Hypermobility has been an issue for almost my entire life. I estimate that I have consulted around 30-35 medical professionals in order to deal with its symptoms. I will not bother you with a story about the whole medical traject I have followed the last thirty years, instead I will give you a shortened version.
What is Hypermobility?
Hypermobility simply means that you can move some or all of your joints more than most people can. It is a hereditary connective tissue disorder, characterized by musculoskeletal pain and an excessive range of motion in joints. Other symptoms are proprioception difficulties, fatigue and soft tissue injury. It is associated with a higher risk of pelvic instability and herniated discs.
It was during
my teens that I slowly started to develop painful joints, especially
after having done physical excercise. When I was 27 I was diagnosed with
Hypermobility syndrome by a rheumatologist. I was suffering at that time
of inflamed joints in my feet and knees. To a certain point I was
relieved by the diagnosis because it finally gave me an explanation why I was suffering from nagging pain around my joints and why I had recurring
inflammations.My first pregnancy: pelvic instability
My issues with hypermobility really became problematic when I became pregnant when I was 35. My first pregnancy was quite troublesome because I developped pelvic instability when I was around 20 weeks pregnant. The last 4 months of my pregnancy I was barely able to walk. After giving birth to my son the pelvic instability disappeared within a month and I could walk again. As I had a wish for a second child and I started following a training program to stabilize my pelvis. I hoped that with strengthening my muscles I could prevent pelvic instability with a new pregnancy.
Second pregnancy: pelvic instabilility and herniated disc
After a year I became pregnant but unfortunately I again developped pelvic instability besides a herniated disc problem. During the last three months of my pregnancy the herniated disc slowly detoriated and I experienced the most horrific pain I have ever experienced in my life. After I gave birth to my second son I was allowed to take stronger pain medication and the nerve pain in my leg was more bearable. Due to this leg pain I was not able to sit longer than 15 minutes which caused a big restraint on my working and social life. Additionally I experienced problems in controlling my right leg when moving from a sitting position to walking. For a few seconds I had to drag my right leg over the ground till I achieved control over it.
I tried all kind of physical therapies but these could not improve my leg pain and the loss of control over it. It was after a year that I found relief from this nerve pain through corticosteroid injections in my piriformis muscle (muscle in my but). This caused a 90% pain relief. As a result the total time I was able to sit slowly increased...and step by step I got my social life back.
For my leg problem, I followed a rehabilitation program for three months two afternoons a week. During this program they assessed that I was still suffering from pelvic instability and that the muscles which had to suppose to stabilize my pelvis were not regulated by my brain.With the help of specific excercises which stimulate my brain to contract these muscles, I achieved control over my leg again. It took me almost 1,5 years to be fully recovered and being able to work again for the fully 100%.
A second herniated disc
Unfortunately a year later I developped a herniated disc again which detoriated in such a short time that I had an operation. The recovery from this operation was very difficult. The small muscles that are needed to stabilize the lumbar discs in my back did not always do their job. The result was a very fluctuating recovery: some moments I was painfree, but most of the time I was suffering from a lot of nerve pain in my leg. Exercises to trigger my brain to stabilize these small muscles around my lumbar discs had a limited effect. Physically I was little taxable. My social and working life stopped again.
Last but not least...another herniated disc
When I was still in the process of healing from the operation, I developped another herniated disc This was one year later and I had achieved little progress since the operation. I felt desperate and thought I would never be able to recover and get back to work again.
My manual therapist advised me a back brace in the hope this device could stabilize the muscles around my lumbar discs. And.. this had effect! My health immediately started improving, the pain slowly diminished and 6 weeks later I was slowly able to make a first step of expanding some hours at work. In total it took me 1,5 years to be back at work for the fully 100%.
I would love to tell you that this was it... but no.. a hypermobile body always has suprises for you. The new problem I suffered from was... dizziness.
After the herniated disc operation I slowly started to develop feelings of dizziness when moving my body. I first thought this was the result of the operation and that my back needed time to heal. But when my manual therapist told me that my back was ok, and that she could not explain this dizziness, I realised that I had a new problem. But... I did not know what it was and how to solve it. Since through my whole life my hypermobility was a recurring issue I decided to investigate whether there was a link between hypermobility and this dizziness. It was because of this research that I found out that I was suffering from.... Pots syndrome
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