{"id":31,"date":"2016-09-07T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/?p=31"},"modified":"2019-03-04T13:47:02","modified_gmt":"2019-03-04T18:47:02","slug":"living-with-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/living-with-disabilities.html","title":{"rendered":"Living with Disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Life isn’t easy for anyone, but when a person has disabilities, life can become a painful obstacle course. And yet, they carry on.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nobody\u2019s gonna say that life is a bowl of cherries \u2013 unless they\u2019re counting the pits, the stains, the brown ones at the bottom – and the occasional worm.<\/p>\n

\"bowl_of_cherries\"<\/center> <\/p>\n

Life isn\u2019t easy for anyone. Throw in a disability of any sort, and we\u2019re talking about a whole new level of difficulty. Whether it\u2019s a physical disability that is visible or invisible, a learning disability or a cognitive disability, disabilities turn normal daily activities into obstacle courses \u2013 and often painful ones, at that.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s consider, for a moment, the struggles of a person who requires a walker<\/a> to get around. At least he\u2019s walking on his own two feet, right? He hasn\u2019t lost his independence, so no big deal, right?<\/p>\n

Wrong.<\/p>\n

Imagine getting up a staircase with a walker. Remember, the walker isn\u2019t there for display \u2013 it\u2019s there to provide much needed support. Sure, there are stair railings \u2013 sometimes. If there is no railing, the person using a walker is forced to rely on others to help them up the stairs. But even if there is a railing, this person is using a walker, not a cane<\/a>; they probably need more support than a basic railing can offer. And the difficulties don\u2019t stop there. Even if they can get up the steps on their own, albeit with much physical struggle, how do they get the walker up the steps, as well? After all, they\u2019re going to need to walk once they get to the next floor… Again, they are forced to give up on some of their independence and have someone else bring the walker upstairs for them.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s just getting up the stairs \u2013 we haven\u2019t even touched on taking a shower (they\u2019ll probably need a bath bench<\/a> and some well-placed grab bars<\/a> to do that alone), getting into bed (and a bed rail<\/a> for that) and getting through narrow doorways.<\/p>\n

Now imagine having a close relative with heavy incontinence<\/a>. Sometimes they make it to the bathroom \u2013 and sometimes they don\u2019t. And when they don\u2019t, it almost never happens in a convenient way. You could be in the mall, about to fall asleep or in the middle of watching your favorite TV show, and then your plans go out the window, because it\u2019s changing time, whether you like it or not. And this is heavy incontinence we\u2019re talking about \u2013 so for all you know, the mess might be everywhere. If the brief, underwear<\/a> or whatever else your loved one may be using as wearable protection is the wrong size or absorbency level, it\u2019s very possible you\u2019re dealing with a situation that will need more than one pair of hands. Even if the wearable protection is the right size and all, nothing is guaranteed \u2013 especially with incontinence.<\/p>\n

Caring for a loved one with incontinence can complicate almost every detail of your life. Take, for example, travelling. Travelling with someone who is incontinent necessitates preparing for the worst, which would include, for example, bringing along a few extra pairs of pants, some chux<\/a> to protect the car seat, several changes of diapers, underwear or pads, a pack of wipes<\/a> and several pairs of disposable gloves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not easy.<\/p>\n

And the examples go on \u2013 getting over the curb with a wheelchair<\/a>, explaining your invisible disability to the rude (or just clueless) stranger, getting through school with a learning disability, avoiding bedsores while bedridden<\/a>\u2026 It just doesn\u2019t end.<\/p>\n

But you know what? Most of those people, the ones who actually live these disabilities every day of their lives, are putting on a brave face, smiling at passerby and moving forward, one day at a time. They\u2019re holding on and enjoying the small things in life. They\u2019ve learned to notice the chirping of the birds, the rays of sunshine coming through the trees, the gift of living one more day on this planet.<\/p>\n

\"sunshine_rays\"<\/center> <\/p>\n

And to all of us looking in from the outside, they are an inspiration.<\/p>\n

So to all you warriors out there who live with any type of disability, or care for a loved one with a disability, we stand by you. We know your struggles, we know how very real the pain can be \u2013 and we never cease to be amazed by your determination and bravery in the face of all the challenges life has thrown your way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How have you learned to manage the pain? Share your inspiration in the comments below!<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Life isn’t easy for anyone, but when a person has disabilities, life can become a painful obstacle course. And yet, they carry on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-disability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4421,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/4421"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.avacaremedical.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}