Health Issues

Last night I was comparing notes with some of my friends on health things I had an uncomfortable realization.

All those people who told me to stop cracking my knuckles as a kid, to stop showing off my double-joints, to be careful with my ankles etc, weren't just trying to ruin my fun. I was slowly, carefully, and willfully destroying my joints. That's awkward.

I am double-jointed, which is known in the medical world as hyper-mobility. I also have a plethora of other medical issues that have slowly become more intense over time, and the culmination of all of them points to a debilitating condition that could have me seriously immobile by the time I'm in my forties.

I have asthma, hypothyroidism, hyper-mobility (my ankles, knees, back, and hands/wrist especially are wrecked), and bi-polar on top of that. In addition, my hormone therapy while soothing some of these conditions, puts more stress on my kidneys and liver, as well as increasing my risk of some cancers. I knew this when I chose to pursue it as a treatment option. I didn't quite realize how many other health issues I was sitting on at the time.

I'm also pretty certain that I have sleep apnea, and need to get medicare/medicaid/whatever Virginia offers sorted so that I can get into a sleep clinic and determine just how severe it is.

Last night I was going over a list of various conditions sometimes found in conjunction with hyper-mobility, and was alarmed to find that hypothyroidism, asthma (misdiagnosis), chronic pain such as migraines and persistent joint pain, frequent blackouts (especially as a child, of which I had in plenty and is commonly diagnosed as early signs of epilepsy) and sleep disturbances are all signs of an often misdiagnosed condition that tends to get missed, because the odds of any one person having ALL of these things going aren't really that good.

Basically I need to be tested to (hopefully) rule out EDS (also younger siblings should probably be tested). Yay. I may also find myself completely physically broken before I'm 40. Fantastic.