One does not simply go to a conference

 I was very pleased to attend the Australian Disability Service Conference on the Gold Coast yesterday. It was an incredible collection of amazing human beings working to make life better for people with disability.

What is it like for someone like me to go to a conference (asked nobody)?

The short answer is that, as with all things, attending events takes a lot of pre-planning.  

The long answer is this...

For many people, it is a simple thing. I live one to one and a half hours drive from the venue depending on traffic, or one and three-quarters to two and three-quarters of an hour by public transport depending on the route. Many people would just jump in the car or on public transport and go. 

I have to weigh how long it takes to get there and back, and add in the time spent there to assess my risk level. 

We'll round the travel time to five hours return for the sake of argument, add in the time for the conference itself at eight hours, this does not include the dinner as there is no public transport which would get me home afterwards. So that makes for 13 hours travelling and 'conferencing'. 

The nature of my particular disabilities are such that 8 hours of concentrating on  what people are saying and trying to figure meaning when I am missing parts of speech, attempting to figure who people are (my vision is not great and I have some trouble recalling faces), and managing comfort levels is exhausting at best. The greater my level of stress and exhaustion the greater the risk of me having a seizure and ending up in an ED. This can become a bit of a cycle, the more tired and stressed I am, the more I worry about having a seizure, which in turn increases my stress. 

To reduce my risk, I travelled to the Gold Coast the day before the conference and spent the evening before and the evening after the conference at a hotel very close to the venue. This served to reduce my exhaustion and my stress. I have to pace myself. In order to spend two nights away from home I had to pack medication and physical aides to enable me to be well, while away.

This is what I was carrying in my massive handbag at the conference - 

• #SIPweek water bottle
• ID
• Notebook and writing implements
• Foldable shopping bag
• Antibacterial wipes
• Cards (in case on lanyard)
• Back up batteries
• Hand sanitizer
• Medication case
• Blood glucose test kit
• Keys
• Hearing aid microphone case
• Go card
• Low blood sugar snacks
• Scarf
• Medical info
• Masks
• #SIPweek straws
• Crochet equipment - I carry this around most of the time to kill time in waiting rooms etc
• Not pictured - phone and insulin.

The conference was incredible. Unfortunately, I had to head back to my hotel around 2 - 2:30 as I was not feeling well. Luckily I had a hotel room to go to! 

I am by no means the most disabled person I know, however, it just goes to show you, one does not simply go to a conference. 

P.S. It is SIPweek, you can find out more here