive and use a walker & a wheelchair. I also have flatback - a condition caused by a previous spinal fusion for scoliosis. I will be having spinal reconstruction surgery in a few weeks which will knock me down further for a while.
It has affected me in a lot of ways. I lost out on my dream job - which was practically being handed to me, I am no longer able to drive, I've been on social security disability for over 2 years, and I cannot physically do as much with my kids (ages 2 & 3) as I would like to do, and we are confined inside of the house most of the time. I must also depend on the schedule of other people to take me to doctor appointments, do grocery shopping, etc. It is very frustrating to lose that independence.
I feel that I cope & adapt pretty well, but it's still very frustrating at times, and I am definately not the parent I envisioned myself being. In some ways I am better - I appreciate things more and don't sweat the small, unimportant things in life. But I would love the chance to do some "normal" things with my kids - like take them down to the library, etc., without having to schedule it and depend on someone to take me.

Answer 5

I'm learning disabled, have slight speech impairment, seizures, I'm claustrophobic, and have a metal-plate in my left elbow that has been in there since May, 04.

My learning disability has not stop me because I'm still working on obtaining my Bachelor's Degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering. Despite the belief that the learning disabled can never attend an institution of higher learning. Hog wash!!

My speech impairment is more of an aggravation due to the fact people automatically assume that I lack the intelligence to due anything other than obtain jobs that pertain to cleaning up after the "normal people."

My seizures is also more of an aggravation because of the fact that I have not had a seizure since April 18, 1983, yet; I still have to take medication; which leaves me very tired, for the rest of my life.

My elbow, on the other hand, has left me unable to completely straighten or bend my arm. Breaking your funny bone is not funny at all. When I bump it, it puts tears into my eyes. As a result of this, I have developed a moderate to severe case of claustrophobia. I have to be allowed to move about totally free without the fear of bumping my elbow. I have had panic attacks in the past when I was unable to move freely over a certain period of time.

Answer 6

I am a 39 y. o. female from Maryland. Diagnosed with over 32 conditions so I will just name a few to be brief. I have Lymphedema- bilaterlly lower limbs and waist, Empty "Sella" Syndrome, Diabetes, Asthma, Allergies, Facet Syndrome, Deg. Disc., Peripheral Neuropathy, Carpal Tunnel with Ulna nerve blockage on Rt. hand , Osteo-Arthritis, Baker's Cysts (behind both kneecaps), Bone Spurs(Rt. & Lt. feet), TMJ, Depression, CFS, IBS, ETC....Anyway I recently had a neurostimulator implanted to help with the chronic pain. I am now using a walker instead of a quad cane, and doing PT in Home Care if this tells you anything. Complications from surgery in May still ongoing. Nice to meet you! wish under better conditions though.

Answer 7

I am 13 years old and have been living with Osteochondritis Dissecans since I was 6. That's basically where all the cartilage in my knee is slowly (and painfully) falling out. I have had 2 knee operations, I have difficulty doing athletic activities, (somedays I can run a mile, others I can't even walk), and have never been able to do any sports until very recently. I have been in and out of physical therapy, and most doctors at the children's hospital know my name.
I just want to be able to do sports like everyone else. When I was younger, I was overweight because I wasn't as active as the other kids. My classmates would tease me. Last summer I was in a wheelchair for a while and people treated me like a baby and wouldn't let me do anything by myself. I don't like being treated like I am incapable of doing things. I like fighting my own battles.
Recently though, I have gained a lot of strength, lost a lot of weight, and become much more active. I consider myself very lucky to still be able to walk today. I try not to let my disability affect my life as much as it used to. I now play Ice Hockey (on a boys team too!), have MANY friends, and even a boyfriend! Apparently, if I injure my knee in any way, sprain it, or badly bruise it, I have a good chance of losing my mobility in one leg. And I have also developed this disease in my other knee too. But I'm not going to let any of that get in my way. Go forth and conquer, as my science teacher would say! So although my disability may have affected me greatly in the past, I'm not going to let it anymore.
So as of now, if anyone asks me how my disability affects me, it doesn't. I'm going to enjoy my ability to run while I have it. Nothing's stopping this girl!

P.S.~ I also have extremely bad hearing, OCD, and possibly ADD, but I'm not even going to get into that :).

Answer 8

I injured my spinal cord, (broken neck) C2-C3 complete, and am ventilator dependent. I was involved in a car accident just over 16 years ago, because of my injury I have no feeling or movement below my shoulders, I use a wheelchair I control by sipping and puffing into a tube with my mouth. Although I am what they call a high quadriplegic, I enjoy life and have very few regrets, do many of the things that everyone else does including travel.

Answer 9

Negligence caused most of it? Got the "good" news on Tuesday, I was so upset I walked out on the doctor. Not like me to have a public "meltdown". But I did.

I've been having several bad weeks with upper back, shoulder crisis, ended up in ER for a shot and was xrayed.

Now the doctor tells me waaaaaaaayyy back in 1990 when the ceiling fell on me I apparently had at least one "fracture" that was never treated, so never healed properly.

In fact the things I was forced to do during "assessment" made it worse. The shoulder should have been immobilized not "put through its paces". They never xrayed it back then told me I was "just whining" when I asked them to. Told me I "just" had "soft tissue injury" and Fibromyalgia caused by traumatic injury to the spine. They cant fix the shoulder now, but I need surgery for the calcium deposits built up in the joint and around the fracture..

Prognosis for untreated shoulder fracture: chronic pain (extreme) and disability.

I work for maybe 3 months, the pain becomes unbearable, I lose weight, go down to about 100 lbs, incapacitated.

Fibromyalgia, I hurt all the time, everything hurts, sometimes even my ears. I get up in the mornings hobbling around like I am 150 yrs old. If "rigormortis" has set in during the night I have to roll out of bed onto the floor and work my way up from there. Slowly.

Getting dressed wears me out. Walking 2 blocks does me in. I am always tired, exhausted to the point of not getting myself a drink of water if I want one because it takes too damn much effort. Some days are worse than others of course.

Did you know you can go into remission with FM ! I did once, back in 1998 I think it was? Its very rare. But when it comes back it seems worse than ever, and very hard to deal with.

Cant lift my arm above my shoulder, cant hold it upright for more than seconds, cant lift anything, cant carry anything, cant change a light bulb, cant peel potatoes. Holding a book and reading hurts, have to prop it up on a cushion.

The biggest "affect" it has had on me is I am totally broke and homeless, living with an abusive jerk friend because I have nowhere else to go. Havent been able to find viable long term employment and I have tried EVERYTHING. People think I am lazy and just dont "want" to work. My kids really suffered because of my disability . They did without so much.

But HEY I "look" normal and sometimes thats the worst disability of all. Sorry I'm not in a good mood today.

Answer 10

bipolar disorder, schizoeffective disorder, schizoid tendancies, OCD, PTSD, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, major recurring depression, with panic and anxiety attacks. All that means is that with medication I no longer wait until around 2am to check my mail and occassionaly I will make use of a very small radius of neighborhood around where I live. While I love people and the concept of going out and being social new places and people give me very bad attacks if not well medicated in advance which lowers my ability to display my personality and tends to slow my functioning to the point I become one of those stereotypes of a person that laughs 2 minutes after the joke has been told. If I fail to take my medication willfully, which admittedly when I was younger I did as a string of several months gave me the feeling I had been "Cured" lead to very nasty episodes, bizzare behavior, strong auditory hallucinations, and eventually a psychotic break which thankfully I pulled out of with great care and support. still though I don't have it that bad, I've been with people far worse in institutions I was in, and within my zone of comfort I can function quite well. Everyday I try to do a bit better coping with tools like cognitive behavioral therapy, I do as much as I can from within my home, and I believe eventually i will learn to cope well enough to lead a healthier lifestyle. I learned, albeit much later in life than I wish I did, to make the most of what you have and not be negative, negativity is the real disability, I just have challenges.