I was looking at how they diagnose Ehlers-Danlos Hypermoblity type...it's a 9-pt scale.....I hit 7 out of 9 on the scale.
The ONLY thing my body doesn't do, is my pink finger only extends about
60 degrees, instead of 90. Well, maybe not. It looks like it does go 90
degrees. I'm just an idiot. Maybe it's just my left hand....LOL (i'm a
nutjob, I know!!)
So I get all 9 points, 8 at the least.
Crap. I'm screwed. My PCP on Friday, I asked him what he thought about
it as a possiblity, he moved me around, and went "woah, I missed that
one, can I study you now? I've read about EDS, but never SEEN it".
Probably helped that I have a bruise on my hip bone that i have had for
about 2 months (since the last time I saw him), maybe longer.
I now have a pain management appointment on Wens, instead of a week
from Monday. Nice to know when they finally realize you aren't CRAZY,
you actually get to get in early! I'm not seeing the NP this time
either, I'm seeing the Doctor. woo-hoo.
Oy. If it is this, and it's the Hypermoblity type, there's not even any
genetic testing they can do. I'm just screwed 15 different ways. Or
maybe just 8-9.
Here's the excerpt (can I post this? The full article is here
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/helthrpt/stories/s 828404.htm) This
particular article was about chronic fatigue and children, but they
also found EDS in about 11 of 100 kids! eeks!
Peter Rowe:
We took the examination findings from 58 consecutive new patients, also
found another 58 patients who were about the same age and gender that
we’d seen in the past and we compared them to the closest we could find
to healthy kids that were available to us, that was children coming in
to the dermatology clinic to get a rash looked at. We didn’t think they
would particularly be more likely to be flexible or less likely to be
flexible, and we just did the same simple 9-point joint hypermobility
test on everybody.
Norman Swan: Tell me about that test.
Peter Rowe:
Well it’s fairly simple to do. It’s pretty quick. You put the person’s
palm flat on the table and they bend their pinky finger back. If it
goes beyond 90-degrees, they get a point for that on each side. They
need to have 10-degrees of hyperextensibility at the elbow.
Norman Swan: In other words when you stretch your arm, it doesn’t just go flat, it bends beyond that.
Peter Rowe: Correct.
Norman Swan: I’m getting sick at the thought of it.
Peter Rowe:
People often get a little queasy when I show the slides. And so you get
a point for each arm that does that, a point for each knee that
hyper-extends or bows backwards. One point for the ability to bend your
wrists and bring your thumb on that side straight up to the forearm,
and then one point for being able to stand still and put your palms
flat on the floor. So it’s a 9-point scale. Hypermobility is defined as
a score of 4 or higher. And most of us in the general population are
somewhere in the 1, 2, 3 range. Some athletes who are otherwise healthy
can be flexible, and it may be an advantage to them. Hypermobility is
not a disease by any means and for some it’s an advantage in music.
Glenn Gould the pianist was said to have joint hypermobility and people
have written in medical journals that Paganini, the violinist, must
have had this as well.
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