Location: Munising, MI, USA Posts: 791 Joined: 2010-10-09
One of the other lovely parts of being dyscalculic for me is having visual-spatial impairment, which makes me an accident waiting to happen. Well, Monday, it happened. I fell down a flight of stairs at school, breaking my toe and messing up my ankle. I'm doing alright, on painkiller, but I'm on crutches for a little while longer. The doctor says it's not a bad break.
It isn't that being dyscalculic has wrecked my life, but it sure would be a LOT less painful if I didn't have all the accessories that came with it. If it wasn't visual-spatial impairment, then I might have had a seizure. I'm hoping it was just dyscalculia. At the same time, would it be too much to ask to NOT get hurt just because I'm LD?
I'm NOT lost, I'm just taking the scenic rout!
Location: United States Posts: 1860 Joined: 2008-11-14
Squeaky, I feel your pain, but I honestly don't know whether to blame dyscalculia or just assume that I am a naturally clumsy person. I am always hesitant to say that anything is because of dyscalculia. I guess I'm just hesitant to attribute my own shortcomings to a learning disability and feel like I'm trying to put off the blame somewhere else. (Note: I'm not saying that YOU'RE doing that at all, so please don't misinterpret that. I'm just saying that when I do it, I feel like that's what *I'm* doing.)
I have always been almost unnaturally clumsy. My family calls me "Grace" as an ironic nickname because I run into or trip over things so frequently. But I wonder, is that because of dyscalculia, or because I had a huge growth spurt near the end of elementary/beginning of middle school that suddenly launched me into an awkward body that I wasn't used to moving around in? I grew an average of almost 3 inches a year for 3 years straight... so I question if I'm clumsy because of my spatial awareness issues from dyscalculia, or if I'm just clumsy because I was catapulted into adolescence so abruptly.
Or, alternatively, does it have to do with the fact that I have extremely poor depth perception due to a lazy eye that I had in my early years? Up to the age of 3 my eyes did not track together, and as a result the neural wiring in the brain that perceives depth never formed properly. Your eyes must be working together to properly perceive depth, and most of that important neural wiring is in place by 18-24 months of age. If you miss that crucial window, you never get it back. Because I had a lazy eye, I completely missed that window of "depth wiring" and now have almost no depth perception as a result.
So am I clumsy because I'm dyscalculic, or because I had a really big growth spurt as a pre-teen, or because I have a visual impairment, or all of the above? Or none of the above?
Ultimately I decided to just not think about it too much, and just accept it for what it is. I have gotten very good at laughing at myself over the years, so now when I drop a plate, knock over a stack of books, slam my pinkie toe into a table, hit my head getting out of the car, walk into a doorway, or any of the other myriad klutzy things I do on an almost daily basis... well, I just laugh and forget about it. It's not worth my mental energy anymore.
By the way, I hope your toe heals quickly! Broken toes are no fun. Last year I stepped off a curb that I did not realize dropped off so steeply (once again, depth perception) and sprained my ankle pretty badly, so I feel your pain.
"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings." - Eric Hoffer
Location: Munising, MI, USA Posts: 791 Joined: 2010-10-09
Kat, I wrote it that way as an attempt to be funny because of my visual-spatial impairment. It's better than thinking I had a seizure. I can now add broken toe to 14 ankle sprains. : / It does feel a little better, doc. says I can get off crutches on Tuesday because it's not that bad of a break.
I'm NOT lost, I'm just taking the scenic rout!
squeaky, I'm sorry about your toe!
I believe there was a time when I either slightly fractured or did break a toe and wow was that painful! I simply walked barefoot into the bottom edge of my dad's left-open closet door in the middle of night when I got up to use the bathroom. His hall closet in that house at the time was directly after my bedroom and I generally move pretty quickly, and was sleepy - so - bam! Never did anything about it though. It was winter so I wore narrow boots a lot <makeshift stabilizer>.
I have issues with visual-spatial too and one time did run our new van into the side of a pole at a gas station. I think it was one of those poles - those kinda inverted u-shaped things concreted into the ground that flank the gas station islands sometimes where we are. It was alongside where you'd pull in to the pump and I mis-judged distance between that post and where I was pulling forward and sideswiped it as I moved the van into position to get gas. I was on my way to the Farmer's Market to meet my mom. I was pretty upset and called my husband from the gas station.
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6103 Joined: 2008-05-25
4/6/12
Okay, I see a spot where I can tell about my own recent calamity and maybe get some sympathy. However, mine isn't LD-related. I've had to wear bifocals in recent years. Usually, just walking around, I don't wear them. But a couple of weeks ago, I'd been wearing my bifocals at the college Library and when I walked to the car, I didn't take them off. As I neared my car, happy to be headed home, I failed to see a small, raised curb just before my car. I didn't see it because of my bifocals. And it wasn't even a 'real' curb,... just a little curb that the school had put in to delineate the handicapped parking spot. It had a curved termination, rather than squared end, which made it look more innocuous than it was.
Anyway, in quick succession, I tripped over that curb with my right foot, and attempted to save myself with my left foot, twisting that ankle. Then, my face plunged into my car's driver-side fender, simultaneous with skinning my (already) bad knee and hurting my left wrist (trying to save my face). I bounced off the car backwards, landing on the ground facing the opposite direction, in a pile of leaves by that same curb I'd already tripped over. I lay there stunned, like a fly that's been swatted. I didn't loose consciousness, but I felt myself start to 'reboot', just like a computer,... checking systems/ ankle twisted but not inoperable/ bridge of nose in pain from being rammed into hood of car, but not broken/ right knee either bruised or skinned, but no detectable internal damage/ wrist, operable/ slowly beginning to stir,... sound of humans talking, but too far away to call for help. After about 5 minutes, I roused myself enough to try to get up, got sat upright on that little curb, and pushed myself to a standing position. The whiplash I gave myself took two weeks to subside. Miserable. Just glad that the impact was spread out over so much of me that nothing was broken. Sympathy? - jus'
Edited by justfoundout on April 06 2012 10:29 PM
Location: Munising, MI, USA Posts: 791 Joined: 2010-10-09
Jus' I think that takes the cake for anything I've ever done. Been in bi-focals. I can relate to that problem. At least you weren't too badly hurt, even if you did have some discomfort for a while. It reminded me of the time I tripped over a curb on my way to the Harlem Globe Trotters game and sprained my ankle. I'm starting to think we should be given a bubble-wrap suit.
I'm NOT lost, I'm just taking the scenic rout!
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6103 Joined: 2008-05-25
4/6/12
Squeaky,
You made me laugh at loud, and I'm at the college Library. Bubble-wrap suit. Yes, I wish that I'd been wearing one of those. Do you know if the college might add that to my list of accommodations? And, BTW, I offer you my belated condolences for your poor little broken toe. Which one was it? Or does it want to remain annonymous? - jus'
Location: Munising, MI, USA Posts: 791 Joined: 2010-10-09
I broke my big toe on my left foot. Tendinitis hurts a lot worse though (speaking from experience). No, I don't know of any university offering such accommodations, though my Choir and Violin profs. are about ready to have one made for me. Think of all the money they could make if they did that! lol
I'm NOT lost, I'm just taking the scenic rout!
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6103 Joined: 2008-05-25
4/10/12
Big toes are a valuable part of keeping us standing up (as opposed to falling down). Sorry for your additional (temporary) disability. Yes, tendonitis is very painful. I had that many years ago in the back of my knees. Suddenly, out of nowhere, there would be a shooting pain like a knife had caused it. Achhhhh! If you get it again, make sure that you aren't picking up benzene or another solvent from somewhere. I'd been cleaning greasy windows with kerosene. Much later, I read about solvents causing tendonitis, but by then I didn't have the tendonitis any more. - jus'
