phantom-of-the-flopera

[phantom-of-the-flopera]

How I kept my 4.0 through junior year with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome

General CI stuff:

Sleeping when I'm tired. This advice sounds stupid, but lock-in culture makes losing sleep seem like a virtue. I have never performed better for pulling an all-nighter. They make me worse physically. When I'm tired, I also tend to be drawn to passive activities like scrolling, and I have less drive to study. It's 99% of the time worth it to take the L and sit a test refreshed than to try to cram overnight.

Getting used to studying everywhere and anywhere. I've studied in the hospital. I've studied in outpatient waiting rooms. I've studied in turbulence. It's odd, because this thing isn't even something I started doing consciously, but it's totally saved me. Novel environments almost help me lock in.

Having the courage to ask for help. I regularly need extensions, and when I've asked politely, all but one of my teachers have said yes. I think the trick here is a bit of good delivery and a bit of choosing your battles. When I think I can make a deadline with some very hard work and inconvenience, I push myself to make it, so I'm able to only ask for those extensions when I really need them. This being said, though--

Not everybody has to know exactly what's going on. At first, I had a lot of anxiety about explaining my health condition, but I started noticing when I didn't 'open the book,' even if some people (including teachers) were obviously still curious, I could avoid it. When people started asking why I was out for xyz amount of time, instead of going into detail about Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome or my hospital stay, I could just say I had a health situation and most people with any amount of basic decorum let it be. I struggled doing this to teachers at first, because I thought if they were expected to accomodate me, they were entitled to my personal medical information, but I eventually found leaving people with truthful but surface-level answers was what work best for me.

EDS-specific stuff:

I can't write for shit, my hands are too hypermobile. I have computer use on all assignments in my 504 plan, but a lot of teachers either don't fully digitize their curriculum or it's way less effective to study totally on a screen. I use a laptop, but a tablet is definitely a better way to work around this problem. In subjects like math, where paper is the only way to go, I self-accomodate with OT-prescribed finger braces and felt tip pens. Since you don't have to apply as much pressure with the latter as you do with a pencil, they make a world of difference.

Can't lie, Zofran is the reason I was able to attend probably a half the days I did.

Got a total of four really bad ankle sprains this year and one patellar dislocation. Having a pair of forearm crutches just lying around for when I can't bear weight is such a game changer. I am so much faster on them than conventional crutches, and they don't kill your armpits.

[phantom-of-the-flopera]