My chronic conditions can make airports harder to navigate. I have vascular EDS with cardiac complications and it makes it difficult to walk long distances, stand long periods of time, carry/lift bags, and setting conserves my energy enough to make it to my destination. I also have a visual impairment, which makes TSA hard to do alone. On top of this, I have epilepsy and environments like this can often lower my seizure threshold. Many people don’t realize that you can have many focal aware and unaware seizures throughout the day without convulsions that only last a few seconds. It makes places like airports very confusing at times. I would like to be seizure, free and reduce my risk of SUDEP but sometimes that means taking precautions to prevent seizures. With VEDS, a simple bump or fall, could cause a serious injury. Being a VEDS patient, almost makes me feel like I’m made of glass. If I haven’t built enough muscle around my joints to protect them in a while, I dislocate, tear, and can cause internal injuries such as arterial rupture, Intestinal perforation, Internal bleeding, vertebral artery dissections, spontaneous lung collapse, and more. Sometimes my skin just tears spontaneously. It’s icky and I don’t show it very much. It sounds so silly, but so many people Im friends with who also have VEDS, have these exact same complications from very simple and novel falls/ twists. I feel like many people at the airport look at me and judge the fact that I am in a wheelchair or have a service dog. I swallow the pill of people not knowing everything that I’ve gone through and survived to be here today. When I see people using medical devices or needing accommodations, I know that I may know nothing about what they’re going through and I make sure to treat them with kindness. 🥺

#VascularEDS #ServiceDogLife #EpilepsyAwareness #sunflowerairport