RE: If you can climb onto your roof ...
Definition Supplement
Chapter 15,Illinois Compiled Statutes,Section 335/4A defines:
Types of Disabilities
Type One: Physical (P)
A physical disability is a physical impairment, disease, or loss, which is of a permanent nature, and which substantially impairs normal physical ability or motor skills.
Type Two: Developmental (D)
A developmental disability is a disability which originates before the age of 18 years, and results in or has resulted in impairment similar to that caused by mental retardation, and which requires services similar to those required by mentally retarded persons, and which is attributable to mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, or other condi-
tions or similar disorders.
Type Three: Visual (V)
A visual disability is a disability resulting in complete absence of vision, or vision that with corrective glasses is so defective as to prevent performance of tasks or activities for which eyesight is essential.
Type Four: Hearing (H)
A hearing disability is a disability resulting in complete absence of hearing, or hearing that with sound enhancing or magnifying equipment is so impaired as to require the use of sensory input other than hearing as the principal means of receiving spoken language.
Type Five: Mental (M)
A mental disability is an emotional or psychological impairment or disease, which substantially impairs the ability to meet individual or societal needs.
Classifications of Disabilities
Class 1
A Class 1 disability is any type of disability which does not render a person unable to engage in any substantially gainful activity, or which does not impair the person’s ability to live independently or to perform labor or services for which he/she is qualified.
Class 1a
A Class 1a disability is a Class 1 disability which renders a person unable to walk 200 feet or more unassisted by another person or without the aid of a walker, crutches, braces, prosthetic device or a wheelchair, or without great difficulty or discomfort due to the following impairments:neurologic, orthopedic, respiratory, cardiac, arthritic disorder, or the loss of function or absence of a limb or limbs.
Class 2
A Class 2 disability is any type of disability which renders a person unable to engage in any substantially gainful activity, or which substantially impairs the person’s ability to live independently without supervision or in-home support services, or which substantially impairs the person’s ability to perform labor or services for which he/she is qualified or significantly restricts the labor or services which he/she is able to perform.
Class 2a
A Class 2a disability is a Class 2 disability which renders a person unable to walk 200 feet or more unassisted by another person or without the aid of a walker, crutches, braces, prosthetic device or a wheelchair, or without great difficulty or discomfort due to the following impairments:neurologic, orthopedic, respiratory, cardiac, arthritic disorder, blindness, or the loss of function or absence of a limb or limbs.
Printed by authority of the State of Illinois.November 2006 — 20M — DSD X 164.2
Seems to me a PDM2a would have some problems. Note a blind person is a 2a. Perhaps DP's should have to wear this ID in a manner that is readily visible or at least when they park in a DP spot.
Can a PDM2a hunt? Is he/she restricted as to what is fair game? Would you want an M2a to hunt? Is a P2a more disabled that a D2a or a M2a or a V2a?
What is the punishment for a P2a who climbs a ladder? If a PM2a climbs a ladder would that be OK? One would expect a PM2a to climb a ladder or better yet ride a motorcycle.
People, let's respect those with disabilities and let them be the judge as to what they should do and not do for you do not know what thier card says nor should you ask nor should they have to tell.
Beware of the PMD2a's!
RE: Disability Rules/Laws
Good Morning Dilfo,
Sometimes it pays to say something so shocking others don't know what to think, they leave you alone. I think your answer was very appropriate.
I was evaluated by both the MD and Psych. for SSDI and they both tried to put me on the line but I just did my thing and was who I was. For the shrink it was kind of shocking, they had info from a burn survivors group I attended and I disturbed that shrink very much too.
Why do others need to understand or critique why we choose to do something? There are a lot of severe health and mental issues out there for many reasons. Some people want us to fit in to their stereotype and when we refuse they immediately judge in spite of their ignorance. I agree with Serena about push push push but then you also need to have to learn how to pace pace pace.
I can't get into anyones head here about what their state of mind, health or level of pain is and further I don't want to. If someone is disabled and wants to climb the RV ladder the more power to him. Same goes if they want to use the DP parking. I am not going to judge that person, or wonder about that person for what they choose to do or not to do. Further I am not going to compare my disability and what I can do or think I can do to what they are doing. I shall never say I am the most disabled but I will say I am the most abled, with some restrictions. I also shall not enable disabled persons,
If you are looking into disability private message me and I will give you some of the guidelines I know about. I was disabled for both Psych and health reasons.
When I do meet an individual who does spout I love to play the game. I had back surgery - me too, I had a slipped disc - me too, I had a ruptured disc - me too, I had 4 ruptured discs - me too, I have atrophy in my leg - me too, I have metal rods, me too, metal plates - me too, 10 operations - me too, 6 screws - me too, months in a hospital - me too, diabetis - me too, pacemaker - me too. And it goes on and on but usually I can keep going and going but then there is one thing I have they do not have and that is two discharges saying I am normal and well.
You have a good day, climb that ladder.
RE: Disability Rules/Laws
*Still, this begs the question: if one can climb ladders, walk distances, ride a motorcycle, or do other similar activities, why do they need a special handicap camping site? Educate us on this, please. "
Right on Serena in your analysis so let's add some more. I was in a fire and explosion which ruptured 6 discs and did considerable tissue, nerve and muscle damage. The first question the spine surgeon, perhaps the most famous spine surgeon in the world, asked me was can I ride a bike, I answered yes. He asked if I could do so for some distance and answered yes. He was not surprised, most his patients respond affirmatively - pre and post op.
This does not mean that I can walk very far especially when I have to carry something. We also want to get back, two way transportation. I received the DP plates from the CA DMV. They made my tempoary request permanent because the surgery was permanent. A year later 4 more vertebrae were fused, permanently, Without the surgeries I would have died since slowly nerves were degenerating and dying resulting in the loss of organ function. For example I have lost 30% function in both kidneys.
Now who is to say just how much discomfort I am supposed to endure or if I do choose to endure discomfort is that not my choice to do so without ridicule and when enough is enough.. I endured 21 2 - 3 hour debreidments without the benefit of anesthesia. That does not mean I should ever have to endure another or the pain equal to a single debreidment.
Walking is often near impossible but I can ride - often with considerable discomfort but also with considerable joy. There is a list of disabilities prepared by SS. I worked for 10 years with 8 fused vertebrae and considerable permanent nerve damage. I could have been declared parmanently after the fire but chose not to. 6 fused vertebrae and SSDI says you are permanently disabled, I had 8 and worked that way for 10 years.
Oh, I also have systemic Lupus and am very light and sun sensitive and then there is cold induced urticaria, I am allergic to cold. Now I can hide in the dark in a closed room but I choose not to and I endure the consequences. In '98 I had another 4 surgeries in one year, 3 for for SLE related arthritic conditons - a total of 15 and I was working but... both my thumbs were now fused surgically and both joints in a pinkie.
I worked in the petroleum and environmental industry and I was becoming a huge liability. They no longer allowed me offshore etc. since I would not be able to save myself I put others at risk. But I can climb that ladder and I can ride the MC and I do but SS took only 8 weeks to declare me permanently disabled. It was time.
I have DP plates on the MC and I now teach part time at a local college two nights a week. This is better for me on the mental side than is bad for me on the physical and mental sides. I am not in a flair. But I can not walk around the block without sitting down and when I have to sit I have to sit wherever it may be. I can not carry something in front of me very long. When I am walking outside and go into a store I have young people open the door for me and often clerks ask if I am all right, I am just adjusting. I also always carry an epi pen and a candy bar. And please don't mention the word flair for which you not know of what you speak and what it can do to me or to others.
I often amaze doctors by what I can do and that is fine. Your description has only to do with 3 items, a ladder, motorcycle and walking and from that you make huge judgements. One thing I do is pace pace pace, something I can do because I make the time and because our lives depend upon it so we can climb that ladder or ride that MC. So when I am on the MC and park in a DP spot I do so because for that day and for that time I have endured enough and I take advantage of what I can.
I never judge wether others should be in those spots. I never judge how much pain someone is in or might be in. We all have our own methods for coping and for doing because most of us no matter what our disability want to live to our fullest even it it involves considerable discomfort.
Thank you Serena.
RE: Disability Rules/Laws
When people ask me what my disability is, when riding my MC with DP plates, I respond unresolved mental issues. Boy do they leave me alone. Had a cop ask me that once at a country store when I parked in DP and when I gave that reply he spit out his sandwich.
Maybe they should brand a DP n our foreheads.
RE: What is the worst day of your life????
It was a very warm day in Bakersfield, 110 degrees to be exact. I was in a fenced off area of our yard pulling dead grass out of the swimming pool pumps. I had been killing weeds by spraying diesel. There was a large explosion, pop, that shook the windows of the house. I was surrounded by fire. I looked to see if I was on fire. I could see the skin burning off my legs like pages of a newspaper.
It was very peaceful and quiet. I looked for an exit and decided my best way out was to go through 20 feet of fire to the gate, that was the only one not locked. The day was about to get worse but for a change I had made a good decision. I tried to jump through the fire with as much altitude as I could get and fell on my left side. I got up and headed for the swimming pool about 100' away.
My wife was in the kitchen and I yelled to her to call the FD and an ambulance we had a fire and I was badly burned. I attempted to dive in the pool but it felt like my head was not attached so I walked in. I tried to wade in deep but the pain in my waist was unbearable and it felt like something was really wrong. I left the pool for the shade on the deck and turned the hose on over my towel on my legs and propped my back against a post and waited and kept an eye on the fence fire which was approaching the house.
The FD arrived and took forever to get to me or so it seemed, they knew I had been burned. They took over hose duties and wanted to take off my cooked sneakers but i did not want them touching my legs so I did. Within minutes the ambulance arrived and when they removed the towel they almost fainted. I had been scheduled to go to the burn center in LA after stabilization at the local hospital by helopcopter but...
The ER doctor missed diagnosed the burns and percentage and dismissed the helo. I had sustained 36% percent burns, half of which were severe 3rd. degree, the rest 2nd degree and the rest of the body was singed - first degree.
In the ambulance it felt like my legs were not attached.
I found out much later that I had ruptured 3 disks in my neck and 3 in my lumbar sacral spine.
It took two years for the last burn wound to heal. I was debreided 22 times without the benefit of anesthesia, each day was worse than the first, and hospitalized for a month when I was released for a holiday weekend and I never returned not even for skin grafts. I was later hospitalized for two months for complications and then 3 spine surgeries and a neurosurgery.
All because I did something incredibly stupid and then smart - I thought of a good exit strategy and of the pool. I made all three networks that night.
The aftermath of the burn resulted in the county passing a new code for burn victims. They trained two firemen to go to the hospital the patient was sent to for stabilization. These firemen would determine the necessity for the patient to go to a burn center based on a checklist. The decision could not be overtruned by the hospital staff. More than 10% being 3rd degree, count 1st degree as part of total burn, any circumvention 3rd degree burns, burns of hands or feet of 2nd degree or worse, genitals, lungs etc.
The hospital was placed on probation and had to redo their burn treatment stuff and most involved were released.
With the new law I would have been sent to a burn center on almost every item. I wasn't.
I will never, ever be treated again for a burn.
It occurred in '88 and upon reflection I am often asked what would I do now if I could either reverse it or avoid it. I wouldn't change anything that has happened to me. I, my family and others have learned much from it and others may have been saved by it. There is so much worse, as we have seen above, that can happen I will take what did happen. I am fine and well and my family has prospered and is well. My granddaughter, inseminated and born out of the chaos will be going to college next year. So many of my friends have passed due to heath disasters or accidents, such wonderful people that are no more.
Where we are now is fine, the past is over and I have healed. I just choose never to go through it again and yes I did something extremely stupid and knowing that has allowed me to heal, all of us to heal.
RE: Thumb Joint replacement
I'm confused, then again that is not unusual. What exactly did you have done? The last time I researched the topic finger and thumb joints were not replaced because of the nature of the bones involved. If a soft material was used for the joint you would end up with a floppy joint and if a hard material was used the hand bones were just to soft.
I ask this because I got a synovial cyst in my left thumb. It ended up being the size of an egg and they had to operate to remove the cyst in fear of a severe bone infection. At first there was no pain but as the cyst matured the pain became quite bad especially when you were trying to sleep. They fused the thumb, at an angle. I asked for it to be straight but the doctor fused it bent. Now a fused thumb at an angle is like doubling the size of your hand and trying to use it. You can't. Solution another surgery to fuse it straight.
The next year another synovial cyst hit the right thumb and that is when I went looking for alternatives to fusions. No hand surgeon specialist in So. California would do it. Result was the right thumb was fused, straight. The doc at Kerlan Jobe said he had fused two thumbs before so I asked him how he would like it if I fused his thumbs.
Later that year a synovial cyst attacked my left pinkie in the top joint, result surgery and fusion. Now all of these surgeries involved pins, bent at the end so they could be twisted before removal with a pliers. I used to twist them in waiting rooms telling people I used them to tell time.
I wasn't through yet. Another few months and the middle joint of the pinkie went, synovial cysts. Time for surgery but I had had it with pins, so they used a newly developed plate and 6 tiny screws. After the usual series of cast etc. the big day came to get the last cast off. The doc noticed as I tried to move the finger it moved. Time for an xray and sure enough the titanium plate was in 2 pieces. But there was no pain so we have left it.
I thank my SLE and a bad flair for the problem and fortunately I have had no further cysts.
Over the years I have learned to cope and make do with the fused thumbs but I sometimes appear quite awkward while trying to do the simplest tasks. I imagine I have about as much strength, perhaps more than a replaced joint might offer and every once in a while I know I put to much pressure on them and slack off at the moment when I think they might break. Picking up small items from a flat surface can not be done, using banisters is no longer effective, gripping other items is so so, threading a needle is impossible but still there is much I can do.
Let me know how the joint works. I wish you well and a speedy return to normalcy.
PS - I hated the hand PT, went once and left in a rage. She wanted me to stick my hand in hot wax, I'm a burn survivor and there was no way I could do that. She wouldn't take no for an answer and couldn't understand the problem.
RE: Replacing Steering Stabilizer Bar F53 Chassis
On my 1991 F53 chassis there was no stabilizer and it needed it. I installed the new Bilstein steering stabilizer which comes on many new coaches and the "Tru Trac" unit. Out here crosswinds of >40 mph are common and what a difference these two components made. The coach has Bilstein shocks and air bags.
I would use the Bilstein over OEM ant day.
RE: Disability Rules/Laws
And before anybody jumps me.
Yes, I know that there are many different kinds of physical and mental limiting factors that result in people having difficulty making it through the day.
My comment about not being disabled if you can ride a bike or climb on the roof of your RV ... isn't meant to demean people's pain and suffering.
However, if you are healthy enough to ride a bike or climb on the roof of your RV, then you obviously are capable of camping in a non-level, non-ADA camp site.
OK, I', going to jump. There are many forms of disability and individual disabilities differ. I have a blue placard and ride a motorcycle and can climb to the roof of the RV. May not be able to get back down but usually can climb up. Wether you can ride a bicycle, motorcycle or climb a ladder has little or nothing to due with disability. It only has to do that on that particular day and time you did so. An hour later you may not be able to stand up.
I think the type of disability everyone is referring to here is a severe physical disability where walking even short distances is difficult most if not all the time. This is not an issue of health or the ability to climb, ride etc. Moreover we are not the judges.
In California I am not aware of any Disability Card with a classification on it. When people see my blue disability plate on the motorcycle I tell them I have unresolved mental issues and they leave me alone.
There are many types of disability and some are more disabling than others and some vary, good days and bad days and more importantly people vary. Social Security has their list but even though you make the list does not predict your status for that day or life.
There are few who can out back or out surgery me yet there are many things I can and do do. There are probably a lot of things I shouldn't do. I have had 15+ surgeries, have 8 surgically fused vertebrae, 2 rods, a bar, 11 large screws, 8 small screws, two plates one of which is broken, many smaller bolts and nuts, both joints on a pinky surgically fused and two surgically fused thumbs and a pacemaker.
My good days are when my SLE is inactive and the bad days- months years are when the SLE is active and in a flair. I am sun and cold sensitive, sensitive enough to carry an Epipen. I can not stand on one leg but I can ride a bike and mc. This is common for even the severest back injuries. Often I find walking any distance is very difficult but sometimes it is not. Walking on slopes usually creates severe problems. Bicycles, ladders and mc's don't.
I use the disabled parking spots when a long walk is involved or when I have to carry anything. As for pain I don't pay much attention to it and I take no pain medications.
When people see me walk they no longer ask questions and I hate it when young women open doors for me or a clerk at a store will ask if I need medical aid. I am fine, what I really need is to get on that motorcycle or to climb up on the roof or some sugar and that I usually ask for.
Let's not judge... let's do...
RE: Trailer Life Directory CD for a Mac?
I have a Mac OS X 10.5 and the new TL CD also does not work. They sent me another which also did not work. I called again and left a message but they did not reply.
The CD is designed to work on a Mac with OS X so I would keep calling and see that they rectify the problem. When I install it it says the data files were not installed. When you look in the appropriate folders I can find no data installed. Either they left them off the CD or they have a problem with their installer.
Anyway my opinion is that they need to fix it.
