I Was Crippled By Misogyny As a Child

Re-learning how to walk in middle-age

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I had to wait years for this. As I sat in the aptly named waiting room, soon to be called back to the area where my physical therapist (PT) does gait assessments, I considered my trajectory: one of millions to become disabled during the pandemic, I had lost almost all mobility.

It started with a little numbness in the feet when sitting — something so “normal” it was nothing, unnoticeable until the other symptoms arrived. Then came the pain — so terrible I lost function and the will to live. I couldn’t walk or sit, focus enough to read, or concentrate well enough to write. I couldn’t live.

That was almost three years ago now. Years filled to the brim with medical tests and procedures, with daily physical therapy, and regular set-backs. And always, always, the constant pain.

Once, I had only a couple of upright hours in a day. Now, when I’m lucky, I have eight or so.

Stumbling in the dark

I’ve collected a series of diagnoses but still don’t know what is crippling me. It all originates with a congenital condition called Ehler’s Danlos Syndrome. Though I was born with it, my EDS wasn’t spotted by a medical professional until 2022. I was forty. (Most females with EDS are diagnosed…