Fuck Lyme

Lyme & co. + CIRS / sideblog

[clockwork-col]

does anyone else, with any chronic (physical or mental) health issues, feel like every little thing is an uphill battle to get people to listen?

like, let me give an example with my mother. me: “any form of physical activity makes my symptoms worsen.” her: “have you tried gentle stretching? that could be helpful—“ me: “no, that doesn’t help. that counts as physical activity.”

and we just keep going back and forth.

i tell someone my symptom and they give advice without considering whether it will be actually helpful — or if i’ll even be able to do it.

and everyone does this. my mother, my father, pretty much any doctor i’ve met, random adults who find out about The Symptoms, etc.

like for the love of the gods please stop directly contradicting and ignoring me when i tell you my objective lived experience. PLEASE.

[wonky-joints]

things that make life easier, whether explicitly a disability aid, like crutches and wheelchairs, or not, like dishwashers and dryers, should not be luxuries. people should be able to live life with ease without great expense and for many disabled people these items are not a case of being comfortable but of just being able to live at all.

[sunanthrope]

"But what if people will pretend to need this accessibility option so they can be lazy! People who don't need it will use it!!" I don't actually care

I dont care if 9/10 of the people who use the wheelchair ramp arent actually in wheelchairs. As long as the 1 person who needs it has access to it.

I dont care if 9/10 people who use the automatic push button on the library door can actually push the door open themselves. As long as the 1 person who the door is too heavy for gets to use it.

I dont care if 9/10 people who buy the can tab opener, or the little guitar clamp that holds the chords for you, or the hand grip that helps you hold chop sticks, don't need any of it and just get it to "be lazy". As long as the one disabled person who needs it gets access to it.

I do not care. Oh my GOD I do not care. As long as there's a disabled person on this planet who the accessibility device will benefit, the accessibility device is necessary.

Also, if you're so worried about people being "lazy" by using accessibility devices, MORE worried than you are about disabled (visibly or not) people not having access to them, you have unchecked ableism you need to work through.

[loveridden1999]

[chronicillnessresourcelibrary]

🌈 Happy Pride month!

To my fellow spoonies out there in the LGBTQIA+ community, I hope you manage to find a little extra energy to celebrate and commemorate this month! Sending you good vibes ✌️

[mikey-ways-stoner-gf-deactivate]

they should make cutesey medicine containers for baddies that take large portions of medicine 5-7 times a day , i deserve a cute case too that doesnt have a max of 3 tiny slots

[timeforfingchaos]

"Self care day" I say, doing thing that are as much requirements for me as eating enough food and drinking enough water are for able-bodied people

"Treating myself" I say, taking a dose of painkillers that doesn't even do shit

[glowcowboy]

not awake not dead but a secret third thing (sleepy)

[glowcowboy]

i got diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome so that makes this even funnier

[veggiemedleys]

see my problem is if i “listen to my body” it literally only wants to lie down and take naps, all the time

[quixoticanarchy]

damn people rly hate type 2 diabetics don't they

[quixoticanarchy]

i (type 1 diabetic) was explaining autoimmune diseases to someone and she was like ohh right so yours is the good kind of diabetes where you didn't do it to yourself. to which i objected that's not how type 2 works either. and she said well that's the fat old people disease. and i was like you can't say that, a) not how it works and b) extremely rude. and her defense was her grandparents have type 2 and "did it to themselves" and since they're fat old people she reserves the right to hate on them. i understand hating shitty grandparents but YOU are the shitty one here to hate on them for their medical conditions and weight rather than literally anything else. hello?!

anyway type 2 diabetics i'm sorry about the world. everyone* be kind to type 2s or else

*note to type 1 diabetics especially we need to be better at solidarity and not cling to being the "good ones" at type 2s' expense. what the fuck is a good kind of diabetes anyway

[quixoticanarchy]

also worth saying diabetes is a complex reaction to a not-yet-fully-understood set of factors and environmental pressures and genetics and it's reductive and fatphobic to say fat=diabetes BUT EVEN SO no matter if someone did incontrovertibly "give themself diabetes" that's not a free pass for dehumanization. shut upppp

[bebsi-cola]

disability aids are essential devices that help manage issues or symptoms that are otherwise unmanageable or very difficult for disabled people. but it does feel like a scam that disability aids themselves become another thing to manage and maintain, because they are objects. and if you're already disabled, being able to clean them, replace broken parts, charge them regularly, swap out single use components, manage medical waste etc. becomes so much harder. it's like yeah i am glad that this thing is helping me but unfortunately i now have another thing to do that i simply cannot

[mindflamer]

nobody talks about how humiliating it is to have chronic fatigue before you know what fatigue is 😭 just going through life constantly miserable & feeling like you are failing everything but you can never explain why beyond saying "i'm too tired" which just sounds pathetic & like you don't care (it shouldn't but it does). tired is what healthy people feel after a long productive day & they restore it with sleep. fatigue is your body never making the energy in the first place

[captainstarburst]

this is not to say you shouldn't make characters with strabismus- you should! i want to see people with my disabilities! but i think a little research can go a long way. i'd love to see it given more depth in writing than just being an indicator of intelligence (which it isn't and never has been!)

[piercingcomet]

[ID: graphic titled "THIS IS A VISUAL IMPAIRMENT CALLED 'STRABISMUS'!!"

below, are four drawings of a very fluffy creature with different presentations of strabismus. they're each labelled "hypotropia (eye points downward)," "exotropia (eye points outward)," "hypertropia (eye points upward," and "esotropia (eye points inward)."

the last has an arrow, with text reading "i looked like this when i was born!"

bottom text: it's not a quirky character design, it's a real disability!

it does not mean someone is clumsy, "stupid," or autistic

(ableist depictions of autistic and/or otherwise intellectually disabled people often have strabismus. why do you think this is?)

strabismus can occur from birth, later in life due to separate visual impairments, or because of physical trauma or strokes. it can cause permanent vision issues.

i'm partially blind in one eye!

when you design a character, think about if the traits you give them exist on real people! they often do!

what do you want your art to say about disabled people?

/end ID]

[bebsi-cola]

it's strange that there's talk about disabled people as if we are either diagnosed or undiagnosed when both groups and indeed all disabled people are on the whole underdiagnosed. like yay you spent 6+ years fighting for an answer. they gave you one that doesn't cover even half the problems you have, was poorly explained to you (if they explained it at all) and with no followup treatment. you're close to right where you started but now there's a little word on your medical files that you can bring out to fail at getting people to take you seriously or other people can bring out to dismiss and mock you.

[phleb0tomist]

if you’re disabled or chronically ill and need help from others in daily life, the world may shame you or make you feel like you’re weird, but i promise you are not. people need people; this has always been true throughout history. one of the earliest signs of civilisation is evidence that injured and disabled people were well taken care of. disabled people receiving long term care from others is a sign that human civilisation is functioning as it should. needing care is normal, sacred, and special.

[pcos-and-endo-awareness]

If you haven’t heard, today PolyCystic Ovarian Syndrome has been renamed to Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome. This change reflects that this is not a reproductive “problem” but a whole body disease.

[leahstuff]

For reference, from the WHO website:

(Text: PCOS affects an estimated 10-13% of reproductive-aged women. It is estimated that up to 70% of women with PCOS worldwide do not know they have this condition.)

[laziestgirlintown]

The Lancet link about shift to PMOS. Spread this to everyone who works in health care now. People with uteruses and ovaries are in agony - yes, the whole body suffers a crisis every fkn month - and health care should help

[stxrfiish]

body positivity can be so hard when ur chronically ill like ‘your body loves you and is doing its best to care for you ❤️’ NO THE FUCK IT IS NOT