{"id":386,"date":"2021-06-22T16:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-22T16:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/06\/22\/out-of-sight-out-of-mind\/"},"modified":"2021-06-22T16:30:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-22T16:30:00","slug":"out-of-sight-out-of-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/2021\/06\/22\/out-of-sight-out-of-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"Out of Sight, Out of Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.\u201d 
-Ralph Ellison, \u201cInvisible Man\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m 5 foot 8. Half of my head is shaved. I wear bold makeup and jewelry. I\u2019m hard to miss. And yet somehow, I have managed to (quite literally) stumble upon the secret to attaining one of the superpowers I\u2019d mentioned in another article<\/a> <\/strong>I’d written late last year: invisibility.<\/p>\n

Regular readers of\u00a0my blog<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0or of\u00a0one of my more recent MS Connection posts<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0know that I\u2019d recently sustained a tibial plateau fracture, which has rendered me essentially immobile since the beginning of summer. And boy, has it been a humbling, eye-opening experience. Not only has it offered me a very small and limited peek into what life\u00a0could\u00a0<\/strong>be like if my MS progresses and what life\u00a0is<\/strong>\u00a0like for so many people around the world, but it has also given me a sampling of what it means to have a\u00a0visible\u00a0<\/strong>disability.<\/p>\n

When your mobility is limited, your physical world also becomes limited. In the time between becoming injured and my knee surgery this summer, I didn\u2019t leave my home much. On the rare occasion that I did leave, accessibility for me was often not considered. It was an afterthought. After surgery, with instructions to not put any weight on my leg for 10 weeks, my world has mostly been reduced to a room and what little sanity I have left.<\/p>\n

What if there is a fire? What if someone breaks into my home? What if I find myself in a dangerous situation in which I need to get away very quickly? How would I safely escape or defend myself and my home?<\/p>\n

I have ventured out into the world a few times since in a wheelchair. And once I\u2019m in that chair, despite rejoining civilization, my world gets even smaller. Most people do not offer help with opening doors or reaching for items on a shelf for me. People walk into my chair, despite me being directly in their path, as if I\u2019m not even there. All I see are butts and crotches.<\/p>\n

When I am noticed, the energy changes. It feels uncomfortable and awkward.<\/p>\n

A disease that is, in most cases, invisible is bittersweet. \u201cYou don\u2019t look sick.\u201d How many times have we heard that? On one hand, people don\u2019t believe that I\u2019m feeling awful because I look just like them (you know, aside from the shaved head). On the other hand, I\u2019m thankful that my MS isn\u2019t at a point (yet?) that requires me to use equipment that might make me \u201clook sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not being able to get around much on my own while recovering from knee surgery has given me a rare gift\u2014seeing disability from the other side, when the affliction transitions from invisible to visible and the way you feel about yourself simultaneously does the reverse and changes from visible to invisible.<\/p>\n

At least, that\u2019s been\u00a0my<\/strong>\u00a0personal experience.<\/p>\n

Thing is, for now, this is temporary. Sometime this fall, I\u2019ll be able to start putting weight on my leg again and eventually will be awarded the luxury walking and living as I did pre-injury. For most people living with MS-related physical limitations, it\u2019s not a short-term situation.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m fortunate to be able to say I have such amazing caregivers, but that is not the case for many people who do far more than I\u2019m currently doing, and they do it all by themselves. Those people are the real superheroes, and society barely gives them any notice.<\/p>\n

And isn\u2019t that what we\u00a0all\u00a0<\/strong>want, to be noticed in a positive light?<\/p>\n

So! Find your nearest spoonie\u2014upright, wielding walking aids or wheelchair bound\u2014and look them directly in the eyes. Acknowledge them. Recognize them.<\/p>\n

Notice us. I\u2019m right under your nose. Literally. Because wheelchair.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m just like you.<\/p>\n

This article was authored by Cat Stappas and originally published on the National Multiple Sclerosis Society’s blog, MSConnection.org, on October 11, 2017.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Source: itsonlyabruise.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.\u201d -Ralph Ellison, \u201cInvisible Man\u201d I\u2019m 5 foot 8. Half of my head is shaved. I wear bold makeup and jewelry. I\u2019m hard to miss. And yet somehow, I have managed to (quite literally) stumble upon the secret to attaining one of the superpowers I\u2019d mentioned in another…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[11,15,9,8,13,14,12,10],"class_list":["post-386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multiple-sclerosis-research","tag-brain-repair","tag-marburg-type-ms","tag-ms","tag-multiple-sclerosis","tag-myelin","tag-neuroregeneration","tag-oligodendrocyte","tag-remyelination"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wickedsister.evit.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}