Dear John Quinones,
I am a huge fan of the show and tune in whenever it is on. On 7/11/14 I saw an episode of WWYD that had a woman pretending to be disabled
in order to use an electronic scooter in the grocery store. I couldn’t help but think how this situation
could be reversed. How would people react to someone who looked healthy but was
truly sick using these resources? I’m a
21 year old woman who was born with a serious heart defect and lung disease
that has required 4 open heart surgeries, a pacemaker/defibulator, wearing
oxygen at night and taking 45 pills a day. I will some day need a heart-lung
transplant. But I look completely healthy. Looking at me, you’d never know that
I have a terminal illness.
There have been several occasions where I park in a handicap
spot with my placard on display, or use an elevator instead of the stairs and
complete strangers yell out to me that I’m faking it, being lazy or scamming
the system. I understand their confusion
and typically when I explain to them about my health and how I have something
that is considered an “invisible illness”, they back off and some even
apologize. But there have been times where people don’t believe me.
Invisible illnesses are not well known nor do people really
understand them. When you think of someone who is sick and needs a wheelchair
or needs to use a handicap parking spot, you picture someone who is older and
using a cane. You don’t picture a blonde 5 foot college student. But this is
what invisible illness is. This is what invisible illness looks like.
I think with your show, WWYD, you could educate a lot of
people about this topic if you were to create a scenario using actors who have
an invisible illness and have other actors call them out for parking in a
handicap spot or using an electronic wheelchair in the grocery when they look
healthy. I would be more than happy to
help and explain more about invisible illnesses if you ever decide to showcase
this scenario on your show. Please feel free to contact me for anymore
information via e-mail: frosty05@gmail.com
I think we can make a lot of difference in the way people
treat those of us who have invisible illnesses by featuring this story on WWYD.
I hope to hear back from you so we can start to help educate society about
this.
Thank you,
Becca
I would love to get this letter to John Quinones by Tweeting him and WWYD. Click their names to be directed to their Twitter profiles. Lets help spread awareness about invisible illnesses such as CHD and PH!
45 pills a day? What pills/dosages do you take and how often? I ask because this makes me suspicious of the rest of your story.
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI would be more than happy to post my medication list to an actual person and not an anonymous message. If for some reason you don't want to be public on this forum feel free to e-mail me and feel free to introduce yourself at : frosty05@gmail.com and I will gladly answer any and all questions for you.
Or if that isn't something you feel comfortable with, please feel free to read through my past blog posts to get a better picture of what a chronic, invisible and terminal illness looks like.
Hoping to hear from you,
Becca