Community Munchausen's by Internet (Malingerers, Munchies, Spoonies, etc) - Feigning Illnesses for Attention

[self-diagnosed dumbass]

Better a port than a PICC or Hickman though.

Send in the ratings if this isn't the place/is a stupid question, but why is a port better than a PICC or a Hickman out of curiosity? Do they have less complications?

 

[Thomas Eugene Paris]

Send in the ratings if this isn't the place/is a stupid question, but why is a port better than a PICC or a Hickman out of curiosity? Do they have less complications?

A port is placed under the skin, with no parts exposed unless accessed with a needle. Once the infusion is over and the needle is removed, the port is much easier to keep clean because it's covered by skin. A PICC or a Hickman has tubing that is always exposed to the outside. That means it's much easier for nasty beasties to get in, which is especially bad because the tubing is directly connected to the vena cava.

With both ports and Hickman lines, a fever is considered a medical emergency because of the risk of severe infection. Bacteria and fungus loves to "stick" to the plastic components, and an infection can go from subclinical to massive sepsis in just a few hours.


Here is a port. It is "accessed" by pushing a special needle into the center membrane, which is made of silicone. Patients can bathe and even swim with a port, as long as it isn't accessed.

This is what it looks like when accessed:


A Hickman line looks like this:

That long, dangling tubing is not removable. During an infusion, a needle is stuck into the dangling ends like an extension cord. It has to be kept clean and dry, which means no submerging the chest in water and taking great care not to get the area wet in the shower, usually by wrapping the area in plastic.

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

Somebody posted an obvious not the asshole story on the Am I The Asshole subreddit about how someone got mad at a young amputee for taking a disabled parking spot, so she took her leg off and now people are spilling their spaghetti about their "invisible disabilities". This is just one example of the cringe in this thread:

r/AmItheAsshole - AITA for taking off my leg and making someone look dumb and feel uncomfortable?

25,807 votes and 1,975 comments so far on Reddit

www.reddit.com

https://archive.ph/wip/v7aWP

 

[For The Internet]

Somebody posted an obvious not the asshole story on the Am I The Asshole subreddit about how someone got mad at a young amputee for taking a disabled parking spot, so she took her leg off and now people are spilling their spaghetti about their "invisible disabilities". This is just one example of the cringe in this thread:
View attachment 3041088

r/AmItheAsshole - AITA for taking off my leg and making someone look dumb and feel uncomfortable?

25,807 votes and 1,975 comments so far on Reddit

www.reddit.com

https://archive.ph/wip/v7aWP

I've seen a bunch of AITA posts where you can tell someone is a munchie by piecing things together. Invariably there's EDS or POTS if you scratch below the surface (and sometimes it doesn't even take scratching) and a bunch of people talking about very OTT munchie stuff in the comments.

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

I've seen a bunch of AITA posts where you can tell someone is a munchie by piecing things together. Invariably there's EDS or POTS if you scratch below the surface (and sometimes it doesn't even take scratching) and a bunch of people talking about very OTT munchie stuff in the comments.

SAME!

 

[peach tea]

Not a single tear.
What a spastic attention whore. I rarely go to look at her stuff because she’s one of the only people I’ve ever encountered on the internet that genuinely gets under my skin.

You guys will absolutely never guess what’s going on with her now…


Any guesses?


She has an infection. Wow didn’t see that coming.

 

[Sammies#1Fan]

Not a single tear.
What a spastic attention whore. I rarely go to look at her stuff because she’s one of the only people I’ve ever encountered on the internet that genuinely gets under my skin.

You guys will absolutely never guess what’s going on with her now…


Any guesses?


She has an infection. Wow didn’t see that coming.

She's still alive?

 

[KifflomKween]

Imagine being this self centered and useless

https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/60736-get-it-off-your-chest-venting-thread/page/543/?tab=comments#comment-1064555851

This is just a munchie I've known for a few years now. 2 decade bulimic anachan. It's like a trainwreck in slow motion.
"Tele" is an old english faggot who is catfishing her. His real name is James Kenneth Walker (twitter: @thespacelathe) and he's a lecturer at the Nottingham Trent Univerisity. He convinced this dummy he has left his wife and is waiting for her in England. It's quite the rabbit hole.

 

[Reddit Refugee]

Evie's mom's claim that the folic acid advice was negligent *and* causational is unbelievable, not factual per their own evidence

This is a tricky one. Evie's lawyer was a very clever woman (I made a post on the webinar both legal teams made back in Dec) and as very clever lawyers like to do she basically combed the admission out of Dr Mitchell.

Spoiler: Lawyer quotes

SR: "Yes, and he had to accept that he had said in the witness box as well because he hadn't even asked about the diet properly *bursts out laughing* and he agreed during that it would be very difficult to ensure that you had sufficient, because you had to know exactly what the date was. So, he was decent enough, I think, good on him, to accept that frankly if he did in fact give what was his standard practice advice, it was negligent."

VBC: "So really this recent judgement just boiled down to who did the judge believe about what was said in conversation."

SR: Yes, it did.

Spoiler: Lawyer quotes

"We aren't out there to try and weedle in, this was in fact a pretty glaring case of a job not done properly when someone has specifically asked for a specific area of advice and it was not provided with care."

This is what the British Medical Journal thinks.

Back to the events of 2nd March though. The morning starts with her posting a picture to her Instagram story at the ITV studios. "Setting records straight today". Oh Evie. If only you knew how the public was going to react to your tale.

Here's the interview on YouTube.

Was there anything particularly outrageous in the interview itself? Knowing her legal case and life story as in-depth as I do, not particularly IMO. But I've transcribed some of the more interesting parts, with Evie's quotes in bold:

Spoiler: Long

"This was a case about a GP who actually admitted to giving advice that was negligent" As explained above, only a lawyer would count that as an admission, but lawyers are dishonest people anyways. Given that I am almost certain I have heard this exact sentence before, I wonder if she has had legal coaching before deciding to go on TV. Since she declined an interview in a paper in November, and was silent on social media until now, I assumed that her lawyer told her to zip it.

"She didn't have a family her own" - as discussed before, Caroline Toombes told the court that she lost both parents at a young age (no details on what exactly happened). However, going to your doctor to ask when it is safe to attempt conception after being on the pill demonstrates to me 1. an irrational level of anxiety 2. general stupidity seeing as most women going to their GP about the pill are worried about getting pregnant because they had sex after missing a few.

"There and then the GP said that folic acid was not necessary." "And that's what was written on the notes." "Exactly." This is just untrue. Here's what the notes said and the judge's take on them, according to the doctor's laywers.

It was accepted that Dr M had no recollection of the consultation and was therefore entirely reliant on his usual practice and his note which read: “Preconception counselling. adv. Folate if desired discussed”. The Judge did not accept Dr M’s evidence that, in accordance with his usual practice, he advised a 400 µg supplement for women preparing for pregnancy and in the first trimester. He would additionally advise that if a patient had very good folic acid intake from their normal diet, then the benefit of supplementation would be less important although the dietary intake of folic acid would need to be very good in order to avoid the need for the 400 µg supplement. The Judge found that Dr M was attempting to reconstruct a conversation/consultation on the basis of an “inadequate note” which required him to speculate or make assumptions about what was said.

Caroline disputes this. 'He told me it was not necessary,' she told the judge. 'I was advised that if I had a good diet previously, I would not have to take folic acid.'
Personally, I think this comes down to the doctor being faced by a young woman who is clearly very anxious about something that really shouldn't be much cause for anxiety and giving her suitable reassurances. Of course, Dr Mitchell cannot recall this anxious patient he met for ten minutes 20 years ago so he can't really defend himself on that point. If you want to remind yourself on how much of a nutcase Caroline Toombes really is, see my post. As Evie admitted, she was the driving force behind the entire thing.

"This is about sticking to guidance. If the guidance had been adhered to a healthy child could have been born, based on statistics." Not wrong, as the courts operate on a 50/50 basis and Evie's genetic condition is one in a million or something like that. That's how ridiculous this case is. But it's also based on Caroline's suggestion that she would have held off conceiving for a month to let the folic acid build up, something she didn't suggest until quite late in the legal preparations. If she is telling the truth about waiting for a month it adds to the evidence that she is a mentally unwell woman.

They talk about the spina bifida - folic acid link. Evie is very careful to not announce that her form of spina bifida isn't linked to folic acid intake, even though it would be pertinent to highlight that this is not what the court case was about, rather the time of conception. During the webinar for doctors her lawyer did make sure to say this, and the other webinar by the doctors' lawyers made a point of this as well as initially the parents were trying to sue on the folic acid causing the spina bifida, things then went silent when they were told it was genetic, then the story changed 4 years later.

"How did your mum explain this to you, because it's a tough thing to hear, isn't it? That actually, if you could go back in time and go to a different GP, I mean, it's "wrongful conception", you wouldn't be here!" "Yeah, I think it's such a whirlwind and very, maybe what I think's been reported is kind of been twisted a bit, but we looked at it like when you're starting a family you want to give it the best chance, don't you, and you would want to give anyone the best chance, and GPs are given guidance to help them so that everyone can have uniform advice, whatever GP you go to, our NHS all has the same advice and criteria. But if that's not given, and guidances fail, that's where the issue comes." Evie, this is not China where doctors are forced to stick to government issued medical management plans at the cost of their wages. Doctors can and do deviate from guidance in individual cases, such as in the case of your mum. In fact, the kidney doctors probably deviated from guidance too when they were trying to treat your super rare and special potassium issues. Gonna sue them too? I was kinda upset that she went around this question because I would also like to know how she feels about it and how her mum explained that she should not have been conceived. I wonder if the public lost any remaining sympathy with her here because she comes off as a bit emotionless about her own story.

They then talk about the implications for doctors. "I think if you are a GP that is sticking to advice and guidance and giving correct advice, you are absolutely fine. This was about a GP, knowing the guidance, and choosing not to disclose it and give the correct information and actually advised the opposite." I remember posting before about not biting the hand that feeds you. If you rely on daily medical intervention I would advise you not to sue your doctors then go on national television and tell them how to do their jobs. Especially when you only have three GCSEs yourself.

"There's been speculation that you could be awarded millions and I imagine you want to clarify this slightly because the money will be going to cover your lifelong care costs, right?" "Exactly, so this isn't anything like that. What happens now is that doctors assess my health and work out what it would costs to keep me alive and cared for, and that's what it's based on." One of the twitter commentators spoke out about her eyes lighting up when the interviewers mentioned millions. Anyways, yes, the doctor pays nothing and it comes out of NHS Resolutions, i.e. the public purse, and people are very upset that she sued "the NHS" when it is currently ailing and failing because money. What confuses me is that all her treatment would be on the NHS anyways. The only thing I can think she'd argue she needed would be a snazzy powerchair for when her legs finally give up on her. I initially thought she would spend this money on a new horse, or maybe upgrade her medical horsebox, but I'm not sure now - surely money awarded would be based on necessities and care needs.

The interviewers talk about some of her achievements"Doesn't the fact that you are now sitting here as this incredibly accomplished woman, if you changed that at birth, you wouldn't be the person you are now." "Exactly but this is about preventing health conditions for new children. If every family has a chance to have a healthy child I think we'll all choose that, nobody would choose to be unwell. But I've had a really great opportunity in terms of living with this to start on social media and create a place where we're all following each other's journeys and everyone is learning from each other - even people without health conditions - it's great to learn about it and create more acceptance and understanding." She then goes on to talk about some of the talks she does in school and how important it is for children to learn about her (remember that storybook she wrote with her mum about a puppy with legs that don't work and urination trouble, just like Evie?) Evie has admitted before to not having many friends and having tough times at school. It used to be all horse pics on her instagram but it slowly became a gastroparesis extravaganza as she found this fed (lol) her attention needs. Interestingly at the start of the segment she had mentioned her stoma which she hardly ever posts about. I guess it just isn't as glamorous as TPN. She also never mentions her "find a way, not an excuse" motto. I think she knows by now it is an expression that most disabled people would shake their heads at for the inspo porn value.

Once the interview is over she posts a screenshot of the story and a long caption:

Spoiler: Included in my last post but here again for convenience

The truth, if you want to know.

This was a case about a GP admitting to giving advice that was negligent.

Until today, I hadn’t spoken to any press for an interview.

In November, a large newspaper called and asked for an interview. I politely declined but asked about the article they’d posted.

I have never said ‘I wish I hadn’t been born’ (I cannot reiterate enough this, it’s the opposite of everything I’m about.)
It was explained to me that the newspaper had written it themselves and put it next to my picture, never actually claiming that I’d said it, but obviously making it look like it.

The newspaper explained and I do completely understand that newspapers stay in business by creating stories and inflating information, so whilst the story sold well and was good for business, no one was actually reading the truth.

If health professionals are giving correct advice, in line with guidance then they are absolutely fine.
This GP however knew the guidance, but chose to withhold it and give the opposite advice - saying it was ‘not necessary.’
He did also admit this under oath in court, which lead to the decision by the judge that this was negligent.

I was not in court last year, and haven’t been involved with the legal case heavily as it began when I was three years old.
As a matter of principle, guidance in all areas of health has to be followed, so that we can all access correct and up to date advice that doctors are qualified to give.

I’m happy for any of this text above to be quoted, but anything else is unfortunately not true.

This is also a very emotive topic, I understand why the previous articles were so upsetting- unfortunately they were not based on the truth and didn’t reflect the reality of it.

Thank you to everyone that identified the actual truth, and seen past any sensationalist headlines. We know so many incredible people that we are lucky to call friends both in real life and on here.
Also thank you to the team at @itv @thismorning for being so accommodating.

Evie x

A few notes about this. The whole thing about her never saying she wished she hadn't been born being published in the media was also talked about in similar terms about her lawyer on the webinar. Don't worry Evie, though you may not, the rest of the world wishes that you were not born instead. Then she goes onto talk about sticking to guidance which is pretty much her lawyer's arguments and not her own. Finally, Evie has featured on ITV more than once before. This is not her first media appearance. I think she thought she'd get as much positive feedback from this story as she had from the previous ones, but the public generally don't like what they perceive to be attacks on the NHS. Telling doctors how to do their job properly isn't going to gain her sympathy either.

I am reluctant to believe that Evie was not in court last year. Upon her return to social media after the case she posted a string of photos in London tourist attractions, saying she had recently made a trip there, so she was at least in London at the time with her parents. The judge made comments on Evie's remarkability, as well as being well-spoken, I think, and whilst it's possible this could have been demonstrated through videos it would make more sense if she had actually met the judge. Regarding "not being involved" in the case, I believe that. It's clearly her nutcase mother, and having to live under the hold of her thumb is the only sympathy I lend to Evie. However, her lawyer explained that there were two statute of limitation periods, the first being of her parents from birth (or possibly conception? or possibly diagnosis?) for three years and as they missed their chance Evie could herself take the case on once she came of age, until she was 21. But it is obviously her mother's case (the defence lawyer even kept referring to Mrs Toombes as the claimant accidentally), so I would have preferred to see Caroline on TV.

It's been hard to aggregate all the social media commentary but I've taken a look into the responses on Twitter:

Spoiler: Unhappy doctors (again)

Spoiler: "My brother/self/dead baby is disabled and I hate her"

Spoiler: People who watch daytime TV for a living comment on medicolegal stuff

Spoiler: The general public opinion

And here's a tabloid article stoking the flames seeing as Evie said she wasn't particularly happy about the media coverage. Remember how I said not to bite the hand that feeds you? Maybe don't feed the snake that bites you too, and complain about being bitten when you see that there is now even more media coverage not portraying you in a positive light.

The Coffee Photo Incident
Later in the evening Evie posted a picture of herself outside a building then a picture of her drinking some coffee. I cannot believe that this incident happened in front of my very eyes.

One comment, someone questioning her about how she can drink coffee on TPN. I assume it's not anyone from here since this person used an active Instagram account to straight up ask. It was the only comment on the post. I couldn't tell if it was a well meaning follower of hers asking in good faith, a viewer from This Morning or what, but it's pretty stupid to use an identifiable instagram account to interact with someone known to be litigious so I've chosen to withhold their identity.

Not even a minute after I refreshed the page the post was gone, and immediately replaced with this. Same picture as the first slide of the last post but without any mention of coffee:

She's since posted another photo of her holding an empty coffee cup, but no big mention of it. I love how she posted the above picture to give the impression that she was suave and cool and does not care at all about the big meanies of This Morning viewers and immediately deletes when questioned. The insecurity. I don't know why she couldn't just say that she could maybe have sips of fluids or something, but that would make her constant story posts of saline bags a bit redundant, so I guess it had to go.

 

[Protozoangod]

Is that a fucking BIRKIN?

 

[Reddit Refugee]

Is that a fucking BIRKIN?

This is something I've completely overlooked. I've attached a closeup of one of the bag pics in case anyone is good at identifying these sorts of things. She has a habit of tagging clothing brands (never makes clear if these are sponsored posts or not and legally she should), and these are usually horse brands but lately in London she's been tagging some luxury brands. She tagged the gilet brand in another post, the coat brand in the coffee post:

Valais quited gilet in houndstooth from Holland Cooper (note they also have an equestrian line). £199.
Black trench coat from Fox London £330.

I was wrong, I guess. I thought she was going to spend her compensation on a horse. Turns out the horses are the least of her expenses.
One other thing to note that it is not the done thing in middle class British culture to flex your wealth. It's considered uncouth. If she had friends of upper-middle class social standing (the types to wear these sorts of brands) they would look down on the brand tagging. Either she is too isolated to understand this or she has been raised on the internet and thinks she is an influencer so she should do this. Third option is that she is actually being sponsored and illegally not highlighting this.

 

[Sparkling Yuzu]

Her and her mother are both disgusting people and deserve to have their ovaries stomped to mush by horses.

"There's been speculation that you could be awarded millions and I imagine you want to clarify this slightly because the money will be going to cover your lifelong care costs, right?" "Exactly, so this isn't anything like that. What happens now is that doctors assess my health and work out what it would costs to keep me alive and cared for, and that's what it's based on." One of the twitter commentators spoke out about her eyes lighting up when the interviewers mentioned millions. Anyways, yes, the doctor pays nothing and it comes out of NHS Resolutions, i.e. the public purse, and people are very upset that she sued "the NHS" when it is currently ailing and failing because money.

Personally, I think this comes down to the doctor being faced by a young woman who is clearly very anxious about something that really shouldn't be much cause for anxiety and giving her suitable reassurances. Of course, Dr Mitchell cannot recall this anxious patient he met for ten minutes 20 years ago so he can't really defend himself on that point.

He was literally trying to be kind and sensitive to mental health issues like anxiety. For his trouble he gets some sped and her narc mom try to ruin him.

 

[IBrokeBob]

So my take on the Evie story is " obnoxious, entitled brat wishes she was never born and is on a public mission to ensure the rest of the world wishes she was never born either.

Mission accomplished Evie! Now shut up and go away.

 

[self-diagnosed dumbass]

A port is placed under the skin, with no parts exposed unless accessed with a needle. Once the infusion is over and the needle is removed, the port is much easier to keep clean because it's covered by skin. A PICC or a Hickman has tubing that is always exposed to the outside. That means it's much easier for nasty beasties to get in, which is especially bad because the tubing is directly connected to the vena cava.

With both ports and Hickman lines, a fever is considered a medical emergency because of the risk of severe infection. Bacteria and fungus loves to "stick" to the plastic components, and an infection can go from subclinical to massive sepsis in just a few hours.

View attachment 3040339
Here is a port. It is "accessed" by pushing a special needle into the center membrane, which is made of silicone. Patients can bathe and even swim with a port, as long as it isn't accessed.

This is what it looks like when accessed:
View attachment 3040344

A Hickman line looks like this:
View attachment 3040347
That long, dangling tubing is not removable. During an infusion, a needle is stuck into the dangling ends like an extension cord. It has to be kept clean and dry, which means no submerging the chest in water and taking great care not to get the area wet in the shower, usually by wrapping the area in plastic.

Thanks for explaining/including pictures! I've only ever seen ports when they're accessed courtesy of all the munchies on his thread, so I was under the impression it was essentially a hickman / constantly exposed. Should have figured this group of patients aren't the best examples of what most medical procedures are like, lmao.

 

[KifflomKween]

Let me know if this is off topic as she isn't too big on social media just this particular shitty website.

So I think she is finally losing it.

https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/152253-what-are-you-thinking/page/5316/?tab=comments#comment-1064556818

James, meanwhile:

https://twitter.com/Thespacelathe/status/1464915535313969156/photo/1

The woman in the purple beanie is his wife. Not the same woman he refers to as "the girlfriend".

 

[the prednisone plug]

This is something I've completely overlooked. I've attached a closeup of one of the bag pics in case anyone is good at identifying these sorts of things. She has a habit of tagging clothing brands (never makes clear if these are sponsored posts or not and legally she should), and these are usually horse brands but lately in London she's been tagging some luxury brands. She tagged the gilet brand in another post, the coat brand in the coffee post:
View attachment 3042599
Valais quited gilet in houndstooth from Holland Cooper (note they also have an equestrian line). £199.
Black trench coat from Fox London £330.

I was wrong, I guess. I thought she was going to spend her compensation on a horse. Turns out the horses are the least of her expenses.
One other thing to note that it is not the done thing in middle class British culture to flex your wealth. It's considered uncouth. If she had friends of upper-middle class social standing (the types to wear these sorts of brands) they would look down on the brand tagging. Either she is too isolated to understand this or she has been raised on the internet and thinks she is an influencer so she should do this. Third option is that she is actually being sponsored and illegally not highlighting this.

That is indeed a Hermes Birkin- worth roughly $23,000.

 

[A tree]

That is indeed a Hermes Birkin- worth roughly $23,000.

I am so MOTI right now. She could have given her court winnings to a spina bifida charity and completely redeemed herself.

 

[large_farva]

I've brought up this specimen before, then she went off my radar but recently reappeared. Still up to her same old schtick, the fake curled wrist, mysterious "neurological" symptoms, and playing adult baby while sucking in disability checks.

tiktok: @rosethrives www.tiktok.com/@rosethrives
insta: @rosethrives but used to be @rollwithrose

Her faking has crossed into grifting as she has gained almost 10K followers on tiktok and now receives regular shipments of gifts from her wishlist.

There is something about her that makes her insufferable, maybe it's the voice? edit: it's her using a toddler sippy cup.

Meet Rose Merrill, age 21, a legal adult with a baby fetish and a wheelchair fetish. Basically we have an American version of Bee.
Red flags abound, but here's a big one:
July 17th, her carer isn't there to fold her laundry so she toughed it out and did it all by herself, asspats all around! Note the head bobbing and the curled wrist.
View attachment 1612107
but July 25th, just one week later, she's sewed an entire dress herself? It's not super hard to sew a jumper like that, but not an easy, one day task for someone who self-reports an inability to open her hand and hold up her head.
View attachment 1612118

Mom admitting it's PNES on facebook in 2018
View attachment 1612138

Rose is on tiktok of course, and her bio states she is "Severely disabled and sick"
Links:
tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fashionabilityrose
insta: instagram.com/fashionabilityrose
facebook: Rose Merrill facebook.com/rosieposie.poodlehead
mom's facebook: facebook.com/DrMRM17

Sibling's blog: https://ithinkidontspeak.wordpress.com/author/katieopotato/
in the early blog posts, there's a bit about disability, apparently Katie/Leo is disabled, as well as Rosie.
https://ithinkidontspeak.wordpress.com/2017/11/23/i-like-to-push-my-little-sister-around/and this one:
https://ithinkidontspeak.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/differently-abled/https://ithinkidontspeak.wordpress.com/author/katieopotato/(cannot archive atm)
same with the youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsT34qFxnVwp0hzT-R1ZOHw/videos
insta: https://www.instagram.com/leolinmerrill/



Here she is enjoying herself on the special needs/adaptive playground equipment like any normal 21 year old.
View attachment 1612142
When you can understand someone asking you a question, but can't answer or understand because you're having a non-verbal day.
This makes all the sense.
View attachment 1612143

View attachment 1612140
View attachment 1612152


More cringe from the park: https://www.tiktok.com/@fashionabilityrose/video/6874338290045111558




There's more to unpack but I'm out of time.

 

[just lurking]

There's this girl on campus in a scooter and I ran into her again today. Had all kinds of pins on her bag, wrist braces, whole schtick. I betcha she claims EDS and would love to know her social media. I initially believed she could be disabled until I saw her at the meal hall with a cane and walking just fine. Cane was resting on her arm while she walked.

 

[self-diagnosed dumbass]

There's this girl on campus in a scooter and I ran into her again today. Had all kinds of pins on her bag, wrist braces, whole schtick. I betcha she claims EDS and would love to know her social media. I initially believed she could be disabled until I saw her at the meal hall with a cane and walking just fine. Cane was resting on her arm while she walked.

I've been seeing this a lot more Out In Public the last few years as well, with a huge spike in the last year alone. I've also been told by a teacher friend that there is a kid in their class (elementary-age) that changes nametags as their "alters" front, and I am incredibly impressed at their ability to just ignore that nonsense and call them by their real name. I don't know if I would have the same self-control.