OSH '05 Comments

Paul Tomblin wrote:

In a previous article, Matt Whiting said:

The trouble is that anyone can get a note from their doctor for
anything. Some of the people I know who have gotten handicap tags for
their cars and SUVs really aren't handicapped, but if you complain to
your doctor about any ailment at all you can get approval for a handicap
tag.


I have chronic debilitating knee pain. It ended my cross country ski and
orienteering racing 25 years ago, and has only gotten worse. I had to
give up mountain biking and backpacking and even canoeing. Every single
day of my life, I'm in pain. Lots and lots of pain. Pain so great that I
didn't even realize that my appendix had burst for three days after it
happened, and I lost a large chunk of my stomach and large intestine to
gangrene. Every day where I have to walk more than a few hundred metres
means a few days where I have to gobble down handfuls of naproxen and
tylenol and sit with my legs up and ice them. Every day I walked around
Oshkosh a couple of years ago was agony, but I put up with it because it
was worth it.

And yet if you looked at me, you'd never guess it in a million years.
Because I take the pain. Because the pain isn't any less if I limp or
carry a cane, so I don't. Because I can continue to do what I want to do
if I'm willing to pay the price in pain afterwards, but I'd still prefer
to avoid the pain where I can. Because it isn't a visible disability, but
it's a disability none the less.

Think about people like me next time you dismiss somebody as "really
aren't handicapped" just because you can't see anything wrong with them.

Read it again, for comprehension this time. I didn't say people I've
"seen", I said people I "know." There is a big difference. These are
people that I see doing lots of activities that are much more strenous
than walking across the parking lot to Wal-Mart.

I have degenerative disk disease. You can't always tell it from
watching me walk, but some days you can. I could easily get a handicap
permit, and actually have had doctors suggest I get one. I also have a
high pain threshold and wouldn't think of getting a handicap permit
unless it gets a LOT worse. And you'd then be able to tell from looking
at me that I needed the permit.


Matt