The last few weeks have been incredibly difficult.
On the last half of my prednisone burst, I started experiencing worsened arthritis symptoms. Once the burst was over, I was exhausted AF.
I saw my rheumatologist two weeks ago for a scheduled follow-up, and it was good timing. I’m clearly still flaring. We did a triamcinolone injection that really didn’t help. This week she wants to try a second shot to see if that helps.
It’s hard. I have so many things to work on, things to do. I’ve had to slow things down a lot. Standing in place for more than five minutes is horribly taxing. My knees have been swollen every single day with hand swelling and pain popping in most days of the week, too.
The hand pain is frustrating because things like using my cane that would be helpful just aren’t feasible. My canes both hurt my hands far too much to be for daily use when I’m dealing with such hand pain. It’s probably time to start considering more heavy duty assistive devices, but I’m not sure what would work best for me, either.
A wheelchair seems like a good idea until I recall how much pushing my hands would have to do – likewise with a rollator. With conferences coming up, though, I need to at least consider making a decision.
I don’t like these tough decisions. I will say, though, that I’m far less afraid of using these things than I would’ve been in the past. Having friends who rely on these things is helpful, and talking together is even more useful. I’ve been able to confront the internalized ableism I’ve held since childhood about assistive devices.
Hi Kirsten,
Thank you so much for reaching out about your concerns. Unfortunately, there is some misinformation circulating regarding the nature of our relationship with Autism Speaks.
The Mighty has a non-profit partnership program which takes a variety of forms. The purpose of the partner program (which does not involve money) is to bring free resources to people through stories on our site. We partner with hundreds of organizations, including but not limited to the following autism-related organizations: National Autism Association, Sesame Street, The Art of Autism, ACT! Today, Geek Club Books, Asperger Experts, AutismTalk, The Color of Autism, Global Autism Project, Autism Speaks, and STAR Institute for SPD.
We do understand the concerns about Autism Speaks. We added them to our partnership program only after they announced the change to their mission in the fall of last year. As a company, we believe autistic people and their families need acceptance and understanding, and we do not support curing or eradicating autism.
We do believe a crucial element of our partnership program is that our site and community helps the partners’ audiences. By us sharing more content by autistic writers and autism community advocates, it can help educate and change perspectives for the better both within and beyond our Mighty community. We are now one of the largest platforms for autistic writers, and sharing our writers’ stories with Autism Speaks can help their readers who may still be struggling to understand and accept autism.
All of our partners have a “partner box” (we sometimes refer to it as a “module”), which can appear at the bottom of stories and offers links and resources on the partner’s website. We generally add one of these boxes to stories based on the content, but writers who are associated with a partner as employees, volunteers, or supporters can choose to have that box displayed below their stories. Autism Speaks’ partner box is only supposed to be used when a contributor has expressed support of the organization — we do have a number of autistic writers who are affiliated with them. However, an oversight led to the box being added to an autistic writer who does not want to be affiliated with Autism Speaks. When this individual contacted us, we immediately removed the partner box and apologized. We want to assure you we will work harder to make sure contributors are always comfortable with the partner organizations in their stories.
We are open to feedback regarding our partnership program and would especially like to add additional partners in the autism space that you, our writers and readers, support. So if you are part of an organization or can recommend one, please let us know!
Our health and disability community is very diverse, and opinions differ on important issues. We do evaluate our partnerships periodically, and we never compromise our editorial standards for a partner. We actively work to fight ableism and content that disparages the disability community. We are committed to sharing the voices of autistic writers and the diverse voices of the larger disability and health community.
We hope this helps to alleviate your concerns.
— The Mighty Staff
Despite the outcry of many of us — including those of us who have asked for our articles to be removed from The Mighty in correlation to partnerships with A$ (which has not happened) — there is still a partnership with A$ which is an organization that has openly supported torture for those of us who are neurodivergent. I’m not sure why any disability organization would EVER feel comfortable having any sort of link to them.
The Mighty would still have someone who writes on these topics [sex and disability] if they took concerns that I shared seriously. I’ve asked several times for my articles to be taken down from your site due to this unholy partnership, and I get no reply much less action taken on my requests.
There is outcry among most disabled people about this and yet TM refuses to acknowledge this, save in letters to those of us who complain (whose follow-up emails — like mine — get ignored).
Furthermore, it’s condescending to claim that those of us who are upset and frustrated are spouting misinformation. We know the situation — it’s still horrendous. Why? Any organization that ignores writers’ wishes, blocks them from groups, refuses to pay them despite making money, and downplays these issues isn’t working for *justice* for disabled people. Period.
Despite changing their mission statement, they haven’t actually changed at all and continue to promote harmful rhetoric that everyone in the disability community should be afraid of and angry about. I’m not sure why people think not explicitly stating that they want XYZ doesn’t mean they won’t still participate. Trump isn’t a Nazi explicitly and he still acts like one.
PP has problems — but they also acknowledge them and work on them. A$ and TM seem to refuse to hear any dissenting opinions. That’s not how to run a successful organization, but what do I know? I just run my own business, have a side gig with a major EHR company, and work with major organizations.
If y’all checked your emails and actually read dissenting ones, you’d have heard this last April from many of us.