I am lucky enough to sometimes forget I have hypermobility
and EDS. That is only sometimes though. Other times it jumps out from whichever
rock it has been hiding under and repeatedly slaps me in the face and storms
around at night making sure I know it’s there and it means business. One week
in the life of someone lacking collagen who’s joints are very grumpy and
impossible to please can be a hellish week indeed.
You still have to go to work (if you can) and do everyday
things like showering and eating and sleeping, but it is extremely difficult
when these things HURT SO MUCH.
I recently had one week full of hypermobile nightmares. The
worst I have had in a very long time. To make things more exciting though, the
week did involve a wedding, a barn dance and Paris. Sublaxation is not fun. On
a scale of one-fun it wouldn’t even make one. I haven’t had an awful lot of
experience of subluxation apart from one time when I was walking home and my
hip decided to put an end to the walking part. “Hello can you pick me up. I can’t
move.”
Last week however, while at a wedding, wearing VERY sensible
shoes might I add, my hip started to throb. I tried to walk it off at first as sometimes
unexplained random hip pain does occur, but to no avail. Fortunately the food,
wine and speech section soon kicked in which meant excessive sitting and
excessive wine. I’m not sure if the excessive wine was an advantage or not, but
my hips soon became much less of a focus.
It’s not every day a wedding includes a barn dance, but on
this occasion it did. I think barn dancing was the final straw. That is
definitely not something I ever imaged playing a factor in my joint woes but
hey, it’s actually quite fun (when you have had 1 or 15 drinks) and clearly
good exercise, as my hip can attest to.
So my hip sublaxed, I had to limp around a wedding, then get
a four hour train home the next day in the company of a hangover and a killer
back ache and on Monday I was due to do a retinal screening clinic and stand
for the best part of nine hours. I also live in a house with LOTS of stairs, so
becoming thirsty or needing food pretty much turned into the Hunger Games.
Perfect! Obviously the next day didn’t happen and I had to retreat to my
parents to lay in a burning hot bath and watch tv with my dog via a painful
physio session and lots of limping. Every cloud.
Of course, because hypermobility waits for no one, this all
coincided with me popping across to Paris with a friend for a quick break.
Paris involves A LOT of walking. A lot of museums. A lot of steps. My hip
behaved for most of it. I only had to limp and complain a couple of times a day,
but then after day one my shoulder began to ache and click and crack. I mean
why not, it’s not like I was trying to sight see or anything. I clearly
rewarded myself for putting up with life with ALL OF THE PASTRY. But it was still a massive pain, in every
sense of the word.
I am now in urgent need of loads of physio, my hip is
cracking constantly and my shoulder is doing a routine where it kicks in with
full on pain every hour or so. Throw starting a new job into the mix and
developing massive brain fog, and you pretty much have it all. I definitely
forgot just how bad it can be sometimes, and it makes me wonder exactly how
people who suffer in this way constantly can face the day. But they do, as I
seen on facebook groups and on forums and through chatting to people on
Twitter.
Personally, I think someone somewhere needs to start handing
out ‘congratulations you live with HMS/EDS’ certificates along with wine and
brownies. And maybe puppies?
The above is basically just because this is PRETTY.
