My knee is the most disabling thing I have to deal with now. It’s been almost ten years since the car accident changed my life. I feel like the disabling factors are never ending but hidden. When you look at me, sitting still, you’d never think I was disabled. I don’t refer or think of myself as disabled because I can do so many things.
The first hidden factor showed up when I was home from hospital and ‘recovered.’ Fatigue, hit me like the Black Plague. With that double vision and vertigo decided to show themselves. I learned to deal with those symptoms by getting prism lenses and a prescription for modafinil. It didn’t fix the issues but gave me a coping mechanism. Fast forward a few more years and I have more issues come up. Since relearning to walk, I’ve always hyper extended my right knee, with every step I take. It never used to hurt and I never used to think about it. I would just walk, lock my knee and feel happy and proud of myself for walking. Now, I can walk for a few hours pain free. If I don’t rest in the middle, I get a shooting pain in my kneecap, almost like a pinging. Which later becomes a dull ache up my thigh and down my shin. I still have all the other factors. Just because one factor changes to two factors does not mean the first factor went away completely. I’m wondering will they ever stop? Or just become more and more?