{"id":264,"date":"2017-05-15T15:26:44","date_gmt":"2017-05-15T15:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/?p=264"},"modified":"2018-08-15T23:44:04","modified_gmt":"2018-08-15T23:44:04","slug":"living-with-a-disability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/2017\/05\/15\/living-with-a-disability\/","title":{"rendered":"Living With a Disability"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carla Pax, ’19
\n<\/strong>School of Engineering<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The summer before my sophomore year of college, I found myself in a lot of pain. \u00a0I had trouble lifting my arms above my head, dressing myself in the morning, or even being able to bend my fingers. \u00a0It seemed that every joint in my body was inflamed and screaming out for help. \u00a0I started experiencing chest pain and muscle weakness. \u00a0My nerves were tingling and I was continuously tired, regularly falling asleep at four in the afternoon. \u00a0My mother, a nurse, didn\u2019t know what to do. \u00a0My doctor had told me that I was fine and often made jokes that if it hurt to lift my arms, then I should just keep them down. \u00a0I was angry and frustrated that I had no control over the pain my body was experiencing. \u00a0As my pain and anger grew, so did my mother\u2019s. \u00a0She scheduled yet another doctor\u2019s visit but with a different physician. \u00a0I resented her for making the appointment as I was tired of complaining about something that I couldn\u2019t control to someone who refused to take me seriously. \u00a0I had decided that it was perfectly okay to live with the pain if there were no nurses laughing about the frequency of my appointments or doctors convinced I was a hypochondriac making the whole thing up. \u00a0The new doctor did some tests and told me that I wasn\u2019t crazy. \u00a0There was something wrong with me and I needed to see a specialist. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\u201cI
\u201cI started my sophomore year of college sixteen days after being diagnosed with systemic lupus.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I started my sophomore year of college sixteen days after being diagnosed with systemic lupus. \u00a0Lupus is an autoimmune disease that causes increased inflammation in many different parts of the body. \u00a0The symptoms for lupus are incredibly varied, but my symptoms include joint pain and inflammation, muscle pain, fatigue, anxiety, and photosensitivity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even considering the top-notch health care I have received at Vanderbilt Medical Center, the main component of Vanderbilt that keeps me alive and well is the people. \u00a0The community that I have built is incredibly caring and loving. \u00a0From my 5 closest friends who have each accepted the role of mother because they continuously worry and fret over me, to my Ultimate Frisbee team who held me in their arms and told me that no matter what happened or what my body was unable to do, I would always be a part of their family. \u00a0My favorite teacher also knows about my condition and continues to check up on me while reminding me that I am stronger than I have ever believed. \u00a0I have also received support from the Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action, and Disability Services office as I struggled to understand what I would need to succeed in academics despite my chronic conditions. \u00a0They helped me to communicate with my professors about any accommodations I would need due to doctor\u2019s appointments or illness flare ups. \u00a0These people keep me sane in times of stress and can make me laugh more than I thought humanly possible. \u00a0Their support makes the day-to-day problems easier to handle. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On an average day, I go to sleep early and enjoy seven to eight hours of sleep. \u00a0I then wake up and get ready for class. \u00a0This includes taking my medication, getting dressed, and putting on sunscreen. \u00a0\u00a0Recently to reduce inflammation, I have started to avoid all inflammatory foods like gluten, grain-fed meats, and dairy. \u00a0My favorite and most frequented Vanderbilt dining area is Bamboo Bistro located in Alumni Hall. \u00a0The building itself holds a lot of memories for me because I sat on the patio there to call the Vanderbilt Psychological Counseling Center and confront my anxieties of developing psychotic side effects from my medication. \u00a0My friends and I frequently meet up there to catch up and the servers are very close to having my order memorized. \u00a0I will usually spend a pleasant afternoon eating and studying in Bamboo Bistro before retiring to my room. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I am incredibly lucky as my symptoms are mild and almost completely controlled by medication, exercise, and healthy eating. \u00a0This and the experiences that I have had at Vanderbilt have allowed me to identify Lupus as a non-defining characteristic of a very happy life. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carla Pax, ’19 School of Engineering   The summer before my sophomore year of college, I found myself in a lot of pain. \u00a0I had trouble lifting my arms above my head, dressing myself in the morning, or even being able to bend my fingers. \u00a0It seemed that every joint in my body was inflamed…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6650,"featured_media":265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[32,18,27],"class_list":["post-264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-self-discovery","tag-mvov17","tag-school-of-engineering","tag-vu2021"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":266,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264\/revisions\/266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.dev.vanderbilt.edu\/commons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}