Monday, April 25, 2016

The Best and Worst News of My Life


My whole life, I thought I was the biggest wimp alive.  Until one day, when I was commiserating with my sister about how we have more aches and pains now that we're in our 30s. I explained how much pain  and fatigue I have each day, fully expecting her to say something along of the lines of "Yeah, me too!"

She didn't.  Instead, she looked at me and said, "Wow. I couldn't deal with that everyday."

The Best and Worst News of My Life



It was at that point I realized that maybe not everyone felt as bad as me all the time, and maybe I wasn't just being weak and pathetic. I started asking other friends and family members about their pain levels each day and discovered that I had been wrong my entire life.

I decided to write down a list of all of my symptoms and take it to the doctor to see what she said. I'd asked many doctors about my symptoms before, but had never mentioned more than a couple at once.  They would run a few tests that inevitably came back normal and say there was nothing wrong with me. Once complete, my list consisted of hypermobility, joint pain and stiffness, dislocations/subluxations/sprains, back pain, muscle pain and spasms, buckling knees, GI issues, chronic fatigue, headaches, severe heat intolerance, an inability to regulate body temperature, easy bruising and scarring, dizziness, brain fog, and more. I also had diagnoses of asthma, eczema, acid reflux disease, and vocal cord dysfunction.

When I handed the list to my doctor, her eyes widened. She wasn't even sure where to begin, so she sent me off to a neurologist who ran several tests on me that all came back normal (surprise, surprise.) So she referred me to a rheumatologist. The rheumatologist was booked out about 6 months so I sat back to wait for my appointment. During that time, I started researching my symptoms and realized that my medically complex son, Davy, who had been diagnosed with an unspecified connective tissue disorder had similar symptoms as me.  My other three children also did, but to lesser degrees.

It was around that time that I posted a picture of Davy's hypermobile ankle on Instagram, and someone asked if he had Ehlers Danlos Syndrome.  I immediately started researching it and realized that it fit my boys and me perfectly.

Hypermobile Ankle

In March 2016, I took Davy in for his regular genetic appointment and mentioned Ehlers Danlos to his geneticist.  I showed her my list of symptoms and it was like a lightbulb went on in the room.  She informally diagnosed us both with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and set up half a clinic day to do an in-depth examination on me and my three other children in June, 2016 at which point she would make the diagnosis official.  

I cried in the elevator on the way down to the parking garage while Davy jabbered happily to himself in his stroller.  I had just received a diagnosis of an incurable, untreatable, progressive genetic disease for both me and my son, and yet, they were tears of joy.  After a lifetime of thinking I was a pathetic wimp, I finally knew that I wasn't.  My entire life had just been validated, and everything made sense.  I could stop pushing my body beyond what it was capable of doing in an effort to be normal and start taking care of myself.  Even more importantly, I could make sure that whichever of my kids also received the diagnosis, learned to take care of their bodies properly from an early age.

After 30 years, my life finally made sense.  It was the best news of my life, but also the worst.  I'd always had a hope that I would get better someday, and now I know that not only will I not get better, I will continue to get worse.  But knowing the kind of pain my children will have growing up and knowing the struggles they will face...that's an even harder pill to swallow.


Have you or your child received a diagnosis of a chronic illness?  How did you react?

    






This post is linked up at Being Fibro Mom and Let Me Tel U A Story
This post also appeared on The Mighty and First for Women

12 comments:

  1. Wow, that's amazing that you were able to find the diagnosis, from an Instagram comment no less!

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    1. Thank you! Social Media has been such a blessing and a help to me since my medically complex son was born. I love how it allows people with similar conditions to connect even though they would never otherwise meet.

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  2. I found this thru your tube post on the mighty. This is me this week. I'm off to my doctor on Wednesday with my list of symptoms and how they meet the eds3 diagnosis list... then I saw that we even have the same name. I turn 30 shortly and want to avoid pain being the main highlighted point of my life. Thanks so much for the post.

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    1. And my blog is at www.nipenda.com if you are interested <3

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    2. Hi Hannah! :)
      I love your blog! Lots of good information :)
      I hope you get an answer when you're at the doctor on Wednesday! EDS is not pleasant, but if you have it, it's good to know so you can protect your body.
      Thanks for stopping by!

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  3. I found this thru your tube post on the mighty. This is me this week. I'm off to my doctor on Wednesday with my list of symptoms and how they meet the eds3 diagnosis list... then I saw that we even have the same name. I turn 30 shortly and want to avoid pain being the main highlighted point of my life. Thanks so much for the post.

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  4. After reading an article in "Reader's Digest," we learned my husbands symptoms was Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Our daughter almost died, as a teen ager, until she was diagnosed with colitis. After her treatments with drugs for many years, they fried her liver and she is now on the transplant list, as they keep her alive with other drugs. In the mean time, we pray and ask for our miracle. Thank you for sharing with us here at Tell me a Story.

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    1. I'll add your daughter to my prayer list as well!

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  5. oh, the tears of joy when receiving a diagnosis! I was the same way. Crying from joy even though receiving news of having an incurable illness. I'm so glad you found a diagnosis so you can start the healing process.

    Thank you for sharing at Chronic Friday Linkup! I pinned this to the linkup board at https://www.pinterest.com/beingfibromom/chronic-friday-linkup/

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  6. Hannah,

    I posted earlier and I meant to ask a question regarding something you mentioned regarding your symptoms. You mentioned you had a vocal cord disorder, do you mind elaborating on that at all? I have an EDS diagnosis and many other complicating diagnoses as well (as is the case for most spoonies), anyway in the past year another complication I've developed has been some issues with my vocal chords. I've seen an ENT as well as a gastroenterologist and both have run multiple tests. So I was just curious hearing that you too had vocal chord issues to learn what they were?

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    1. Hi! I was diagnosed with Vocal Cord Dysfunction because my doctor believes that that's what's causing my throat to close up suddenly with no triggers. I have my doubts about that diagnosis though and am thinking it's more along the lines of Mast Cell Activation Disorder.

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