Sorry Lucia, that's a weak excuse not to work. I figure if you can type derogatory posts in AD, you can work.
I'm legally blind. I've no vision in my left eye and only 5% peripheral vision left in my right eye. I'm going to college this fall. I'm an advocate for disability rights and I have to say you are probably the most bitter disabled person I have ever come across.
Pain should never determine your attitude. Only you determine your attitude.
To allow pain be the scapegoat of your attitude is sad.
There are wonderful coping methods to deal with pain. Yoga, deep breathing, and others.
Lashing out at people is just horrible.
I feel for you... truly.
Ok, come to my house and see how I live with my hip dysplasia and my back injury. There are days I cannot even get out of bed, I cannot even move. Sometimes my hips gets locked. Even my knees gets locked for some reason - the other day I woke up with both knees locked. You have absolutely no idea. Just because you are blind does not mean you think hip dysplasia is a weak excuse - have you ever experienced hip dysplasia? It is very painful. You have no idea how much pain I am in on some days. I had to have several surgeries as a baby and toddler because I was born with this condition and I was born with the worst kind of hip dysplasia (this condition is a bit common in Native American firstborns - I am a Native American firstborn) and one of the surgeries was to reconstruct my hip and pelvis so that I could walk after lots and lots of physical therapy. I did fine for about 18+ years or so after the last surgery until I started having issues in my first year of college in 2001. The reconstruction that was done in one of the surgeries from when I was a toddler caused a LOT of damage to my hip and pelvis, and it became apparent after 18+ years. I began to feel the effects of the resulting damage. It got so bad that I had to drop out of college after 2 and a half years of college, I did not want to drop out but I had to, it was a very difficult decision. I kept missing classes because I was in too much pain to get out of bed. I did not want to end up with F's in everything so I had to get a medical withdrawal from everything. I was heartbroken, because I loved the art department at my college, I loved my professors, I loved all my classmates. I have too many days where I can't really do anything and that really interferes with my college work, especially my art and graphic design majors. I've been going to various doctors trying to get someone who is willing to fix my damn hip so that I won't be in pain anymore and so I can work again or finish college. You think I like staying at home doing nothing? Think again. It is boring. I am sick of it. On the bad days I cannot even move and all I can do is pop in a DVD so I can try to ignore the pain (TV and DVD player is next to bed, within reach). Sometime it gets so bad I end up at the ER. I have gone to the ortho doctor today and had a xray done and he ordered a ct scan with a special dye that is not iodine (because of my allergy) and I will have that ct scan soon, waiting for them to call me with the appointment time, and then my doctor is going to make a decision about surgery. I also finally found a doctor who was able to write me a rx for a wheelchair so I will be getting my chair soon, as soon as I find a medical supply store who will take my medicaid and medicare.
As for my back injury, it stems from two things - in 1999 my ex's best friend hit me in the back with a small sledgehammer thinking it was funny. I couldn't stand up straight for two days. I was rather young so I did not think to go to the doctor, which I should have done so. And then in winter of 2001 I was about to go into my apartment building after saying bye to a friend (this was in Wisconsin, mind you) and I turned around and slipped on black ice and hit my tailbone and also the area where my butt crack starts, whee the spine is, I hit that right on the corner of the step, and I could not move for like about a minute. I've been having issues ever since. I've been trying to find a doctor who is willing to fix my back. It is not easy. My back is fucked up. It is very painful. I have spasms all the time. Sometimes it gets so bad that the only thing I can do is just lay still so that the spasms doesn't continue or at least aren't as bad. I have shooting pains too in both my back as well as in my hip. It is really bad.
I also have other things going on with my body. My legs and feet goes numb a lot. I also have peripheral neuropathy which means sometimes my feet will feel like they are on fire too. I was dx'd with PN last summer. The new stuff with the numbness, I am waiting on a referral to a neurologist who is willing to hire an interpreter.
You may know what it is like to be legally blind, but you do NOT know what it is like to live with hip dysplasia and with a back injury. So do not judge me.
Don't believe me? I have pictures from my being in body casts and braces as a baby and toddler. I will be more than happy to post them up here if you do not believe me. I did not start walking til I was about 4 or 5 years old.
Yoga and deep breathing does not do shit for the amount of pain I am on. You have absolutely no idea. Really, I wish it did, I wish it was that easy, but it doesn't work. This pain, I would never wish it on any enemy.
Just because I can post at AD doesn't mean I can work. I do not post at AD everyday. There are days when I am not even online on AD and that is when I am not feeling good due to the pain. I cannot predict my pain, therefore I cannot work.
You cannot compare being legally blind to having hip dysplasia and back injuries. That's like comparing apples to oranges.
My attitude has NOTHING to do with all of this. It is just the way I am.
Again, I invite you to come here and see how I live my life here.
If we don't speak our mind, our clients continue in their destructive behaviors. We observe, and we comment on what we observe. That is how we help our clients develop insight into the whys and wherefores of their behaviors that are creating problems in their life.
