Fishability - Disability Awareness, Access, And Positivity

Blog Update ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡

Salutations all! Just letting everyone know that I've gone through all my posts and updated everything with alt text to make it more accessible. ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Also I now have everything up on my AO3 and will be posting on there alongside this blog. So if you prefer to read on there, thats also an option! о( ˶^▾^˶ )о

Please let me know if there is any tweaks, things I can do, or keep in mind to make this blog easier for you to use. I have a family member and close friend with dyslexia, so I've been trying to use emphasis and colors in my posts to assist with that.

In case anyone is interested, here are some references for blog, website, and graphic designing in a disability friendly way~

The Dance of a Thousand Hands.

As a part time user of crutches (specifically smartcrutches, hence the below image), I've found a couple small products have been able to improve the quality of my experience when using them out n about n decided i might as well make a post with them on :) i might add more as i try out other things in the future and such also

The first thing is a small storage bag to attach to your crutch, you can get ones made specifically for crutches, and smart crutch even has their own branded one for the sizing of their crutches, but I got a bag intended for use on bicycles and found that it fit quite well for a fraction of the price, and likely would also do so on normal forearm crutches. I can't put too much stuff in the bag for regular usage as it would throw off my balance but it's great to have my phone and some change in to be within easy reach.

The second thing is new ferrules, specifically I got flexyfeet's ferrules which are available in a variety of sizes to fit pretty much any crutch or cane, they have shock absorption and their flexibility also means I get a lot more grip and feel safer walking with them than I did with my previously very worn down standard ferrules.

As a wheelchair user I'm trying to reframe my language for "being in the way."

"I'm in the way," "I can't fit," and "I can't go there," is becoming "there's not enough space," "the walkway is too narrow," and "that place isn't accessible."

It's a small change, but to me it feels as if I'm redirecting blame from myself to the people that made these places inaccessible in the first place. I don't want people to just think that they're helping me, I want them to think that they're making up for someone else's wrongdoing. I want them to remember every time I've needed help as something someone else caused.

People love to talk about whether or not disabled people can work

but if you can work just fine and your disability is destroying your ability to have a life outside of work (because work takes all your energy and more)

Dead silence. Nobody cares.

everyone dunking on that automated fleshlight sex toy needs to remember that disabled people get horny too ok 💜

stop making fun of bad people for being fat or having small dicks or being socially awkward or whatever else you seem to think is a fair target. none of that shit has anything to do with why theyre bad. i don’t care if a nazi has a stutter or a terf has thinning hair or whatever. at best youre missing the point, at worst your comments are gonna hurt vulnerable people more than they will ever affect the shitty person you’re mocking. why are you so attached to these bullshit standards anyway?

why isn't there much info about coathanger pain with POTS?? or at least why is this not more common knowledge? i don't think i've ever seen anyone talking about this. every time i've asked about it (+other POTS symptoms it comes with in my case) in chronic illness spaces people have suggested everything from fibro, MCAS, a CFS leak, a herniated disc, CCI, etc. but nobody ever said "coathanger pain."

but dysautonomia international posted a silly little graphic on their instagram and now i have my answers to why i was having a ton of symptoms that did suggest a herniated disc but there were no signs of disc herniation upon getting an MRI and for some reason it was triggered by working morning shift/having to be upright for a long time in the mornings. i would get excruciating, searing pain that feels pike a knife has been shoved into the base of my neck and the whole of my upper back would have this icy burning sensation. accompanied by me losing the ability to think straight, losing my coordination, and slurring my speech. i left work crying one morning because of how much pain i was in before i eventually came to the conclusion i couldn't do morning shifts.

that's coathanger pain. my spine is okay (i think...for now, anyway.) according to The Stuff they don't know what causes coathanger pain necessarily but they theorize it has to do with reduced blood flow to those areas of the body (which would track since POTS tends to involve blood pooling in the extremities and such.) it's also not exclusive to POTS and is associated with dysautonomia or orthostatic intolerance in general i think.

One example of the power of obtaining the autonomic history is the Coat Hanger Phenomenon. In people who have neurogenic orthostatic hypotension or orthostatic intolerance, they can complain of pain, or like a charley horse kind of sensation, in the back of the neck and shoulder areas in the distribution that’s like a coat hanger. And it goes away when the person is lying down. That’s an important symptom. And the way I explain it is that the muscles that control your head are tonically active, otherwise your head be falling down all the time. Tonically active. That means they’re using up oxygenated blood all the time. Well suppose you’re in a critical situation where there’s a drop in blood flow at the delivery of oxygenated blood to the head. In that situation these muscles are not getting enough oxygenated blood. They’re tonically active, so they’re producing lactic acid and you get a charley horse, just like you’d have a cramp anywhere else. It’s a skeletal muscle thing. So, I think when somebody complains of Coat Hanger Phenomenon, that’s a very important sign or symptom. And that is not invented. That’s a real phenomenon. It points to ischemia to the skeletal muscle holding your head up.

(Dr. Goldstein, The Dysautonomia Project)

worsening cognitive dysfunction, slurred speech, and worsening coordination because blood's not getting to my brain. bordering on emergency-room-level pain in my upper back and neck because not enough blood is getting to those parts of my body. got it.

anyway, i legit have NEVER seen this discussed until recently and i thought i should share.

on peace after trauma 🌻