#congenital condition

[cripplesomethingbeautiful]

John Rosser

[r8zzzs]

This is Ziras, my comfort oc for about four years now. He started with a facial scar diagonally across his face towards his left eye that I didn't think much of as a disability. His droopier left eye became more and more prominent throughout the years and I've finally decided to do some research, so I think this is how he'd describe his condition to others in a simple manner. I suppose it took me so long because I was afraid I'd accidentally disrespect someone, but I think it's better to at least try.

I've recently found out about the Disability Pride month and the Disability Pride flag as well, so this mini comic is a basic awareness of these concepts made for people who didn't know about them like I did. I'm of course open to any criticism and correction about anything mentioned here, as I am not directly a part of this community; but I've met many people with disabilities of many kinds and some of those people are important in my life. I want to be able to be more active in advocating for better support towards the disabled community and this is a small step towards that. Even if it's just a short and simple comic of my oc.

It's also important to note that the white stripe across the flag represents that any disability can be invincible or unrecognized, as recently said by Ann Magill in her recent post. Please be aware and be kind. Your ignorance can endanger someone's life.

Edit: I did a correction on page 5, he does have minor refractive amblyopia, just doesn't have misalignment. It was a mistake on my shallow understanding of lazy eye, sorry!

[disability-shout-outs]

Shout out to folks with Microtia!

[hewhoreplaces]

Facial clefts prior to reconstructive surgery

[lightasthesun]

To everyone following me that has a disability, chronic illness, or other unexplainable symptoms, and has been forced to self diagnose for lack of support and/or lack of medical specialists believing and listening to them.

Don't give up.

After four years (since I was initially diagnosed with my condition) and 22 years worth of unexplainable medical issues beforehand I finally found a specialist that believed me a few weeks ago and he referred me to someone else who also knew what he was doing and believed and listened to me.

And it turns out I was right.

And If I hadn't advocated for myself and hadn't done all the extensive research or read up on papers and educated myself on my condition/comorbidities and how the brain/spinal cord functioned and affected the rest of the body I still wouldn't have an answer now.

Honestly I probably would never have gotten an answer.

Because no one would've ever referred me to get an upright MRI. And without the upright MRI I would never have known my brain stem is being squashed/crowded in and that that's why I'm having such multisystemic symptoms on top of the ones clearly related to my diagnosed condition.

Now I finally have some clarity.

[ask-a-vetblr]

My cat had her first x-rays done today, and it turns out she has an extra sternum forking out from the normal one! It's not bothering her and turns out it's not the cause of the issue she was getting x-rayed for, but now I'm wondering what could cause such a thing. Any ideas?

Hi, Sueanoi here.

Abnormal finding of bones can be caused by old injury, or it can just be a congenital condition of the cat. Pectus carinatum / pectus excavatum is ... a thing that can happen sometimes.

[positiveaboutdisability]

Shelby Baron is a 25 year old wheelchair tennis player from Hawaii. She's a member of the US National Team and participated in the 2016 Paralympics in Rio.

Shelby was born with spina bifida and has been a wheelchair user for all her life...

[physiologicdeadspace]

Foetal skulls displaying the effects of Hydrocephalus. Hydrocephalus is the accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, typically causing increased intracranial pressure and in some cases can lead to deformity of the skull due to the increased pressure. Congenital hydrocephalus occurs when a child is born with an accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain, and typically results in cognitive deficits and can also cause visual impairments, issues with movement and co-ordination. and epilepsy.