BethCPTSD
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2016
Hi everyone,
I've sought a lot of help on this board over the last couple years, but never officially reported how my trip went when we went a few months ago (June 2017.) I do want to thank everyone so much for the kind responses and help you gave me at different times when I had questions. I still enjoy coming to the board and hope I have more to offer now that I took my first trip to WDW, Florida.
So, I have more than 10 psychiatric and physical disabilities. My psychiatric ones have been primary since I was a child and the physical ones have come on mostly in the past few years. The main ones are severe POTS that makes it necessary to use a wheelchair, and an assortment of autoimmune disease processes that are causing a ton of symptoms and yet, not enough info to make an official diagnosis of "which" autoimmune disease(s) they are.
I also use a service dog that for my trauma disorders and mobility issues that I got last December 8th. He's an awesome SD and his name is Harrison.
We spent two weeks in Orlando, staying in Disney Springs. We were walking distance from DS actually, which I could do easily in my chair. I went just with my SD and my husband. Due to my laundry list of disabilities that included psychiatric diagnoses along with the physical ones, I was granted a DAS for the length of the trip with little information. However, I went prepared. I used an app on my phone that I found out about on this website, which helps people who are not always able to speak. (I some times cannot, and grew up with selective mutism.) So on that app, it allowed me to write out what I wanted to tell Guest Relations pertaining to why I hoped to be accommodated with the DAS. The first sentence said that I have been diagnosed with more than 10 psychiatric and physical disabilities, and then went on to explain how my psychiatric ones affect my ability to stand in lines for long periods. In my case, however, they only looked at the first sentence and immediately offered me the DAS. This is not usually what they ask for -- they usually want to know why exactly you can't stand in lines -- however, I guess they assumed with so many issues, they would just give it to me.
The DAS was very helpful. Especially with not only all my issues, but having my service dog with me. It allowed us to keep moving, and have time to get Harrison water and take potty breaks as much as we needed to, without being held up in line without being to get out if it was an emergency for either me or him.
I found that in the 14 days we were there, it was excessively hot the first two days and then rained almost every day following. Unfortunately, I now feel looking back, that it was too hot for my SD, especially with his full coat (except that it probably protected him from the sun.) Those first two days he was trying to lie down constantly, and we gave him water it seemed like, every few feet. He was our main focus. But the rest of the days, he seemed very comfortable (as were we) and while we still gave him tons of ice water and breaks, he wasn't overheating and it was great to have him there to help me as usual.
One thing I really became aware of (my physical problems cause excessive fatigue) is that even though I'm only 39, at this point in my life with all my health issues, we basically could only stay in the parks for the afternoons. Only a couple of times did we stay into the night. Otherwise, we left our hotel to go to the parks around noon, and then went to dinner and back the hotel by about 8pm. Being there two weeks, it allowed us to do this and not feel that we were missing anything, and I was exhausted by this time. Our hotel was very cold, and usually we were coming in from a rainstorm, so I took long warm baths at night and completely took advantage of resting on this vacation (I cannot relax at all at home) and I was falling asleep by 11 or 12 every night. I think this was the best thing I got out of the whole vacation.
I'm sorry this is so long. I'm totally open to answering any questions any of you might have if you have questions about the parks, going with POTS or chronic fatigue and psychiatric issues, or going with a service dog. If you have a different one I could answer, go ahead and ask. Anyway, I just wanted to give you a little report.
Thanks for being a kind and gracious community.
Beth
I've sought a lot of help on this board over the last couple years, but never officially reported how my trip went when we went a few months ago (June 2017.) I do want to thank everyone so much for the kind responses and help you gave me at different times when I had questions. I still enjoy coming to the board and hope I have more to offer now that I took my first trip to WDW, Florida.
So, I have more than 10 psychiatric and physical disabilities. My psychiatric ones have been primary since I was a child and the physical ones have come on mostly in the past few years. The main ones are severe POTS that makes it necessary to use a wheelchair, and an assortment of autoimmune disease processes that are causing a ton of symptoms and yet, not enough info to make an official diagnosis of "which" autoimmune disease(s) they are.
I also use a service dog that for my trauma disorders and mobility issues that I got last December 8th. He's an awesome SD and his name is Harrison.
We spent two weeks in Orlando, staying in Disney Springs. We were walking distance from DS actually, which I could do easily in my chair. I went just with my SD and my husband. Due to my laundry list of disabilities that included psychiatric diagnoses along with the physical ones, I was granted a DAS for the length of the trip with little information. However, I went prepared. I used an app on my phone that I found out about on this website, which helps people who are not always able to speak. (I some times cannot, and grew up with selective mutism.) So on that app, it allowed me to write out what I wanted to tell Guest Relations pertaining to why I hoped to be accommodated with the DAS. The first sentence said that I have been diagnosed with more than 10 psychiatric and physical disabilities, and then went on to explain how my psychiatric ones affect my ability to stand in lines for long periods. In my case, however, they only looked at the first sentence and immediately offered me the DAS. This is not usually what they ask for -- they usually want to know why exactly you can't stand in lines -- however, I guess they assumed with so many issues, they would just give it to me.
The DAS was very helpful. Especially with not only all my issues, but having my service dog with me. It allowed us to keep moving, and have time to get Harrison water and take potty breaks as much as we needed to, without being held up in line without being to get out if it was an emergency for either me or him.
I found that in the 14 days we were there, it was excessively hot the first two days and then rained almost every day following. Unfortunately, I now feel looking back, that it was too hot for my SD, especially with his full coat (except that it probably protected him from the sun.) Those first two days he was trying to lie down constantly, and we gave him water it seemed like, every few feet. He was our main focus. But the rest of the days, he seemed very comfortable (as were we) and while we still gave him tons of ice water and breaks, he wasn't overheating and it was great to have him there to help me as usual.
One thing I really became aware of (my physical problems cause excessive fatigue) is that even though I'm only 39, at this point in my life with all my health issues, we basically could only stay in the parks for the afternoons. Only a couple of times did we stay into the night. Otherwise, we left our hotel to go to the parks around noon, and then went to dinner and back the hotel by about 8pm. Being there two weeks, it allowed us to do this and not feel that we were missing anything, and I was exhausted by this time. Our hotel was very cold, and usually we were coming in from a rainstorm, so I took long warm baths at night and completely took advantage of resting on this vacation (I cannot relax at all at home) and I was falling asleep by 11 or 12 every night. I think this was the best thing I got out of the whole vacation.
I'm sorry this is so long. I'm totally open to answering any questions any of you might have if you have questions about the parks, going with POTS or chronic fatigue and psychiatric issues, or going with a service dog. If you have a different one I could answer, go ahead and ask. Anyway, I just wanted to give you a little report.
Thanks for being a kind and gracious community.
Beth
