nothing to apologize for anon! being curious isn't being dumb, and it gives me a great excuse to infodump about this random guy's disability i know way too much abt :3

disclaimers!!!:
- i am not physically disabled
- i am not a medical professional
- nor am i someone close enough to scar to really call me a Reliable Source of Information

i'll try to link my sources where i can but take all of this with a grain of salt considering my generally poor memory + some information potentially being outdated!

image heavy and unnecessarily robust explanation of all of scar's personal business below the cut!
cw: general medical talk, mentions of medical emergencies/incidents, sfw images and illustrations of medical equipment

TLDR VERSION:

-- general info and timeline --

so the overall term scar has always used is a general "neuromuscular disease" because from what information he's given us, they don't really know the extents of his condition, where it really came from, or if it has a preexisting term/name. I don't know if he ever found a name/cause for his autonomic disorder (issues with autonomic functions like digesting food and sustaining stable blood pressure, temperature and heartbeat. all of which he takes various medications for.) either but it's also a prevalent part of his disability he doesn't refer to very often.

his health initially dropped in early 2005 and was able to manage his precursory symptoms with physical therapy. but in late 2005/early 2006 the most prominent of his symptoms (muscle deterioration in his legs and diaphragm) showed up and stuck around. (years sited from this article scar's friend wrote about him in 2015) these are generally dates to keep in mind when talking about when he had to drop out of competitive swimming and around a year or two later when he first got jellie.

so for reference: he was 16ish when he was forced to leave sports altogether (he doesn't directly mention his age in this vod but he talks very in depth about getting sick and having to leave sports), 17-18 when first meeting jellie, 18 when he was placed on a ventilator, and 18-19 when he was taken off of the ventilator.

the device on his neck in the second photo is a tracheostomy tube. this was also removed when his ventilator was removed, and is the reason for his trach scar (the small divot under his adam's apple)

his initial feeding tube placements were around 2012, as sited in this black ops video where he's discussing a temporary break due to upcoming surgery to place a "hopefully permanent solution" to his difficulty with eating. he mentions trying a g-tube (gastrostomy tube: a line directly to the stomach), a gj-tube (gastrostomy-jejunostomy tube: a line directly to the stomach and the small intestine), and multiple picc lines (a line directly to the heart) before deciding on this vague 'permanent' solution, which is reasonable to assume he's talking about his j-tube (jejunostomy tube: a line directly to the small intestine). i talk more abt his enteral feeding devices farther down the post :]

he also mentions his issues with anesthesia (which he discusses in most if not all of his pre and post surgery vlogs and streams). including his extreme difficultly to regain control of his breathing after waking up. he's tried several different things to avoid being on a ventilator after regaining consciousness, which he seemed to successfully do in 2024 (during a surgery i discuss in the feeding devices section), and he thankfully has yet to need to try it again. there's several post op photos of scar vented after various surgeries over the past decade on his instagram which i won't put here only because some are fairly distressing and i want to keep this as information focused as possible. although i of course have them archived and can provide a singular post with the collection if people are interested.

-- scar's range of movement and sense of feeling --

scar's weakest points are, as mentioned above, his legs and diaphragm due to rapid muscle deterioration and atrophy. importantly: he is not paralyzed and his disability is not spinal based, which means he can feel everything despite not being able to move waist down. specifying waist down is also important! scar's mobility, from what we know and can see, is full mobility (for lack of a better term) tits up, partial mobility in his abdomen, and very little to no mobility waist down. these are all the reasons for the use of a chest strap with his chair instead of a typical seatbelt or leg strap. while he has full use of his arms, his upper body strength isn't nearly enough to get himself back into his wheelchair if he were to fall. (as seen in his vr video and the recent charity stream) but that doesn't mean he doesn't have the ability to sit up without help.

when it comes to fic and describing what scar can and cannot do, I tend to abide by the ruleset that anything below the waist is a no-go unless described as "very weakly" or along the lines of squirming, twitching, etc. since we've seen that he can move his legs/hips/feet very subtly, albeit with notable difficulty. along with mentioning keeping him propped up with pillows no matter what position you put him in. (after all: the mad man sleeps with TEN pillows in his bed)

-- scar's accessibility, mobility, and QOL devices --

i was originally going to do a cut and dry list of his aides with footnotes, but i realized there's some context and details here and there that i would consider pretty important. so here's that amended and detailed list in no particular order:

Wheelchair(s)

- his (* old) wheelchair (a TiLite Aero Z adjusted for his needs inspired by BB-8) | acquired in October 2017

- and his (* new) wheelchair (a TiLite Aero T Rigid) | initally acquired in October 2024, after ordering 3 years prior

notes: scar's talked about the shitty state of the wheelchair industry before and the clips aren't hard to find so i won't go over everything, but one of the main points he brings up a lot is the monopolization of almost all wheelchair manufacturers by a company called permobil.

* he recently acquired a new chair, as the aero z isn't made anymore (partially thanks to permobil's acquisition of TiLite) and scar's been using the bb-8 inspired one for going on about 9 years. he also seems to still be using the aero z thanks to all of the problems his new chair has been causing him. including but not limited to repeatedly incorrectly sized parts from the manufacturer, discomfort from prolonged use, and issues regarding mobility.

External Oxygen

notes: when asked about how he sees himself and if he likes being depicted with his aides, scar said (aside from loving all fanart no matter what is/isn't included) he "doesn't tend to see himself with his tubes as much as he does with the wheelchair".

we can see this in practice with his cannula being hidden/excluded in:

- almost every single instagram selfie

- both of his day in the life video thumbnails

and several older sponsorship segments.

he's mentioned not being able to go for prolonged periods of time without his oxygen, and this variable amount of time has seemed to only shorten as years have gone by. especially recently with his steep decline in breathing/lung related health.

Feeding Tubes

this is something i've actually wanted to talk about for a while! most commonly i see people talk about and refer to scar's j-tube as his only enteral feeding device, which is absolutely fair considering i think he's only really mentioned his j-tube when discussing it with his chat. but i've been inclined to believe he uses both a mic-key j-tube and mic-peg g-tube separately. (the specifications are important!)

i figured this out mostly thanks to his day in the life videos where he shows off his medicine routines, videos from 2012-ish discussing the initial placing of his feeding tubes as mentioned above, and various twitch clips discussing traveling with all his equipment.

in this clip he goes through the process of replacing an (old model) ENFit (supplier) Kangaroo (feeding pump brand) adaptor and Avanos (supplier) mic-key (type of port) continuous feeding extension for his medicine.

[!! Missing Image !!]
[missing the original comparison between the legacy and modern ENFit adapters]
[if you can find the original image from the visual preview of the tumblr post, please contact me!]

towards the end of the clip he gives us not only a glorious closeup of his lap, but also a decent look at his j-tube site and port, open and connected respectively.

in this clip we can see him using the same setup for his medicine with a glimpse of a separate mic-peg tube

and in this later clip we can see him hook up the mic-peg tube to a Bard (supplier) drainage bag

placement wise, i assume they were both on the same side like the medical illustrations would suggest before his surgery in 2024 that i mentioned above to switch the side of his j-tube due to a persistent infection at the site. which would mean at the moment he (likely) has a mic-peg g-tube on the left side of his upper abdomen, a mic-key j-tube on the right side of his lower abdomen, with a scar on the left side of his lower abdomen where the original j-tube was. (as illustrated below by some totally normal, non perverted, anonymous fanartist)

[1] | [2] | [3]

-- all in all --

that's mostly it i think! if you're interested in deep diving yourself i'd highly recommend starting with his day in the life videos and then going through his post surgery scar-logs, since that's where he gets the most specific and technical about his various conditions. ty for reading!! and i hope this was more helpful than it was rambly!! :D