What disabled people want on International Women's Day

Today is International Women’s Day. A day when we consider the inequalities in society, including wage gaps, social standing, opportunities, domestic abuse. The often invisible and overlooked females in our communities and workplaces.

Now stick that person in a wheelchair, or a walker, and isolate them with inadequate public transport, tell your children to stop looking at them or that they can't ask questions, take away representation in films and tv and books, create buildings as tall as the skies and pile obstacles all along the sidewalks and pathways. Don't call out when people take our parking spaces, or skip us in queues, or make assumptions based on our young age... refuse to listen to those affected by all of the above.

Don't get me wrong -all my aids are works of beautiful engineering that gift me freedom. They're not the villain in my story. But there is only so much they can do in a society not built for them.

Health updates - Summer 2018

And now for all the boring stuff. I'll keep it all as brief as possible!

Here's what's been happening since my trip to London...

The experiment 

On the advice of the London physio, my own little miracle worker decided to try and unlock my thoracic spine (which we believe has been locked since childhood). As this being locked is causing immense pressure and strain on my c spine (meaning that my head has less support and the neck is struggling to keep it upright daily as the c spine is doing so alone), unlocking it would help bring about some strength and stability. Maybe even decrease the neck dislocations.

She explained to me how this slow process would go. I would lie down on my front and she would gently touch along my t spine, encouraging the vertebrae to open slightly. There are apparently four stages to this process, although with my issues she was reluctant to even suggest that we get to stage three. She was hesitant, as she has never attempted this on a patient who dislocates/ has EDS, but as I was keen and London agreed it was the best option for me, she was willing to go ahead with the treatment.

We would start at stage one and build up, I would see her one a week to try and progress to the next level. It was somewhat experimental, and neither of us could predict the outcome. Firstly because, well, everyone is different, and secondly because she has never performed this treatment on anyone with complex issues. I could sense her fear, so I really appreciated her agreeing to proceed.

I lay down and she gently touched along my mid spine -tiny, little nudges. Not even taps. Muscles that hadn't been activated in years began to spasm as the vertebras were moved. Odd twinges along my sides, radiating from the spine. It was a strange feeling but not unpleasant. The movements were so tiny yet so powerful. I left that day with an appointment for the following week.

Unexpected side effects of the bizarre kind

Within minutes of leaving the clinic my gag reflex went into overdrive. I started making the strangest sounds as my body lunged forward, violently spasming along my diaphragm. It wasn't painful, but was annoying, and uncontrollable. As well as hilarious. I sounded ridiculous. Something almost goat-like. Bicky was in stitches. This was a very unexpected side effect from what seemed like a simple manipulation of my spine.

My big fat, non-hysterical lady parts would like to make an announcement

Lets talk about depression and social anxiety: No, I do not have them. And that should be the end of the discussion, right? Except I do not own a penis and so do not have that luxury -and have instead been blessed with fabulous lady bits, both in physicality and mind (mostly).

We might joke about "hysterical ladies", and our periods, having melt-downs over other women wearing the same (usually Pennies/ Primark) clothes as ourselves and being jealous over what both our boyfriends and friends do or do not actually get up to, but when did all this joking become the norm? the actual reality? -I don't have social anxiety, and that scares people. Am I really the last female left who hasn't succumbed to this bizarre phenomenon, or are my generation being led astray by the biased views of doctors and the ever increasing idea that we should be frail, afraid of everything and basically causing hysteria within ourselves?

An example of what we're talking about:
A woman goes to her doctor, she's experiencing sudden on-set migraines and they are affecting her sight and general quality of life. She has tried over the counter pain relief but it is not helping. Now, you can bet that the first thing a doctor will ask is how she is feeling emotionally -Is she stressed, sad, is her boyfriend being nice to her? Has her tiny cotton candy brain had a wee fart because the dress she ordered from Ebay is taking too long to arrive from China? Most definitely she has some form of social anxiety, for she has but only a vagina to protect her from the world. Or, even possible, is she a drug addict? That can tend to be prognosis number two, in many cases.

A man goes to the doctor with the same issues, and as he's a strong, bear like, hairy-chested creature with the emotional range of a shoe, he must indeed be in real, physical pain. Straight to the neurologist with you, so you can get that tumor removed and get back to punching rocks and shit.

Neither of these scenarios is pretty, both are

On the rag: A note on feminism

It's been a while since I'v had one of my famous rants (famous? ...Yeah, I only have about 10 followers, but I'm still saying famous. Deal with it), and what better subjects than politics and feminism, eh? And yes, yes, I'm totally late to board the train, and I'm sure by now yous all totally get that feminism is not hating on men? And that anti-feminists (or at least the childer who post shite on the internets) simply wish things were 'just like the 1950's' for the oh so pretty lady clothes? Yes, yes?? Good.

Well with that in mind I'll skip over all the obvious stuff and just have a wee chat about this article:
"9 Times When Irish Politics has Been Really Sexist"

At first read I laughed, of course, and I'm sure you will too. They are funny comments. Funny because they are: A.) Outrageous, B.) Oh so very dam Irish and C.) It is human nature to think "well, they were just having a laugh though" ...The latter passed my mind only briefly before I stopped myself. Is it wrong to comment on a women's looks, if you are saying something nice? "Flaming red hair" sounds more of a compliment to me. The argument could be made, that if it was the other way around, would men in politics care so much if they were being commented on? Perhaps not. And perhaps it wouldn't be such a big deal in the media. But the bigger picture is simply that there are less women in politics -and as we all know, women do not have the same rights, respect or pay in many professions. This is where the issue lies, in case anyone reads the article and thinks: "What's the big deal?". It's the same old bullshit of "Oh sometimes black people are racist to white people, ya know!" ...Eh, yeah, of course, and where as this is clearly not right and neither is excusable, there is a difference. The difference being years of oppression.

Examples of being judged on our looks as females is everywhere. There are certain pubs and nightclubs that I just rather not bother going into, that my male friends would have no issue in entering. I don't mind a bit of fun, a bit of joke (after all, social situations