Welcome to my RU-vid channel, Accessible Media Maven! I'm Laigha Anderson, and I've faced disability challenges since a young age. At 15, my first major knee surgery shifted my path. I worked as a writer, challenging stereotypes, and inspiring those with disabilities. Now, I'm pursuing a Masters of Public Administration to make a difference.
In 2021, I was diagnosed with Generalized Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder (gHSD) and Diabetes, with an unknown cause. I'm passionate about diabetes care, no matter the type or cause. Join me as we navigate life's twists, raise disability awareness, and explore healthcare. Let's learn, grow, and make a positive impact together! 💪📚🌍 #LifeWithLaigha
Amber Lynn isn’t bullied because she’s fat (not by the majority) she’s criticized because she’s a liar and has done awful things to people in the past.
Also would enjoy a vid on your take on ALR and maybe on the community that follows her? I personally have my qualms with her but also with some of the folks that make content about her cause it feels hypocritical but there’s some valid stuff too!
I will definitely do that! I have been considering making an ALR video or series of videos for more than a year now. I was already planning some content around my thoughts on Fat positivity and the anti fat positive RU-vidrs such as Obese to Beast and Alan Roberts. Would you be interested in a series like that? Small teaser for my Ozempic Series I am planning in August (unless things change).
Just now seeing this video. Laying down in bed in pain. Seizure yesterday toilet tonight ibsd sucks on the verge of emergency room visit let them stick my port. I need advice anyone wanna take a Crack at it kind of reminds me of a girl ex friend who i am trying to get rid of
Thing is we all know our bodies better than Dr's do but it's still best to seek medical advice before self diagnosis because you always need a good option for your personal health and well-being or chronic conditions. I have been diagnosed with gastropreasis and a lot of multiple conditions which is why it's called chronic illness. I have general ptsd and anxiety. But I feel that it's best to get it on paper form for better ways to care for your own health and wellness
That is frightening. An ENTIRE sub-reddit dedicated to a random Ci patient? CREEPY! Also you look very nice - the colors/hair are really working for you. Good luck with your new job and move.
I did not realize that Ash C also has her own sub. She is... somewhere on my list to get to eventually. I think she does have a timeline which would be a refreshing change of pace. I also know she had active crohns in 2020 so maybe not too far back to go? I will put her on my list
I vaguely remember people saying she was eating stuff like fried chicken instead of following a diet for gastroparesis where she wouldn’t need to resort to a tube. Basically it seemed like she was somewhat noncompliant and causing at least some of her GI symptoms with a poor diet. Good videos btw, interesting topic that hasnt been covered much.
Thanks for helping spread the word about the illness fakers community because for those of us with real chronic illness like myself I have gastropraesis and hypoglycemia and I was born with cerebral palsy. I also have POTs its all diagnosis later in life for me as well but I have had symptoms since I hit my teen years its just the technology was not that good back then. But thanks so much for helping the community.
Um... medical stuff grosses me out (like have spoken with a therapist about how much). Also I'm not autistic. I would argue that using terms like "abdominal" vs "stomach" can simply be an indicator of an intelligent and nerdy person. Those words technically mean two different things...
Thanks for the update. I'm sorry that the diagnosis wasn't what you hoped for and hope that your doctors can find a treatment plan that will help with the insulin resistance. Wishing you all the best!
great video! i'm sure jaquie would love to see people defending her like this. in the future, do you think you would consider making videos in defense of other disabled creators who have been targeted by groups like illnessfakers and kiwi farms? they need someone on their side too.
Hello there, Yes I am planning on covering many more CI influencers and disabled creators. I am planning to do a handful of videos about each creator (likely 3-6 range) just based on what sparks my interest and any comments I get from viewers. I plan to start uploading twice per week, once a week focusing on myself, what's going on with me, etc and once a week on illness fakers or another series i am working on soon. Illness Fakers is a research intensive project and I'm hoping to view most or all of a creators' publicly available content (especially videos) so that i can really understand as much as I can what is going on and address some of these points head on instead of just calling them terrible, which they are but I want to be more product. There will be a few more Chronically Jacquie videos and then I will be moving onto Paul and Janiece. After that I plan to do either Amy Lee Fischer or Dani just depending on what you want. I've also been thinking about focusing on KF, LolCow, Gossip Guru, etc. I would likely also cover Shane Burcaw, Mary Frey and others who arent accused of faking but of being over the top, actors, etc, if that is what you guys would be interested in. If so I would probably do Shane after Janiece or maybe even after Jaquie since I've followed he and Hannah for a while. This is what people seem to enjoy on my channel and so I want to do more of this
I'm so glad to hear you're getting the care you need, especially with diabetes. Having to force yourself to eat when blood sugars are dropping is the pits, especially when you're sick. As for the pump, I wish you all the best. I don't want to say that I hope you get reclassified as Type 1, but I think it might be helpful for management.
Thank you. I have a lot of mixed emotions when it comes to being diagnosed with Type 1 vs Type 2. I will be making a video about it quite soon. I've been doing a lot of Liquid IV and peanut butter pretzels which has seemed to be easier for me to Handle. That's why I've cut out potatoes and switched to bread as a main carb, it's just easier to eat. I'm hopeful that we are closer to a diagnosis than we were two years ago. Best
That was a great video explaining how a handful of medical conditions can cause even more medical conditions. Each of the "symptom" conditions still has to be dealt with on its own and so the reality is that you are treating twenty issues, even if you have only five parent conditions. It can be frustrating and overwhelming for the person and for those in their circle of friends and caregivers, it can be really confusing because they don't know how to help.
I'm glad this was useful for you. I think you're right that if often can seem like 'wow you have so many things wrong with you' when in reality it's a few things that cause issues. The reason I went into symptoms as well as parent ans secondary conditions is to show that her GI issues were really severe possibly because there were so many conditions that intermingled. As someone who deals with a tangle of conditions I know it can be frustrating so I was hoping this video would make it make sense
I'm always fascinated by Illness Fakers content. I knew someone who had Munchausens, we were very close friends since we were kids. She was always prone to exaggerating minor injuries and colds and stuff, but when I was diagnosed with my chronic illness, it was like her Munchausens went full blown. I eventually had to distance myself because I realized that spending time with people who are actually ill seemed to be a trigger for her, like it made it worse. I realize that it's a mental illness so I try not to be too harsh about it.
Since becoming disabled (selfish driver) I've encountered REAL anger from a now-former "close friend" who kept getting jealous, upset, and competitive when my disability couldn't be ignored. She always had something worse wrong with her and wanted to argue/tell myself or others that I was faking. eg, if someone asked on my facebook how I'm recovering from spinal Fusion... she'd comment something the the effect of "other people have problems too!" and reply with a picture of her bad sunburn. I could go on... So manipulative and disturbing.
I knew her in real life. Met her when Harlow was 3/4 months old. Trained with her and was friends for a bit. When I met her she said she had narcolepsy. Thazzit. Hung out with Janice and Orion too. Janice also said narcolepsy and potentially going deaf..we fell out shortly before she got the feeding tube and before the wheelchairs showed up..she’s better than Janice BY FAR but still they’re not great people overall and I’ll leave it at that.
I also suffer from chronic illnesses and I did follow her when she was alive. I was very sad when she died. I don't understand why people were so awful to her. I also don't understand why people were so invested in bringing her down. She was in the hospital so many times. Do people think people want to be in the hospital. It sucks! I don't understand why they cared so much. They should just ignore her videos if they thinking she is faking it!
Great advice, especially on the emails. Recording everything in writing is essential. Even if they verbally agree to accommodate you, sending an email thanking them for the accommodations that they agreed to (including a list of those accommodations) and saying that you look forward to their classes is another way of confirming their agreement in writing. Although it can be difficult to stand up for yourself, sometimes you do need to escalate the issue if people are not abiding by the agreement. Having emails to support your claims is so helpful.
Jaquie changed my life! I have been chronically ill since October 2012, she was the first chronic illness youtuber I followed, I loved her content, I was subscribed to her and even become a patron! I was in the midst trying to get a diagnose of my stomach problem and she told me to keep fighting for an answer and because of her I GOT DIAGNOSED! I now ALWAYS say positivity is the way forward in life it's something like she said but its something I stand by now! When she passed away I was heartbroken and reading online what they said about her husband. She did NOT deserve the hate she got she was SUCH A GOOD PERSON! I used to spread awareness and share my journey on my IG and one woman "claiming" to be chronically ill was stealing my content by rewording my posts and posting them on hers I have since stopped and this woman closed down her IG after people called her out for faking turns out she actually was which is sickening!. RIP Jaquie you are deeply missed :(
Your skin is glowing, love it. I get this feeling too, despite being diagnosed with all these illnesses doctors and therapists say I have. It doesn't help that those in my life have been invalidating about them. But of course they have.
Congratulations! It sounds like this is something you wanted to do and you've done a great job preparing for it. I'm happy for you! I definitely want to keep up with your vlog series here.
Hey I have a similar story. I have bipolar and ED too. I binge when I have money. What I've decided to do is spend all of it on groceries and healthier foods (some junk as well but no seed oils as they trigger manias in me). I also have a lot of supplements I take to keep my issues at bay. I don't want to advertise my channel or videos at all, but I want to help you. If you are curious, I have one on curing my mental issues (by cure I mean get to the root cause and fix it, which is genetic so no true cure). I hope you check them out. Take care. You're a beautiful soul, as many of us bipolar people are. :) Love you.
Skin Grip makes a cover/over-lay to help reduce the chance of the Libre 3 falling off. I use the Skin Grip Max cover. They are about $24.99 for a package of 10 on Amazon. The regular Skin Grip is also about $24.99, but comes in a package of 20.
I will have to try that. I will say I'm on day 10 and the sensor is still in place (despite bumping against the door a few times). I do plan to do an update video after I've used the second sensor. I'll talk more about how it went with actually sticking to my skin in that video
Thank you! Many disabilities/chronic illnesses are DYNAMIC. Have gotten so much crap from people who get upset because, “I saw you last week and you looked fine!” Yes, Karen… and then I worked the concession stand at the school dance the other day & it kicked my a$$.
I remember you said you have bipolar. I do too. What do you take for it? I take OTC lithium orotate 20mg, 10mg twice a day morning and evening. Just started three days ago. Manic and depressive episodes are getting better already.
I don't talk about what medicines I take with the exception of some of my diabetes medications. Medications are very individualized, especially for bipolar disorder so I don't want people comparing meds to see who's 'sicker' which I think can be a problem
I felt a lot better after surgery. I believe I said this in my "I'm getting worse" video but by the time I had surgery I could not keep food down at all. Biliary dyskenisa was not the only cause of my stomach problems, it was a combo of different smaller issues and Gasteroparesis. I will say for a while fats were painful to eat (I couldn't eat peanut butter) but as of late the only food I can't eat is the Impossible Whopper but I just had Impossible Chicken and that was fine so maybe I would be fine if I had an Impossible whopper again
Maybe you should take some clips from Chronically Jaquie and other RU-vidrs that are disabled and show those clips and show some posts on Reddit side by side and show how this subreddit has and is doing harm but show how these RU-vidrs are not faking it and how they are really disabled and how by this subreddit can hurt an individual? Great video. I know that I would love to see this subreddit disappear forever. Because of this subreddit, I know that many people with disabilities have been afraid to do things they needed to do for fear of being blamed for faking their disability. For example, let's say someone has CP but if the person doesn't have a look or the symptoms that are listed in the doctor's textbook then that person may not get the medical care they need or if something is not spot on they may not get the diagnosis they may need? Thank You for your video.
I know I will for sure be making videos about some of the victims on the forum. Not because I want to draw more attention to them but because I think it's fair that we point out how horrible the sub is. I myself was also very afraid that I would be accused of faking my stomach issues which are still undiagnosed after nearly a year. It didn't matter that I've lost tons of weight, all that really mattered was that oh no they couldn't find a diagnosis so am I going to be accused of faking? Thankfully every doctor except for one (my PCP but that's another story) has reassured me that they know that this isn't just anxiety. It feels good when someone else says it but my goodness people shouldn't have to say it.
@@AccessibleMediaMaven I'm not trying to draw more attention to the victims but I want to draw more attention to the predators and to shutting down the subreddits that hurt disabled people such as illness fakers.
Have you ever gone out to a venue for example a Jazz basketball game and let's say they say "No outside food or drinks" and you are not able to eat the food they sell at that venue? Let's say you are going to other places after the venue you are going to and you have one of those Ensure's or snacks that you pack with you. What does the ADA have to say about that? I am legally blind and I use a power chair and on a low fixed income. I do have GO and IBS. Can you please make a video on these issues?
Hi Adam, So I'm still relatively new to both being out with my diabetes and being out with my stomach problems. I went through a major period of health anxiety and the only restaurant that I would eat at is the local breakfast and bar not far from my house. So I've not experienced this personally I think this would make a great research video for me to do and I will be adding that to my list of videos. I already have my video filmed for Wednesday and another Vlog will be coming out Sunday but hopefully I will try to get to this next week. PS you are really going to like Wednesday's video I think. It's another r/Illnessfakers video
I know I am disabled myself and I have some disabilities that are "undiagnosed" meaning that they are not in the medical textbook like Cerebral Palsy is in the medical textbook. When Illnessfakers on Reddit are allowed to exist it hurts disabled people and really can not only hurt people who have diagnoses that are in the medical textbook but can hurt people who don't have a diagnosis. I would love to see a video where people can expose the people who post on Reddit and how to shut down the subreddit Illnessfakers? I have had people in real life call me a faker and I have had people deny me service and help because they thought I was not disabled because someone else believed I was not disabled. We need to find a way to really around getting the subreddit shut down? I love Chronically Jacquie videos. I wish she was here still?
I will definitely be making more illness fakers related videos. I had planned to do one this week but with my upcoming overnight trip Iowa City I'm not going to be able to. I agree that so many people with disabilities deal with being accused of being a faker in their real life and the illness faker subreddit just perpetuates that. It can definitely be very traumatic as I was called the faker for most of my life up until I got my diagnosis at Mayo clinic and then University of Iowa. Stick in there, I know it can be difficult when there's no diagnosis but that doesn't change the fact that you're disabled. Sadly I didn't find Jaquie until about a year after she died. However, I have watched every single one of her videos. She is a big reason as to why I am diagnosed with hsd and now why I'm going to be hopefully finding out more about the stomach issues that I've been having since birth.
@@AccessibleMediaMaven I was going to say as well I have heard there are other subreddits out there that are like illness fakers? It's bad enough when there are people who actually do have diagnosis as well that are called bakers let alone does that are undiagnosed which is bad? I just would love to find a way to shut down the subreddits and actually call out the people that not only run the subreddits by name but yet the people who actually go on the subreddits and post what they post calling people who are disabled bakers unread? I don't know if you know who Dominique with service dog paws is? I do remember watching and finding Jaquies videos and I love her videos and I wish that she was still around? I myself have been diagnosed with gastroparesis. I found Jaquies videos after my mom passed away in 2015 when I was trying to search one of the diagnosis that I was given by the hospital a long time ago back in around 2002. The problem is every time I would go to the emergency room and they asked me why I was in the wheelchair and I said that I had a "spatial diffused global weakness" the ER doctors job would drop and he would say I don't know what that type of diagnosis is. After watching service dog paws videos later on and one day hearing Dominique in one of her videos basically saying "fuck Reddit" I had never heard of what that it was or never knew what it was until that day. I then try to look it up to see what it was. I have had people in real life not just strangers on the internet call me a faker and I've even had people who know me like family and friends call me a faker as well as I've had people that know me personally that have told me that they were going to go to the state and tell them that I was a baker and that I was going to get in trouble for being a fraud. So I can see how dangerous different things like these Reddit threads can be. I hope to see a video soon?
I also love how anytime anyone offers the tiniest criticism, they get massively down voted and accused of being the whoever illness fakers was bullying at that moment. I was banned because Jackie posted a few pics of her glucometer during hypoglycemic episodes, and everyone was saying that she was in the "normal" range and was lying about being diabetic. I'm type one diabetic, so I pointed out that the "normal" range is for people without diabetes, but anything under 80ml/dl is considered low and needs to be corrected with food. I was accused of being Jackie (never even followed her) and spreading "false information." I've only been dealing with this for 27 years, so what do I know about keeping myself alive 🤷♀️ Not even the poor woman's death has convinced them that she was actually sick. They maintain that she messed with her feeding tube in order to obtain more sympathy. 🙄
I was looking through the precursors to the subreddit and it really interests me that Jaquie was being attacked by these people before she even had a RU-vid channel. I think it's quite interesting that they don't want to debate evidence, they just want you to go along with their bullying. I know that Reddit recently removed illness fakers gone wild and perhaps a couple others? I do plan on making an update video but it's really sad because it is just about bullying. I think it's quite funny that they want to be noticed and then call out their "subjects" for noticing them. They think that anyone who supports someone they bully is has to be working for the bully because they honestly don't believe, at least they don't seem to believe, that people can look at a situation and decide who to believe. You will notice that they exclusively pick on young women (I don't think they would pick on Paul if he wasn't married to Janiece) and while there are occasionally women of color-such as Jaquie, Janiece and Hope-it's mostly young white women. You could maybe argue that generally pretty white girls who are skinny are at the top of the social hierarchy so it could be subconsciously getting back at their middle school bullies. That's just my theory and in no way excusing their behavior. I recognize that this doesn't explain why they picked on Jaquie but I don't think there's ever going to be an explanation. Maybe it's just because they had videos and Instagram posts and patreon posts from her every single day so they felt like they had more fodder. I would love to hear what your theories are. They did seem to be rooting for her death and as I've been researching to do a specific video on her and what they did to her I find most of the stuff difficult to read. They picked on her for every little thing including for being careful with her medical devices and not getting sepsis. The medical things said on the forum in particular interest me. I always try to remember that every case is different. You are right that anything below 80 ml/dl has to be corrected and for me personally that means taking a couple of glucose tabs and eating a meal with complex carbs. But that's just me. I also had an inpatient nurse tell me that he doesn't like it when his diabetes patients have blood sugars below 100 at bedtime and usually encourages them to eat something because of the fact that blood sugar can drop at night. It's dangerous and misleading advice and for me it makes me wonder if they realize the harm that they are doing. I would ask if they even care, but the answer is probably not. Thank you for the comment and I'm sorry it took me time to get back to you. Hopefully I will have a new illness fakers video very soon I had plans to do one this week but life got away from me
I’m getting my gallbladder out in a week. I HATED the second part of the HIDA scan… I did get a diagnosis of biliary dyskinesia and a 29% ejection fraction
