If you *actually have* a physical disability, what is it?

[yure22]

Well after a few weeks and some tests they found out that i suffer from a rare eye disease called Pars Planitis which makes several white dots appear around the corner of my eye , this means that now i am both Epileptic AND suffer a rare disease in my left eye(yes, it`s only on my left eye)

[m3d]

I've suffered from slightly malformed ankles since birth (especially my left foot) - I can walk shorter distances OK and use a bicycle fine, but I can't run at all or walk longer distances without immense pain flaring up :I
Doesn't really affect my life too bad, but it still kinda sucks.

[Radien]

Perhaps this could be its own topic, but I must ask:

How many of you all (in the U.S., at least) have applied for disability?

The line between "disabled" and "not disabled" is very blurred. In fact, in the class I took on disability, my main takeaway from the course was "everyone's disabled in some way: everyone has things that they can't do, or can't do as easily as others." (Not to mention, our medical tools for accounting for disabilities tend to make life a lot more livable for people who might otherwise be severely crippled. My mother has multiple sclerosis, and thanks to modern medication, she lives a relatively active life which would not be possible in an earlier era.) But even though that's a good attitude to have -- that we're all in the same boat, to some extent -- there really is a dividing line, legally speaking.

Personally, I have applied for disability on the grounds of the damage my stroke did to my balance and perception. It was initially rejected. I took it to a lawyer, who felt that my case is strong enough for him to risk working for a percentage of the take (if I get nothing, then he doesn't charge anything). Given his confidence, I have high hopes...but dangit, this sort of thing takes forever to work its way through the American legal system.

[Nemumancer]

My disability is i lost my right lobe of my lung, and took a bit of damage to my heart in a car accident.
Had to stay 5 weeks in the hospital after it, but i'm glad i survived
I got some scars reaching from my right shoulder down to about my right hip, also along the arm till a bit below the elbow. (not sure if this counts since i dont really make a big deal of em)
Which means that my stamina is pretty much nonexistant at all, even thou i'm doing stamina training 3-4 times a week. Would probably be worse if i didnt do it all.
The Doctors made it clear to me i should stop smoking, kinda obvious why....
So i can kinda relate what Hisao and must have Hanako gone through >.<

[haitechan]

I have myopia (-3.75 on right, -4.25 on left, but my left eye randomly shifts between that and -3.5, seems it's because of stress). My hearing is not as good as before because of headphones so I'm trying to limit their use. And thanks to me abusing pain killers, I developed a chronic gastritis and that, added to my lactose allergy means that I have to be very careful with my eating. But even with that, I consider myself to be very lucky.

[Reciprocal]

The most obvious of mine is Psoriasis. it's noticeable on my face and has been more of a social disability than a physical one, but at this point in my life (many years after getting it), I've built a good enough attitude to ignore it for the most part. but back when it started, I was much more closed off and hid in my room for all of junior high and most of high school.

[Wonderduck]

I have arrhythmia.

It's not the same as Hisao's, in that it (probably) won't kill me anytime soon. One day I was sitting at my desk, literally shuffling paperwork from one pile to another, when suddenly my heart felt like it had fallen down a flight of stairs. Then my pulserate went through the roof. After a couple of minutes, I walked out of the office and onto the sales floor, then asked one of my co-workers to call 911. When the EMTs showed up, they tried to take my pulse... and failed. I'm one of the lucky ones who have actually heard an EMT say "I can't get a pulse on him" and NOT be dead. It was just going too fast to count. Likewise, I basically blew the blood pressure cuff off my arm.

Once they got me into the ambulance and hooked me up to the high-tech gizmos, they found my pulse was ~250bpm and my blood pressure was 300/200. Why blood wasn't squirting from my pores, I'll never know. While they began driving to the hospital, the EMT in back with me said that he was going to give me a drug that would stop my heart for a moment, just to give it a chance to reset (his words). "It won't hurt, but there'll be some pressure." Indeed, it didn't hurt, and there was pressure: it was like a cinderblock had suddenly appeared on my chest. However, the dose didn't stop my heart. So he gave me another one. TWO cinderblocks.

And then my heart stopped. It's a very weird feeling.

Some amount of time later (it felt like the shortest 1000 years ever), it started beating again. Still faster than normal, but slow and steady in comparison to what it had been 1000 years (or mere seconds) previously. They kept me in the hospital overnight for observation and (apparently) sleep deprivation.

Afterwards, a prescription for a single drug. It controls heart rhythm, so I shouldn't have another attack. Or maybe I will. The docs weren't sure what triggered it in the first place. So I pretty much live in the same sort of state Hisao is in: constantly aware of my heartbeat, checking its pace, wondering if I'll suddenly have that feeling that my heart has fallen downstairs again.

It's gotten better, I suppose... I can sleep at night. It's been over six years since it happened, but... *shrug*

To say that Hisao's plight resonated with me would be something of an understatement.

[kyouriharu]

I am legally blind. I really hate it, whenever I lose my glasses I go into "panic attack" mode and fumble everywhere to find it. I have quite a few spares too.

[Pyrokinesis1019]

So, I don't have any serious conditions, I'm shortsighted, used to have asthma, got ADD, the usual.

I did have something happen recently that made me think a little, though. a couple of months ago, I was in gym, and when I stood up and stretched, I blacked out and ended up on the floor. I must have just laid down, though, because the gym floor's pretty hard, and I didn't crack my head open or anything. I didn't think much of it, but just yesterday the same thing happened again, I blacked out in my room and hit my head. So my mom called the doctor today, and apparently it's fairly common to faint when standing up quickly or stuff like that, especially when you're growing and don't have as high a blood pressure. He also said to keep an eye on my pulse and watch for irregular heartbeats. First thing I said was "Arrythmia?"
I'm pretty sure I just stood up and stretched too quickly and didn't get the blood to my head, but it made me think about what would happen if I did end up having something. It's interesting to have been playing this game, it's made me wonder about stuff like this.
That is all, just felt like sharing.

[charmisokay]

Post about standing up too quick

Yeah this is why I normally try to sit instead of lie down :S
It happened to me once and it crept me a little out xD

[jsc_tidus]

I dont really know the border of physical disability or a desease, but i do sometimes (mostly) got shivering out of the blue.. I cant straight up my fingers without shaking them (unintentionally).. With these, obviously i cant draw.

[uwa]

How many of you all (in the U.S., at least) have applied for a disability claim with the government?

[...]

Personally, I have applied for disability on the grounds of the damage my stroke did to my balance and perception. It was initially rejected. I took it to a lawyer, who felt that my case is strong enough for him to risk working for a percentage of the take (if I get nothing, then he doesn't charge anything). Given his confidence, I have high hopes...but dangit, this sort of thing takes forever to work its way through the American legal system.

My mother used to be in some sort of medical administrative position, and my uncle works for the government on disability claims, and this is what I've heard them say (I don't understand the system myself): It largely comes down to your doctor. If your doctor thinks you should get disability, you probably will, if not, you won't. Some doctors think a little pain should count as a disability, some think major problems shouldn't, and many can't be arsed to file the proper paperwork.

So, in other words, the system is ridiculously inconsistent and unfair, and if you're going to try to file for disability, it might be a good idea to shop for an agreeable doctor. But, again, that's just based on what I've heard without any understanding of the system.

[Raburesu]

I've got spondylolisthesis and, uh, dermatographism, the latter of which I don't even consider worth mentioning, as it's merely irritating more than anything else. Though, I do find it kinda cool in a disturbing manner to be part of the 4-5% afflicted with the disorder. Um. Oh great, now I feel terribly tactless for speaking frivolously about such things when people here actually have serious conditions... I meant no disrespect.

Incidentally, I didn't even think about my back once whist playing KS, nor do I ever give it much thought from day to day; then I saw this thread, and I thought, "Oh yeah, I've got spondylo-- spondy-- oh, fuck it, I can't pronounce it."

Perhaps I should take things more seriously.

[Oglokoog]

Correctable nearsightedness. I can't use a computer without my glasses, but I guess I could function without them.
One thing about this is that I put my glasses on in the morning before I get dressed and take them off in the evening just before I get in the shower. Other than that, I only take them off for physical intimacy (been a while since that last happened though). I've been doing this for some years now, so now I literally feel "naked", or at least generally uncomfortable, when I take my glasses off in the middle of the day. It's weird as fuck.

edit: oh also I used to have really low blood pressure. It was actually pretty debilitating, I had to take like 20 seconds to stand up just to avoid blacking out. But that somehow fixed itself over the years and now I'm pretty much perfectly healthy aside from the nearsightedness. I'm also 195 cm tall (not sure how that translates to silly monkey measurement units), yay for being able to support myself with my head in the tram. Maybe the blood pressure thing was related to me growing up so fast? I don't know.

[Luisiroth]

I have paraplegia and I'm in a wheelchair most of the time. I can walk with crutches, but is very tiring for me, so I do it just as an exercise.