Meet VALLEY’s Spring 2023 Beauty & Health Section Opener: Katie Jane Hammill

Photo by James Riccardo & Jenny Lee

“You never know what’s going on in someone else’s life,” says Katie Jane Hammill, a first-year majoring in public relations with a minor in disability studies.

Hammill has grown up with multiple invisible disabilities, many of which weren’t diagnosed until her late teen years. Although she wasn’t born with them, they are something she will have for the rest of her life — even if others can’t see them.

At a very young age, Hammill developed major inflammation in her shoulders. “It would get better, it would get worse,” she recalls, remembering how the pain surged when she swam for her elementary and middle school year-round competitive swim team. She was the flyer, meaning she swam the butterfly stroke; also considered to be the hardest stroke due to its intensity of muscle usage in both the upper and lower body.

Hammill recounts a specific race in seventh grade, the weekend after Thanksgiving. She was set to swim the 200 butterfly, equivalent to eight laps non-stop. Unfortunately, due to the intense pain, she could not finish the race and reluctantly had to stop swimming competitively altogether. “I was so upset. I was sad, and I was angry because I felt like I lost a part of myself.”

Over the following three years, the pain began to spread from her shoulders to her back, hips and knees. Instead of allowing this to hold her back, she decided to take up cross country running.

But, two weeks before Hammill’s first cross country meet, as she was running, she felt a sharp pain, which she describes as if someone stabbed a knife back and forth into her shoulder.

She had developed two fractures in the clavicle and humerus of her right shoulder. Afterward, she felt consistent nerve-related symptoms, such as numbness and other weird sensations. It was at this point that she was diagnosed with amplified muscular skeletal pain syndrome (AMPS). Much like it says in the name, AMPS amplifies any pain sensations, in addition to being the source of other unexplainable pain.

Hammill has also been diagnosed with dysautonomia. She explains that it is similar to the sensation of standing up fast and feeling light-headed, except that, for her, the feeling is constant. Over the past couple of years, she has become prone to passing out. She also suffers from daily headaches and migraines. And most recently, she was diagnosed with mass cell activation syndrome, known for causing allergic symptoms.

“Getting a diagnosis is really tricky,” Hammill says.

“The issue with the medical world — with disabilities — is that they just want to fix you, and they think you’re a problem and there’s something wrong. When you’re diagnosed with something that is technically incurable, you’ll hear a doctor say, ‘Don’t worry we’ll fix you.’ But I’m not a problem. I want to manage it.”

Hammill emphasizes that there is a stigma for people with disabilities. A general misconception on the part of non-disabled people is that someone with a disability isn’t capable of functioning as a “normal” person.

We have the same amount of capability; we just don’t have the same energy to do it.

This is where the Spoon Theory comes in. Writer Christine Miserandino describes energy usage through a metaphor of spoons. So, imagine every day you have ten spoons. Say you wake up and go to class — well, there goes a spoon. Every day you only get ten spoons. So Hammill must plan out how to use her spoons daily to avoid burnout.

Because her disabilities are so inconsistent, she never knows when they could flare up. In fact, she says, “I’ll be in pain either way, some days are worse than others.”

Growing up, she felt alone, having to constantly explain her disabilities to doctors, having to miss out on social events and not being able to talk to someone that understands. Now, Hammill is a confident and outspoken advocate when it comes to disabilities.

“A big part of my desire to be an advocate comes from my not having had one when I was younger.”

And so, she has gotten to work with her biggest mentor, Richard Pimentel from the “Music Within” film. After significant research and a couple of emails, she has had the opportunity to connect with him consistently. Hammill now interns at a vocational rehabilitation agency and continues to work closely with Pimentel.

The biggest thing that helped Hammill feel less alone, was being able to talk to other people with similar experiences. Therefore, she continues to advocate for people like herself by both teaching the public about invisible disabilities and speaking up for inclusion and accessibility.

Although, there is still more to do when it comes to society’s standards. Those like Hammill, unapologetically themselves, will open doors for younger generations.

This is my identity; this is who I am.

Related

1 Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.