#Also thinking about Footless Jo

[ashleybenlove]

Hiccup commiserates with Toothless about the dragon armor Toothless is wearing because metal on skin is itchy.

I’m sorry to them.

[cripplecharacters]

hi—I wanted to ask if the following is an appropriate and respectful way to deal with a character’s injury?

my character c is shot in the shoulder area which results in nerve damage leaving them with permanent paralysis in their arm.

first: would amputation be a reasonable/expected course of action?

and second: c is a shapeshifter and her ability to shapeshift is impacted by her paralysis. is it reasonable for her to want an amputation?

(i’ve read a lot of your posts about upper limb differences, so i would not be giving them any prosthetics, and their disability would remain while shifting. also this is mostly in backstory for the character, not the main plot line of the story, if that’s relevant.)

Hi!

To answer your questions one by one:

"would amputation be a reasonable/expected course of action?"

Expected? No. Reasonable? Possibly ?? (with a question mark).

Before this ask, I have actually never heard of this being done, but I was able to find a medical source discussing this. To quote the relevant part: "[when treating someone with that type of injury, there are] three options: first, ignore the compromised extremity and focus the rehabilitation on improving function in the normal arm; second, perform an above-elbow amputation alone, and third, perform an above-elbow amputation combined with arthrodesis [connecting bones together] of the shoulder." Basically, if the injury is permanent with no improvement in the foreseeable future, then your character could either work on her other arm to do the work for both, or have it amputated above the elbow.

Keep in mind that this refers to complete paralysis of the whole arm, if your character experiences partial paralysis it wouldn't be worth it, I think.

2) "her ability to shapeshift is impacted by her paralysis. is it reasonable for her to want an amputation?"

From the same source as above; "if the flail limb (dominant or not) interferes with the patient’s return to work or the accomplishment of daily life tasks, or if it is a source of frequent infections, amputation seems to be a reasonable option." So if we count shapeshifting as a daily life task or work, then this actual medical literature paper says it's reasonable. And as for the character wanting it herself, I think it's very reasonable too, especially if it makes C's life harder or causes her pain. "Improving quality of life" is the main reason for elective amputations in general.

It's great that she keeps her disability while shapeshifting!

If you're looking to research the emotional/psychological side of choosing an elective amputation, I would recommend some of Footless Jo's videos on YouTube! She has had an elective amputation for a past injury and made several videos about it. Of course, she discusses a lower limb amputation rather than an upper one but I still think it could be a very useful resource for you.

Thank you for your ask, I hope my answer helped a bit!!

Mod Sasza

[raspberryconverse]

Ugh. So my MIL had a heart attack the other day (she's home now and is fine after some stents) and my poor spouse is super frustrated.

It's TFW your parents are aging and not taking care of themselves/don't have a history of taking good care of themselves

(like my dad who has CPOD and refused to try order pickup during the height of COVID instead of going in the stores🤦‍♀️) and they also don't have people around them who'll actually be helpful (*cough* little sister who lives in the same city and could have gone shopping for him whereas I lived 30 min away *cough cough*)

The two main problems are my MIL's sister is flying and staying with her and it sounds like it's going to be a total martyr situation ("I flew in from Colorado to come take care of you, but I'm really just going to get in the way") and my step-FIL is basically useless. He didn't even bother to call my spouse or their brother to let them know their mother was going in for emergency heart surgery. He claims it's because it was 3am, but really, if your step-dad calls you at 3am to tell you your mom had a heart attack, you will not be pissed that he called you at 3am (and my spouse's phone was down here and I went to bed at like 4, so I would have seen it and seen my step-FIL's name on the caller ID, picked that shit up, answered the phone and run upstairs with it).

But I think the thing that was very, "Yup, that's probs what [step-FIL] is gonna do," was my spouse saying, "He's probably going to be very diligent at first, but it'll only be like a week before he's like, 'Make me a sandwich.'"

It just makes you feel so helpless because you obviously don't want your parents to die (although, NGL, my mental health has been quite a bit better after my mom died, but that's a story for another time), but there's only so much you can do. I remembered hearing about the app Abridge on Footless Jo's YouTube channel, so I'm hoping my MIL can try it out and maybe it'll be helpful for all the changes she's going to need to make. She's just not a very good listener/retainer of information and it's probably going to cause her health to deteriorate when it has the opportunity to get better if she just follows her doctor's instructions.

Another funny point in the conversation: my spouse was talking about how their mom had symptoms for weeks and didn't think anything of it and I said, "Well, when it happens to me, at least you'll know and make sure I get to the hospital in time." I'm in my late 30s and have elevated blood pressure, though I really feel it's a medication side effect. But also my mom and her dad both died at 58 of stroke and heart attack respectively, so the same is probably going to happen to me if I don't make some changes, but I'm also too stubborn to do it.

[a-rosen-writer]

Written thought #2 “would you rather: get raped or die?” - an old post

I watched a video by this brave amputee Footless Jo on YouTube. It was the video: “ This REALLY isn’t okay.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xEHeoarucY) where she talked about something that happened on a campus of some kind, can’t remember of the top of my head.  but on this campus she said in a meeting something about rape and sexual assault, and another girl apparently replied something along the lines of:

 “I have never seen it happen so it doesn’t happen” 

This immediately made me think: “ I’ve never seen anyone die, therefore by your logic death doesn’t exist and everyone who have died are hiding somewhere.” which is obviously insane yet is it more insane than what the girl said. we can talk to those who have been raped and/or have experienced sexual assault, but not those who are dead. you could debatably profit more from faking your death than from faking being raped, and honestly i’d say i’d prefer the former. death is kind of a onetime deal, unless you fake it of course. and no one will scorn you for your own death, but getting raped now that can happen multiple times AND will get you some hate, especially if you do anything about it, like say it happened. which is just dumb in of itself. It’s a bloody crime, taking it back to death, if someone was murdered and you didn’t say shit then that’s a problem. so if you see someone who was getting raped or you were raped yourself then you better report it, same goes for other types of sexual assault. because the worlds kinda fucked and most of the people on the thing are even worse.

anyhow, Footless Jo has some great videos on a lot of different topics most about the lack of Foot but also some mental illness stuff. 

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

So when I would show my prosthetic leg in my YouTube videos, I began getting age restricted for potentially "disturbing imagery." So i made a video talking about this, talking about how messed up and wrong that is, and the hardest thing to deal with has not been people  being, like: "You do need to have a trigger warning on you." "You're gross." Whatever. Uh, it's the people who are like: "Dude, I totally get it. I'm on your side. I don't think you're disturbing, but--" Uh, like this one: "You kind of do deserve a PG rating in life, because you could be traumatizing to the children." I just want you to pause for a moment, and think about that. You do realize that there are disabled KIDS out there. You do realize that there are kids with, uh, limb differences and amputations, who have to go to friggin' school. Are you suggesting that the world and their other classmates need to be protected from the sight of them, because they could be traumatizing? "What if the kids don't know how to deal with it?" Then they LEARN. That's part of growing up. This is absolutely absurd. Comments like this make me so frustrated, because it's like they're coming at you like they're an ally, and they just want to help, but what they're saying is so messed up.

“Footless Jo,” Children do NOT need to be protected from the sight of disabled people (YouTube short, uploaded 21 March, 2022) Edited transcription of auto-generated comments.

---

I’m angered and frustrated by the newest crop of transphobic, queerphobic, and anti-critical race theory laws in their own right, because they are unjust and detrimental to the whole of our society, even though I am cis and white.

But then, I get occasional reminders that there are people working at YouTube, and people in YouTube’s audience who think I and other Disabled people, are also “Age-Inappropriate,” and I get a momentary twinge of fear, mixed in with that anger. How much longer until I cannot freely discuss Disability History, without fear of retribution or sanction (not that disability history is discussed at all, now, except within the Disability Community).

And I also realize that that twinge of fear is evidence of my own privilege, because it’s surprising when it comes, and it’s brief, until it comes back. And that reminds me of how I’ve been protected by White and Cis privilege, all the rest of my life.

I’m just so tired.

[icaruskeyartist]

Inspired by all the discussion about physical disabilities in relation to mental disabilities and how the two are similar, I wanted to ask if you've seen any videos by Footless Jo? She's pretty great, and she's definitely helped me better understand what it's like to go through limb loss, especially how it impacts mental health.

I also think that the ppl that insist that there are no similarities between mental and physical health conditions are forgetting about those "invisible" disabilities like Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Not every disability is obvious at a glance, and we all have different needs, but ableism is always the same whether it comes from a healthy person or not.

TLDR: why don't we try to understand and support each other instead of tearing each other down? It's all important, it all matters, and we're not doing ourselves any favors by being nasty. Also I feel like I've had this exact argument verbatim in like 3 other communities, just swapping different aspects of the self.

I'm gonna have to look Footless Jo up (maybe as a reward when I start writing again because woof, being sick and hyperfixated on something does not help get work done)!

And yep, I totally agree. I'm still really confused where people got that idea that I was only talking about people with mobility issues. Especially since I've used my sister as an example and her physical shit is chronic pain and a TBI. Which of course the TBI has led to some pretty interesting personality shifts that could count as mental disorders.

Your tl;dr is spot on. I just waffle on needlessly really.

[drummergirl231-2]

So the DT crew keeps being awesome about amputee representation in so many ways that I just don’t pick up on at first.

We know the DuckTales 2017 crew worked closely with the Amputee Coalition to design Della as a character in terms of look, movement, attitude, struggles, and advantages. There are some cartoony suspension of disbelief kinda things, like how she just happened to find a rocket part that fit her residual limb perfectly so she could use it as a prosthesis, but otherwise, they’ve really striven for realism with her - in some cases, in ways those of us with four limbs don’t even realize at first. 

That being said, let’s talk about this moment from “Escape from the Impossibin!” 

The moment Della’s prosthesis made contact with a saw blade, she let out a yell that, at first, sounded as though she were in pain, before she began to laugh. 

I thought maybe the suddenness of finding a saw blade just sort of startled her, and she laughed with relief coming off the adrenaline and made the declaration that it was “so cool,” because it is super cool that she can use her prosthesis to her advantage like this.

That initial scream still seemed weird to me, though. Startled screams are usually a quick vocal burst and not drawn out. Why did she scream like that instead of just going, “Whoa!” if she were only taken by surprise? Sure, it could’ve been a yell like “AHHHH THIS IS AWESOME!” but even so, something sounded odd to me. She really did seem like she felt pain, as though the saw blade actually hurt for a second.

Anyway, a couple months go by, and I’m watching Footless Jo on YouTube, as I do, and she uploads a video called “EVERYTHING You Wondered About Phantom Limb Pain!” I mean, come on, who wouldn’t want to watch that? 

So Jo’s describing phantom pains, what they feel like, how she’s felt all the things but she’s met amputees that have never had phantom pains and she’s like “HOW?!?” and then she gets to this part at about 11:13:

“THE most bizarre thing about having phantom pain and sensation is the fact that sometimes real movements and actions can be felt. What I mean by that: if I am looking at my prosthetic foot, here, and I drop something on my toe, or someone touches my foot, I feel that. For a second. Like if I - if I visually see it, if I’m looking at my foot and something happens to it, even when it’s this plastic foot, I feel the actual sensation that I would’ve felt had my real foot been there.”

She goes on to talk about how one time a friend gave her prosthetic foot a foot massage and she actually felt parts of it, and how sometimes she’ll step in a way that, before her amputation when she was living with a fused ankle, would really hurt, and for a second she feels that same pain again before her body catches up and goes “Oh, it’s not there anymore.”

“There’s something about our brains, and anticipating some kind of sensation where if we expect to feel something, we end up feeling that.”

This immediately shed so much light on this brief moment from “Escape from the Impossibin!” because it really did seem to me like Della was screaming as though the saw blade were actually hurting her and now I know it’s because... it probably did cause her that sort of pain for a split second.

She was looking down at her foot, anticipating it coming into contact with saw blades, and the moment it did and she saw the sparks and felt the vibration going up her metal leg and rattling her residual limb, her confuzzled nerves also fired off a “HELP WE’RE GETTING SAWN INTO” signal to her brain before her brain was like “CHILL. IT’S FINE.”

Which of course also makes sense of her laugher (relief) and her declaration of how cool it is (because not only is she using her prosthesis to her advantage, which is super cool in and of itself, but also her brain and nerves just did a crazy/weird/fascinating/super cool thing).

It’s kinda intense to think Della likely felt like her foot, which was no longer there, was still there and getting sawn into for a second, but shoot dang, I am just so impressed with how the writers handle her being an amputee. They don’t structure whole episodes around her missing a limb, but instead slip in these little nuggets of truth that they would only know if they sat down with amputees and listened to their experiences. So good.

[x-amount-verbs]

Helping Hand 8 & 9

8: Did any real people or events inspire any part of it?:: Hmmm. No? I don’t think so? Nothing is coming to mind. Though I have watched a lot of videos from Footless Jo (and Kristie Sita) on YouTube to hear some stories from actual amputees who use or don’t use prosthetic limbs. Jo in particular has a lot of videos about her mental health and body image struggles, which are really insightful. (Ngl Kristie’s tend to skew toward faith-heavy and inspirational content so I don’t watch a ton of her stuff.)

Wait I lied— as someone with depression/anxiety spirals who has had various coping strategies in the past, I’m sure that has all influenced how I write the reader character.

9: Were there any alternate versions of this fic?:: Kinda? Not really. My first attempt at an Arcane fic also had the premise of “reader char unintentionally participates in medical experimentation” except not. I like how it turned out in this one better.

Fanfic asks

[ukulelekatie]

do you have recs for disabled content creators? (especially on youtube!) it doesn't really matter to me if they make content related to the disability community or not, just want to follow some more people that are cool ✨

I sure do! Here are a few of my favorites: 

Jessica Kellgren-Fozard - Jessica is probably my favorite youtuber of all time--she makes content related to deafness, disability, vintage fashion, queer history, and so many other cool and interesting things! She and her wife are also expecting a baby and have made some excellent videos pertaining to preparing for motherhood. 

Molly Burke - Molly is a blind youtuber whose videos usually pertain to fashion, interior design, and travel, in addition to videos about her vision loss story and how she navigates the world as a blind woman. She and Jessica interviewed each other last week, which I had been hoping for for such a long time! It was really nice to see them collab.

Footless Jo - Jo posts about her experiences adjusting to life after becoming a below-knee amputee. Many of her videos document her journey to using prosthetics, managing chronic pain, mental health, and more. She seems like such a sweet, down-to-earth person and her videos give off the vibe of chatting with an old friend, which I love. 

Andrew Huang - Andrew is a partially deaf musician! A lot of his music incorporates unconventional objects used as instruments, which I think is so cool and creative. He has also posted a few videos about his hearing loss and how it has affected the way he produces his music. (Fun fact: He’s also the creator of the notoriously catchy song Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing On Rainbows)

Hannah Witton - Hannah primarily produces excellent and inclusive sex ed content, but she also has a stoma and uses a colostomy bag due to colitis. I definitely recommend checking out the Disability, Sex, Relationships, & Dating Roundtable that she hosted, featuring other disabled creators. 

Spencer West - Spencer makes content about how he does things without legs--from mundane daily tasks like getting ready in the morning, to climbing Mount Kilamanjaro. I found him through tiktok, but he’s also on youtube! 

Tiffany Yu - Tiffany has a brachial plexus injury, which is the same disability I have! I had never encountered anyone else with a BPI until one of her videos popped up on my tiktok For You Page, so it was amazing to see that there are others out there! Like Spencer, I’m more familiar with her content on tiktok than on youtube, but it looks like she has some great content on her channel that I’m excited to check out. 

Andro Robot Boi - Unfortunately I think this content creator is only on tiktok (username androbotboi), but they also have a brachial plexus injury and use a robotic device to move their arm. They’re also a musician and are working with various 3D printing engineers to develop an attachment for the device that can be used to hold a guitar pick. 

These are all the people I can think of for now... If anyone else has any recs, please feel free to add them to the list!! 

[drummergirl231-2]

I’m really curious about Della’s thoughts on being an amputee.

I mean, we know she thinks her prosthesis is awesome. We know she sure as heck doesn’t let being an amputee stop her.

What I mean is, when she was on the Moon, it was just her being herself, doing her thing, trying to get back home to her family.

She didn’t think about her legal rights as a member of a protected class.

She didn’t do research on which shoe stores gave amputees discounts or let them buy just one shoe.

She didn’t have to think about how to get in and out of the shower safely.

She didn’t see embarrassed parents whisking their pointing kids away before she had a chance to answer their kids’ questions (I bet she’d love answering random kids’ questions about it... maybe even have some fun with them. “I lost my leg because I didn’t eat my vegetables.” XD).

She probably never stopped to think on the Moon, “Hmm... how do I feel about the terms handicapped, disabled, or differently-abled? Or would I rather just be called a cyborg?” 

Come to think of it, was “differently-abled,” even a thing back when she disappeared? 

All that to say, while Della’s used to being an amputee, I wonder how she’s adapting to living as an amputee in society? 

I wonder about which terms she preferred people use. 

There are two youtubers I watch, Molly Burke (who’s blind) and “Footless Jo,” (who lost her right foot and deals with chronic illness and pain) and they recently did videos about why the term “differently-abled,” bothers them, and it really struck a chord with me as someone who’s autistic. People who use it think they’re being “woke.” They have good intentions. But the thing is, it still comes from a place of being uncomfortable with and looking down on disabilities and being afraid to call things what they are. So a lot of people with disabilities are just kind of like, “Thanks, I hate it.” 

Molly also said by saying “differently-abled,” people dismiss the legitimate struggles she faces as a blind person. Jo said while the term did bother her she just couldn’t pinpoint why until she saw Molly’s video about it and she was like, “That’s it!” 

I have the same issue with people who use “high-functioning,” as a way to like, cheer me up when I’ve opened up about some of the struggles I face as an aspie/autist. “Oh but you’re so high-functioning though! You and your family haven’t had to deal with the things other families have to deal with because of Autism.” Like this person who knows nothing about my childhood gets to decide who struggles and who doesn’t, or who should or shouldn’t be struggling. 

But Della went missing like eleven years ago. The discussion about disabilities was different then. Attitudes were different then. Would Della actually be more bothered by people calling her “disabled?” I can kind of imagine her not wanting to refer to herself in that way, or only using it if she used air quotes with it, like, “Okay yeah, technically I have a ‘disability,’ but I’m not ‘disabled.’” Because she’s from a whole other decade. Would “differently-abled,” sound better to her? Or would “differently-abled,” sound profound and good at first and then after a while start to bug her for the same reasons it bugs other people? 

How would she feel about the word “handicapped?” Personally I used to not have a problem with it, and then after hearing people use it negatively against people, I had a problem with it being used on people but not things (handicap rail, handicap parking, handicap stall), and then I learned more about the history and definition and now I’m not really comfortable using it at all and that’s more of a recent development. It’s a journey, you know?

In her youtube video, Jo said a few things that really resonated with me in my journey of becoming part of the autistic community because they’re the same sort of things she’s faced in becoming part of the amputee community. She’s struggled with knowing what to call herself. Like, should she use “disabled?” She’d heard some TED talks in favor of “differently-abled,” that just didn’t sit well with her but she wondered if maybe she was just new and ignorant and that’s how she should feel about it, which she admitted was kinda weird because she was relying on other people to tell her what should and shouldn’t offend her now. And that is such a mood! 

For me, joining the autistic community, I’ve gone through the whole, “Light it up blue!” but then being like, “Ugh... man, Autism Speaks really let me down, but maybe I’m the only one who feels like that about them,” but then like, finding out they’re legit hateful and many of us are against them. And I’ve gone from using “high-functioning,” to finding out other people hate it and wondering if I should hate it, too and thinking, “I should probably look for a reason to hate it,” and it didn’t take me long to remember how people have used it to dismiss my struggles, and with further reflection, just... people deciding who’s low-functioning and who’s high-functioning is like... kind of looking down on a lot of us. Like, “Okay you people aren’t so bad, but you other people over there are like, super messed-up.” It’s kinda icky.

Like I know Autism and amputation (and in Molly’s case, blindness) are very very very different things, but the struggle of joining a community and wondering, “How’m I supposed to refer to myself? What’s supposed to bother me? Am I offending my own people and letting my own people down?” ...it’s kinda the same across these situations. And while I love how Della’s whole character isn’t wrapped up in her being an amputee, I wouldn’t mind seeing an episode or just a b plot of an episode where she kinda deals with her identity as an amputee now in society and how she thinks of herself and how she wants other people to see her.

For anyone curious about the youtube videos I mentioned: Molly Burke’s: [link] Footless Jo’s: [another link]