{"id":1304201,"date":"2019-02-23T10:29:38","date_gmt":"2019-02-23T17:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaildaily.com\/?p=448884"},"modified":"2019-02-23T10:29:38","modified_gmt":"2019-02-23T17:29:38","slug":"valley-life-for-all-redefining-the-perception-of-challenge-column","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/valley-life-for-all-redefining-the-perception-of-challenge-column\/","title":{"rendered":"Valley Life for All: Redefining the perception of challenge (column)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: The Vail Daily, in conjunction with Valley Life For All, continues a monthly series of profiles about people in our community who have different abilities.<\/em> Twenty-seven percent of Americans experience some disability. One hundred percent are a part of our community. Each has a story.<\/em><\/p>\n

Meet Josh:<\/strong> He loves to ski. He is a mountain boy at heart. He lived with the effects of Type 1 Diabetes that led to severe physical complications and isolation until a double-organ transplant. His journey has been insightful and powerful. He helps others with the hurdles and challenges of life.<\/p>\n

Read Josh’s story. His voice will change you.<\/p>\n

When I was 3, I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, which is hereditary. But that didn’t prevent me from living a normal childhood, growing up and being active. So, over the course of my life, I dealt with diabetes pretty normally: I took shots, I watched what I ate, so on and so forth. But it did catch up to me in that it affected other parts of my body: my vision and also my internal organs.<\/p>\n

I started noticing differences in my body. I wasn’t taking off the fluids properly. My kidneys were not working, they were actually failing. I checked myself into the hospital and the doctor immediately sent me to Denver. From there on, my life changed forever. The doctor said you have to go on dialysis. I wasn’t really prepared for that. I don’t think you really can be. So, I was put on Peritoneal Dialysis which is dialysis at least 12 hours a day, every day until the doctor said I had to get a transplant.<\/p>\n

I had a machine, by my bed, that pumped dextrose into my body and the dextrose would sit for a while and then I would empty out the dextrose and it would take off all the extra stuff my kidneys normally would. I did that for almost three years. I couldn’t work. I wasn’t very active. I guess I was technically “disabled.” So, with that, it really opened my eyes to a lot of things. My doctor suggested a double organ transplant \u2014 a kidney and a pancreas. I was on the transplant waiting list for almost three years, all the while doing dialysis at home.<\/p>\n

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Finally, on the December 25, 2015, I was called into the hospital down in Denver and the nurse said, “Are you ready?” The surgery itself took about six hours. I began my new life afterward.<\/p>\n

But all the while, you know, people would tell you what to mark on sheets because you were not living physically normal. I would mark the sheets disabled, which was foreign to me. I didn’t really know how to respond to that.<\/p>\n

Being disabled didn’t really click in my mind until recently when I gained a bigger appreciation of what it meant to be disabled but also be able to do certain things. So that is kind of my story. It has been a long journey, it has been very insightful, very powerful. Here I am today. I’m no longer on dialysis. I am no longer a type 1 diabetic. And today I do what I can to help others who are disabled get through life and all its hurdles and challenges.<\/p>\n

Local nonprofit Valley Life for All is working to build inclusive communities where people of all abilities belong and contribute. We want to hear your voice.\u00a0 Request a training or join the conversation at<\/em> http:\/\/www.valleylifeforall.org<\/a> or #voicability4all. Help us redefine the perception of challenge.<\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Vail Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: The Vail Daily, in conjunction with Valley Life For All, continues a monthly series of profiles about people in our community who have different abilities. Twenty-seven percent of Americans experience some disability. One hundred percent are a part of our community. Each has a story. Meet Josh: He loves to ski. He is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1304201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-14 23:10:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1304201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304201\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1304201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1304201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1304201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}