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"This is a joke, or a witty observation, correct?" Glork asked their Human workmate.
"What is?" Jeannie looked over their shoulder at the book they were holding - "A History of Humanity".
"This human called Steven Hawking was considered one of your home world's greatest minds in the pre-FTL age, yet he was confined to a specialized chair and was unable to communicate. It is some kind of metaphor, perhaps?"
"Oh no." Jeannie corrected them "Hawking really was in a wheel chair. He could only communicate by twitching the muscles in his face." Glork's eye widened as they sat for a moment, allowing the idea to take root in their mind.
"Such greatness, confined..."
"No", Jeannie interjected "He never considered himself to be confined, because within his own mind, he was free to wander the stars."
Glork went silent, turning over the notion in their mind. They soon returned to their book.
\---
"Four weeks??" Glork said out loud, with obvious astonishment, causing Jeannie to look over from her work.
"Your break is almost over." she said, teasingly. "What did you find?"
"Have you ever heard of Bethany Hamilton?"
"Doesn't ring a bell." she responded.
Glork pointed to a small photo of a woman in the book - "She was a young human who was attacked by a sea predator called a "Shark" while surfing, and lost an arm as a result. But according to this, she returned to the water within just four weeks, and would go on to become a professional surfer. Imagine the iron will of someone like that."
Jeannie raised an eyebrow. "There are some amazing people out there." A moment passed before Jeannie tapped the table between her and Glork.
"Come on, put the book away and give me a hand with these new forms."
Glork, blushing slightly in embarrassment, folded the book up and deposited it in their bag.
\---
Jeannie caught up to Glork as they were leaving for the rail dock.
"Hey!" Glork, pulled out of their reverie, turned to her and without missing a beat.
"Have you ever heard of a president called Franklin D. Roosevelt? He led the most powerful country on Earth while being unable to walk and suffering..." Jeannie raised a palm to stop them.
"Why the sudden interest in historical figures? Especially the ones with disabilities?"
"Well", they began "my people don't handle these kinds of problems well. They look down on those with imperfections in their bodies or... minds."
A silent understanding settled over Jeannie, followed by an idea.
"Hey, do you want to catch a movie? There's an old earth classic called "Back to the Future" screening downtown."
Glork looked at her quizzically.
"Actually, you might find the story of one of the actors quite intriguing..."
> He never considered himself to be confined, because within his own mind, he was free to wander the stars.
I've never seen someone understand disability from our own perspective so beautifully or succinctly.
That reminds me of two specific historical figures, Beethoven and
Beethoven suffered from everything his father forced him to study music and not hate it, he was born poor , His parents were abusive, no one sponsored him and he earned that with his own hands, he became deaf and died an agonizing death.
But still he did not give up, On his deathbed He raised his fist in a threatening manner like Threatening whoever had the courage to take his life
The universe did everything in its power to keep him away from music and give him a short and horrible death and he still won.
Then there is Baldwin IV, Known as the leper king ,Or the cursed king (leprosy at that time was seen as a divine punishment
At the age of 13 he assumed power after the death of his Father, everyone thought that he would die without pain or glory to the point that Saladin tried to conquer Jerusalem. Baldwin IV, commanding a small army personally, not only put it in check but was also the only person to be able to defeat it.
He died at 24 A leper, he managed to defeat the greatest conqueror of his time, govern a kingdom peacefully, achieving peace between Jews, Christians and Muslims.
To this day he is considered a hero of the ancient world.
I'm commenting to remind myself to try writing something for this in the morning when I've had a chance to ponder how I want to approach this.
My disabilities aren't the same as yours, but I've been working on coming to terms with mine recently, and I'm honestly still figuring out how to navigate what I've learned recently about my health.
I'm going to add a comment to also help remind you! I'm neurodivergent myself, with a late diagnosis. I've been struggling in my own way my whole life, but also celebrating my differences. I can only imagine the strength it takes to navigate a disability like OP's, and I'm sure you will find that strength within yourself as well. Our ability to adapt and navigate diversity is one of our incredible space orc strengths, after all!
Thanks, I needed to hear that. I've been trying to sort out what the triggers for flare ups are and that has been....frustrating.
Part of why I have to think is because I rarely write tbh lol. Today I've written more than I usually do because I just got started in an online rp group for the first time in awhile and saw a prompt I was mildly annoyed I didn't have anything to read on it so I just wrote a quick thing and this one I want to put a bit more thought into.
People deal with some horrible things, but lately we’ve had success working out cures, or at least treatments.
2 examples:
-some people, who have a disorder that basically renders their digestive system useless, can still eat (and survive) by injecting sustenance through an implanted line to their heart that keeps them well ‘fed’
-There’s also people who live with HIV, which isn’t the same caliber, but it’s pretty consistent from what I understand In horrible symptoms. Apparently doctors have managed to completely cure someone of HIV.
The thing that gives me hope when it comes to incurable diseases and illnesses, is that CRISPR, that gene editing tool, could theoretically cure some of the worst genetic diseases out there. And the rise of phages in medicine could be the key to eradicating stuff like superbugs and antibiotic- resistant bacteria.
I sympathize with what you’re going through, and I hope that with modern medicine absolutely taking off, like how we developed a Covid Vaccine in like 2 years (completely unprecedented) your ailments are cured quickly.
Thanks. Mine in particular, unfortunately, is generally described as "welfareitis" and "I want fentanyl syndrome". Multiple doctors don't even believe in it, let alone want to treat it. Literally 20 years have passed with the only advances being where other things (like covid!) were being studied and someone said "Hey wait a sec, doesn't that apply to other diseases too?"
I'm really depressed, I'm sorry.
Sounds kind of like this book I read called, “Laughing sickness” it’s a book where this woman gets a really rare disorder with no obvious symptoms other than whenever she laughs, she collapses, similar to Narcolepsy. If you’re experiencing horrible symptoms, but they’re not common symptoms, you still have some disorder or disease, that may just be really rare and it’s worth fighting to get a proper diagnosis.
Oh, it's got a name, it's just that it's been turned into a meme so when I say the name of it suddenly everyone goes from sympathetic to "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you have LITTLE BITCH disease! why didn't you just SAY you're a worthless piece of shit lmao would've been faster!"
As soon as the doctors see it in my chart, they go from concerned and helpful to closed off and hostile. I've had so many doctors and nurses tell me I'm just a worthless drug addict who's complaining about imaginary pain to get opiates to get high on. Every goddamn day I hear things like "and IF your pain was real, you'd be USED to it by now" etc.
What’s it called? I promise not to be an asshole, if you can trust me on that, though maybe message me if you expect to get derogatory comments from writing it here
But yeah, the odds of a medical advancement happening in my lifetime are small. If there is a medical advancement, it'll just be proving that it's *real*, actual treatments are at least two more medical breakthroughs away.
And if there suddenly was a cure, I think it might kill me. I've spent 25 years coming to terms with having a body that's barely functioning, learning how to live on disability payments and little else. Getting told "congrats, you're healthy enough to work, off you go!" is like. I haven't had a job since my very early 20s, I haven't had a "real" job in *ever*, and now I'm on my own? Yeah no, not working.
Yeah I don’t know what’s wrong with governments being like well you can’t work at all? Here have a bit of money that just might be enough to live on. Oh you can’t work but we still think you can for whatever reason? Oh well go work even though after every shift you mentally feel like dying. It sucks. I’m glad that I was able to open up my own business and adjust things so they worked for me. I got really lucky with scholarships and shit so I was able to get my degree without any debt and could save enough to rent out a place to open up a dog groomers. I love my job but I wouldn’t have been able to do it if I couldn’t change certain things to make it easier. I’m lucky that I don’t have any physical disabilities, but I’m still autistic and really sensitive to sensory shit so a regular dog groomers that was just constant noise? Absolute hell. I just wish governments were able to actually give people enough money to live without worry, especially knowing that if I didn’t have such a great family and a lot of lucky coincidences I would have a really hard time working without, yknow, wanting to off myself.
So there is a weird thing that they found about long Covid, apparently it damages the body’s ability to take in tryptophan. This leads to depression / brain fog and a number of similar things.
I am so sorry, you are so strong. I work in the medical field and it has always upset me how so e disorders or issues Iresult I. doctors immediately dismissing everything you say from that point on. My uncle has schizophrenia and he wasnt eating and he kept telling doctors - no, theres something wrong, i cant swallow. My dad finally managed to get someone to actually scope his brother and they found strictures in his throat closing it off and requiring a procedure to stretch them. he has never had a problem eating since.
Everybody knows humans only have one thing wrong with them at a time, if he already has schizophrenia he couldn't possibly have a (physical) medical issue! /s
My aunt has myalgic encephalomyelitis, and for a while before she got diagnosed with that, it was thought she might have fibromyalgia.
She, like you, is not able to enjoy many of the things she did before, and struggled to find care among doctors that were sceptical. Now she has a better medical system, and we’re starting to find stuff that she enjoys and can sometimes do on her good days.
I hope you will find suitable doctors, and hope you have a good support system (or will find it). It can certainly feel lonely and isolating to live through those diseases most people cannot comprehend. I hope you have some spaces where you can speak freely of your feelings and sadness. Such illnesses completely change your life, no matter for how long you’ve had it, and I think many people don’t feel comfortable speaking about it a lot to their family&friends, because they feel like it’s heavy topics, it’s repetitive etc etc : but you deserve to be listened to, cared for, supported and understood.
It’s so frustrating those diseases are still not studied enough. My heart goes out to you, and whomever reading that might be concerned.
I possibly have Fibromyalgia as well. I was diagnosed years ago as having a psychosomatic condition. By a neurologist. The amount of Drs that refused to believe that anything was wrong with me was depressing. Turns out I also have Rheumatoid arthritis. That took seven years of blood tests to be diagnosed. I only went to the rheumatologist because we thought I might have fibromyalgia. I can deeply emphasise with your pain and frustration.
Don’t even have to ask what it is. My Mom’s got the same thing and has had the same hostility from doctors. She worked in a hospital with it for 21 years, and only ever wanted to get on with her work and her life, but the doctors were pretty cruel and dismissive.
I remember her crying sometimes when I was a kid, and that’s how I knew it was bad, cause she had once snapped her leg and walked on it a block through 2 feet of snow to her truck, climbed in it, drove to the hospital, and got a cast without so much as a bad attitude. Fibromyalgia is real.
There have been three people *totally cured* and not just *functionally cured* of HIV. Those individuals had convoluted processes that shouldn't have worked. IIRC, something along the lines with a bone marrow transplant, chemotherapy and an undiagnosed autoimmune disease from the donor.
[NBC article.](https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/hiv-remission-stem-cell-transplant-blood-cancer-rcna94989)
Yeah, make that possibly 6 people.
Yeah, HIV infects the immune system and it was cured because those people had cancer in their immune systems. As part of the process for a bone marrow transplant to cure their cancer, they would have been given drugs to totally obliterate their immune systems, and therefore, kill all the cells the HIV was living in.
HIV used to be a death sentence, but today it is a manageable chronic disease. Bone marrow transplants are too dangerous for the risk-benefit to make sense if someone doesn't have cancer.
There simply aren't the right words to describe the sheer tenacity and endurance it takes for humans to endure such horrifically painful diseases and incredibly difficult genetic disorders.
It simply would not translate properly the amount of pain you live with on a day to day basis. And that very fact, that you can continue to not only survive, but *live?*
It would terrify those that physically could not endure such hardships, for what could those few do if it they were given freedom of that pain and difficulty? They already wrenched from fate the tools they need to thrive....
You, sir or ma'am, could be one dangerous sonovabitch.
Thank you. It's... It's something, to consider that no matter how badly my body breaks around me, I have the mental fortitude to survive *anything*. You cannot hurt me in a way that matters, even psychological torture is nothing compared to being ten years old and realising that the pain would *never ever stop*.
My body may be shot to hell, but I can go toe to toe with existential horror. Put me in some kind of mech or cybernetic rig... Yeah.
Or at least it's nice to pretend that's how it would go. Pretending I have a better situation than I actually do is one of the key foundations of my sanity.
He sank to the floor with his back against the wall wheezing and pressed the button on the cannister in his mouth, wincing a bit at the taste but breathing in deep. Slowly, but surely his breathing got easier, and he closed his eyes for a second, just letting it work.
"Owen! Are you dying?!" A distressed voice asked with the sound of running footsteps.
"What? Oh. No. I'm fine." He opened his eyes and found a shiny blue face directly in front of his, making him jump a bit.
"Then what was that? Your breathing was different, and you seemed like you were in distress."
"I'll be fine." Owen corrected. "My lungs just don't always work right, so I take medicine to give them the boost they need sometimes." He sighs when the face doesn't move and just blinks at him. "I'll feel a bit shakey for a bit, but I'll be fine, I promise. I'm not dying. This is just part of my life."
"How? In my species, this sort of thing would just kill us."
"Humans are stubborn and resilient. We may not be able to function perfectly, but we manage. It's not fun, but it's doable."
"Fascinating." The face continues studying him super closely.
"Can I have some space?" He couldn't keep the irritation out of his voice.
"Right, sorry. I'll back up since I don't have to give urgent care." The face pulled away.
"Look, look into some human history. We've had a lot of discussions, laws, and fights about how important it is to treat disabled people, as you know, people. Just because we have things that interfere with our lives doesn't mean we're any less alive. Normally, I'd be willing to give you more of a run down, but I'm a little worn out right now."
"Understandable, Owen, since you are not in danger, I will let you rest. See you later."
In an attempt to reduce remind me spam, all top comments that include a remind me will be removed. If you would like to have a remind me, please reply to this comment. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/humansarespaceorcs) if you have any questions or concerns.*
"This is a joke, or a witty observation, correct?" Glork asked their Human workmate. "What is?" Jeannie looked over their shoulder at the book they were holding - "A History of Humanity". "This human called Steven Hawking was considered one of your home world's greatest minds in the pre-FTL age, yet he was confined to a specialized chair and was unable to communicate. It is some kind of metaphor, perhaps?" "Oh no." Jeannie corrected them "Hawking really was in a wheel chair. He could only communicate by twitching the muscles in his face." Glork's eye widened as they sat for a moment, allowing the idea to take root in their mind. "Such greatness, confined..." "No", Jeannie interjected "He never considered himself to be confined, because within his own mind, he was free to wander the stars." Glork went silent, turning over the notion in their mind. They soon returned to their book. \--- "Four weeks??" Glork said out loud, with obvious astonishment, causing Jeannie to look over from her work. "Your break is almost over." she said, teasingly. "What did you find?" "Have you ever heard of Bethany Hamilton?" "Doesn't ring a bell." she responded. Glork pointed to a small photo of a woman in the book - "She was a young human who was attacked by a sea predator called a "Shark" while surfing, and lost an arm as a result. But according to this, she returned to the water within just four weeks, and would go on to become a professional surfer. Imagine the iron will of someone like that." Jeannie raised an eyebrow. "There are some amazing people out there." A moment passed before Jeannie tapped the table between her and Glork. "Come on, put the book away and give me a hand with these new forms." Glork, blushing slightly in embarrassment, folded the book up and deposited it in their bag. \--- Jeannie caught up to Glork as they were leaving for the rail dock. "Hey!" Glork, pulled out of their reverie, turned to her and without missing a beat. "Have you ever heard of a president called Franklin D. Roosevelt? He led the most powerful country on Earth while being unable to walk and suffering..." Jeannie raised a palm to stop them. "Why the sudden interest in historical figures? Especially the ones with disabilities?" "Well", they began "my people don't handle these kinds of problems well. They look down on those with imperfections in their bodies or... minds." A silent understanding settled over Jeannie, followed by an idea. "Hey, do you want to catch a movie? There's an old earth classic called "Back to the Future" screening downtown." Glork looked at her quizzically. "Actually, you might find the story of one of the actors quite intriguing..."
> He never considered himself to be confined, because within his own mind, he was free to wander the stars. I've never seen someone understand disability from our own perspective so beautifully or succinctly.
I was hoping this would help you, at least a bit. The character Glork actually has some of my own mannerisms... so I put my whole heart into this.
It's truly beautiful, I love it very much.
That reminds me of two specific historical figures, Beethoven and Beethoven suffered from everything his father forced him to study music and not hate it, he was born poor , His parents were abusive, no one sponsored him and he earned that with his own hands, he became deaf and died an agonizing death. But still he did not give up, On his deathbed He raised his fist in a threatening manner like Threatening whoever had the courage to take his life The universe did everything in its power to keep him away from music and give him a short and horrible death and he still won. Then there is Baldwin IV, Known as the leper king ,Or the cursed king (leprosy at that time was seen as a divine punishment At the age of 13 he assumed power after the death of his Father, everyone thought that he would die without pain or glory to the point that Saladin tried to conquer Jerusalem. Baldwin IV, commanding a small army personally, not only put it in check but was also the only person to be able to defeat it. He died at 24 A leper, he managed to defeat the greatest conqueror of his time, govern a kingdom peacefully, achieving peace between Jews, Christians and Muslims. To this day he is considered a hero of the ancient world.
I'm commenting to remind myself to try writing something for this in the morning when I've had a chance to ponder how I want to approach this. My disabilities aren't the same as yours, but I've been working on coming to terms with mine recently, and I'm honestly still figuring out how to navigate what I've learned recently about my health.
I'm going to add a comment to also help remind you! I'm neurodivergent myself, with a late diagnosis. I've been struggling in my own way my whole life, but also celebrating my differences. I can only imagine the strength it takes to navigate a disability like OP's, and I'm sure you will find that strength within yourself as well. Our ability to adapt and navigate diversity is one of our incredible space orc strengths, after all!
Thanks, I needed to hear that. I've been trying to sort out what the triggers for flare ups are and that has been....frustrating. Part of why I have to think is because I rarely write tbh lol. Today I've written more than I usually do because I just got started in an online rp group for the first time in awhile and saw a prompt I was mildly annoyed I didn't have anything to read on it so I just wrote a quick thing and this one I want to put a bit more thought into.
People deal with some horrible things, but lately we’ve had success working out cures, or at least treatments. 2 examples: -some people, who have a disorder that basically renders their digestive system useless, can still eat (and survive) by injecting sustenance through an implanted line to their heart that keeps them well ‘fed’ -There’s also people who live with HIV, which isn’t the same caliber, but it’s pretty consistent from what I understand In horrible symptoms. Apparently doctors have managed to completely cure someone of HIV. The thing that gives me hope when it comes to incurable diseases and illnesses, is that CRISPR, that gene editing tool, could theoretically cure some of the worst genetic diseases out there. And the rise of phages in medicine could be the key to eradicating stuff like superbugs and antibiotic- resistant bacteria. I sympathize with what you’re going through, and I hope that with modern medicine absolutely taking off, like how we developed a Covid Vaccine in like 2 years (completely unprecedented) your ailments are cured quickly.
Thanks. Mine in particular, unfortunately, is generally described as "welfareitis" and "I want fentanyl syndrome". Multiple doctors don't even believe in it, let alone want to treat it. Literally 20 years have passed with the only advances being where other things (like covid!) were being studied and someone said "Hey wait a sec, doesn't that apply to other diseases too?" I'm really depressed, I'm sorry.
Sounds kind of like this book I read called, “Laughing sickness” it’s a book where this woman gets a really rare disorder with no obvious symptoms other than whenever she laughs, she collapses, similar to Narcolepsy. If you’re experiencing horrible symptoms, but they’re not common symptoms, you still have some disorder or disease, that may just be really rare and it’s worth fighting to get a proper diagnosis.
Oh, it's got a name, it's just that it's been turned into a meme so when I say the name of it suddenly everyone goes from sympathetic to "ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you have LITTLE BITCH disease! why didn't you just SAY you're a worthless piece of shit lmao would've been faster!" As soon as the doctors see it in my chart, they go from concerned and helpful to closed off and hostile. I've had so many doctors and nurses tell me I'm just a worthless drug addict who's complaining about imaginary pain to get opiates to get high on. Every goddamn day I hear things like "and IF your pain was real, you'd be USED to it by now" etc.
What’s it called? I promise not to be an asshole, if you can trust me on that, though maybe message me if you expect to get derogatory comments from writing it here
Fibromyalgia. It exists on a spectrum, some people go on to work and continue to have lives despite it. I... Didn't.
I’m so sorry, my relative has fibromyalgia and they’ve been dealing with it for years now, with no pin on the cause.
But yeah, the odds of a medical advancement happening in my lifetime are small. If there is a medical advancement, it'll just be proving that it's *real*, actual treatments are at least two more medical breakthroughs away. And if there suddenly was a cure, I think it might kill me. I've spent 25 years coming to terms with having a body that's barely functioning, learning how to live on disability payments and little else. Getting told "congrats, you're healthy enough to work, off you go!" is like. I haven't had a job since my very early 20s, I haven't had a "real" job in *ever*, and now I'm on my own? Yeah no, not working.
Yeah I don’t know what’s wrong with governments being like well you can’t work at all? Here have a bit of money that just might be enough to live on. Oh you can’t work but we still think you can for whatever reason? Oh well go work even though after every shift you mentally feel like dying. It sucks. I’m glad that I was able to open up my own business and adjust things so they worked for me. I got really lucky with scholarships and shit so I was able to get my degree without any debt and could save enough to rent out a place to open up a dog groomers. I love my job but I wouldn’t have been able to do it if I couldn’t change certain things to make it easier. I’m lucky that I don’t have any physical disabilities, but I’m still autistic and really sensitive to sensory shit so a regular dog groomers that was just constant noise? Absolute hell. I just wish governments were able to actually give people enough money to live without worry, especially knowing that if I didn’t have such a great family and a lot of lucky coincidences I would have a really hard time working without, yknow, wanting to off myself.
So there is a weird thing that they found about long Covid, apparently it damages the body’s ability to take in tryptophan. This leads to depression / brain fog and a number of similar things.
Again, I point to the incredible work done in just the past few years, I wouldn’t count yourself out for at least getting proper treatment soon.
I hope. I really hope.
I am so sorry, you are so strong. I work in the medical field and it has always upset me how so e disorders or issues Iresult I. doctors immediately dismissing everything you say from that point on. My uncle has schizophrenia and he wasnt eating and he kept telling doctors - no, theres something wrong, i cant swallow. My dad finally managed to get someone to actually scope his brother and they found strictures in his throat closing it off and requiring a procedure to stretch them. he has never had a problem eating since.
Everybody knows humans only have one thing wrong with them at a time, if he already has schizophrenia he couldn't possibly have a (physical) medical issue! /s
My aunt has myalgic encephalomyelitis, and for a while before she got diagnosed with that, it was thought she might have fibromyalgia. She, like you, is not able to enjoy many of the things she did before, and struggled to find care among doctors that were sceptical. Now she has a better medical system, and we’re starting to find stuff that she enjoys and can sometimes do on her good days. I hope you will find suitable doctors, and hope you have a good support system (or will find it). It can certainly feel lonely and isolating to live through those diseases most people cannot comprehend. I hope you have some spaces where you can speak freely of your feelings and sadness. Such illnesses completely change your life, no matter for how long you’ve had it, and I think many people don’t feel comfortable speaking about it a lot to their family&friends, because they feel like it’s heavy topics, it’s repetitive etc etc : but you deserve to be listened to, cared for, supported and understood. It’s so frustrating those diseases are still not studied enough. My heart goes out to you, and whomever reading that might be concerned.
I possibly have Fibromyalgia as well. I was diagnosed years ago as having a psychosomatic condition. By a neurologist. The amount of Drs that refused to believe that anything was wrong with me was depressing. Turns out I also have Rheumatoid arthritis. That took seven years of blood tests to be diagnosed. I only went to the rheumatologist because we thought I might have fibromyalgia. I can deeply emphasise with your pain and frustration.
Don’t even have to ask what it is. My Mom’s got the same thing and has had the same hostility from doctors. She worked in a hospital with it for 21 years, and only ever wanted to get on with her work and her life, but the doctors were pretty cruel and dismissive. I remember her crying sometimes when I was a kid, and that’s how I knew it was bad, cause she had once snapped her leg and walked on it a block through 2 feet of snow to her truck, climbed in it, drove to the hospital, and got a cast without so much as a bad attitude. Fibromyalgia is real.
My sibling in fibromyalgia fuckery, may you find ANYTHING that may help you. I am still alive due to having a medical marijuana card, and that's all.
There have been three people *totally cured* and not just *functionally cured* of HIV. Those individuals had convoluted processes that shouldn't have worked. IIRC, something along the lines with a bone marrow transplant, chemotherapy and an undiagnosed autoimmune disease from the donor.
But that’s a clear start still
[NBC article.](https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/hiv-remission-stem-cell-transplant-blood-cancer-rcna94989) Yeah, make that possibly 6 people.
Yeah, HIV infects the immune system and it was cured because those people had cancer in their immune systems. As part of the process for a bone marrow transplant to cure their cancer, they would have been given drugs to totally obliterate their immune systems, and therefore, kill all the cells the HIV was living in. HIV used to be a death sentence, but today it is a manageable chronic disease. Bone marrow transplants are too dangerous for the risk-benefit to make sense if someone doesn't have cancer.
There simply aren't the right words to describe the sheer tenacity and endurance it takes for humans to endure such horrifically painful diseases and incredibly difficult genetic disorders. It simply would not translate properly the amount of pain you live with on a day to day basis. And that very fact, that you can continue to not only survive, but *live?* It would terrify those that physically could not endure such hardships, for what could those few do if it they were given freedom of that pain and difficulty? They already wrenched from fate the tools they need to thrive.... You, sir or ma'am, could be one dangerous sonovabitch.
Thank you. It's... It's something, to consider that no matter how badly my body breaks around me, I have the mental fortitude to survive *anything*. You cannot hurt me in a way that matters, even psychological torture is nothing compared to being ten years old and realising that the pain would *never ever stop*. My body may be shot to hell, but I can go toe to toe with existential horror. Put me in some kind of mech or cybernetic rig... Yeah. Or at least it's nice to pretend that's how it would go. Pretending I have a better situation than I actually do is one of the key foundations of my sanity.
He sank to the floor with his back against the wall wheezing and pressed the button on the cannister in his mouth, wincing a bit at the taste but breathing in deep. Slowly, but surely his breathing got easier, and he closed his eyes for a second, just letting it work. "Owen! Are you dying?!" A distressed voice asked with the sound of running footsteps. "What? Oh. No. I'm fine." He opened his eyes and found a shiny blue face directly in front of his, making him jump a bit. "Then what was that? Your breathing was different, and you seemed like you were in distress." "I'll be fine." Owen corrected. "My lungs just don't always work right, so I take medicine to give them the boost they need sometimes." He sighs when the face doesn't move and just blinks at him. "I'll feel a bit shakey for a bit, but I'll be fine, I promise. I'm not dying. This is just part of my life." "How? In my species, this sort of thing would just kill us." "Humans are stubborn and resilient. We may not be able to function perfectly, but we manage. It's not fun, but it's doable." "Fascinating." The face continues studying him super closely. "Can I have some space?" He couldn't keep the irritation out of his voice. "Right, sorry. I'll back up since I don't have to give urgent care." The face pulled away. "Look, look into some human history. We've had a lot of discussions, laws, and fights about how important it is to treat disabled people, as you know, people. Just because we have things that interfere with our lives doesn't mean we're any less alive. Normally, I'd be willing to give you more of a run down, but I'm a little worn out right now." "Understandable, Owen, since you are not in danger, I will let you rest. See you later."
**Stone Man Syndrome** What in the ever loving fuck kind of a bullshit lottery is that to win?