Ehlers danlos syndrome

Turd Cake

/ RachelMorrisMcGeethemyastheniakid / Leave a comment

I will be honest very little about my health gets me down. Well not strictly true, the migraine situation ( up to three a week) was pretty trying but thankfully that has settled, plus when I have a CSF leak flare up of symptoms but that is more of a freak out along the lines of what if it doesn’t heal and I have to spend the rest of my life in bed ? I don’t know if I can do it. The injuries from the road traffic incident are really messing with my mood at the moment and I feel a bit of a flake due to it. I put up with a lot of shit that seems to be continually thrown my way but I am struggling to deal with the constant pins and needles in my left arm / hand along with the burning pain that comes with it. Topped off with a numb left buttock which is the icing on top of the turd cake, I am struggling.

I spent last week feeling really tearful, the physiotherapy session from the week before had done nothing but make everything hurt more. Six weeks after the accident and instead of things improving things are getting worse. The pain is like electric shocks, you never know what movement will prompt the sharp zing of pain radiating either from my neck or my upper back. My left shoulder is grating in the socket. I have had enough, it is as simple as that. The only time I am free from the pins/ needles / burning / numbness is when I am asleep and even then I am being frequently woken up by the pain in my neck. And just when you think things couldn’t get worse they do.

On Saturday I had a video call with a private Doctor for an assessment of my injuries following the car accident back in August. I had all my notes written out, a list of my prescription medication printed out, I was all prepared for the “meeting” which I was anticipating to last around 30 mins to an hour. So you can imagine my frustration when I was rushed off the phone in 8 minutes and 22 seconds. I was told that my injuries would take months to heal and that he would organise 8 sessions of physio therapy. Basically as soon as he found out I didn’t work, it didn’t matter how my injuries were impacting me. I was sat dumbfounded in shock afterwards trying to work out what had just happened. Every time I went to speak I was talked over. He was completely clueless about EDS, so when I say my range of motion is reduced, it doesn’t look like it as it has just reduced to a non EDS persons range of motion. You need the input of someone who knows me and has been treating me for years. Yet my whole case could be settled on the basis of this arsehole doctor. I cried. I cried because I felt like I hadn’t been heard, I cried because I felt like I hadn’t been believed and I cried because yet again I was going to have to fight another battle for a situation that hadn’t been caused by me but some stupid twat driving a BT open reach Van and him not paying due care and attention.

I was shocked at how low I was and how easily the tears came. I am not one that dissolves into tears over stuff that is to do with me. I will cry at tv shows etc but I am not one to sit and sob about my life. I made that decision a long time ago and felt that it would be a waste of time and energy. But Saturday I just didn’t care. It was just another punch in the gut.

I’m afraid to say I just wallowed a bit Saturday morning. I wrote a very strongly worded email to my solicitor pointing out all the issues i had with my 8 minute and 22 second health appraisal. I really wouldn’t mind but that doctor will be being payed hundreds to churn out these assessments over video calls and it appears there is no quality control at all with them. I then was angry, angry that as soon as he realised I was disabled and not part of the work force that my life was some how worth less than other peoples. WTAF??? 

So after Jay had popped home for lunch and I had a bit of a vent to him I decided that I needed to push myself and do something on my embroidery machine. I hadn’t touched it all week as I had been feeling like everything I do is shit, I couldn’t concentrate and sitting at the machine isn’t very comfortable even with extra pain meds, special cushions and hot water bottles. I set myself the target of completing one piece. Within 15 minutes I was feeling much more relaxed and was actually enjoying what I was doing. I ensured I had lots of breaks and pottered about on the long stitch outs. I actually managed to get two blocks done and it was such a mental boost for me. It really cheered me up after spending the last 4 days on the sofa feeling sorry for myself. 

By sitting at the embroidery machine and forcing myself ( it felt like pulling teeth initially) to be creative, I proved to myself that I was good at something and that my life even with this constant nerve pain, was worth something despite the way the doctor had made me feel earlier on that day. I was in pain when I finished, it wasn’t easy but I did feel like I had accomplished something. Something other than wasting the afternoon feeling sorry for myself. 


For me being able to be creative is better than any drug, it lifts my heart and fills me with joy. It makes me feel good about myself. So on Sunday I spent some more time at my embroidery machine not because I was forcing myself to but for the first time in ages I wanted to.

These are for some gifts that I am making. Hence why I have started Christmas projects now as everything is taking me such a long time to do as it has to be done at a much slower pace than normal. I have even managed to get some blocks of my spells and potions quilt for Halloween started.

I am lucky that I am a) able to do these pursuits and b) can afford do them. I count my blessings every day but that doesn’t mean that everything is wonderful in my life. It just means I have a distraction from the constant nerve pain. Nerve pain which is the icing on the Turd Cake I am currently dealing with.

Bugger!

/ RachelMorrisMcGeethemyastheniakid / Leave a comment

Well I didn’t think I could hate 2020 anymore than I did last week and bugger me it had some more treats in store for me. Sometimes even I find it hard to believe the stunts my body pulls.

I managed to have my first migraine with a proper full blown aura in 6 years on Friday morning which takes some beating. I was reading the newspaper online when I became aware of the fact that my left eye was struggling to see the words on the screen, in fact words were missing and the screen seemed ultra bright. I knew straight away that it was probably a migraine but I thought, it has been so long. Maybe it is the sun shining through the window hitting the screen and that’s why I can’t see? I struggled on for a few more minutes the weird thing was when I was looking at the screen my vision was fine. Then I looked across at Mr Myasthenia Kid and half his face was missing. At that point there was no mistaking this was a good old fashioned migraine. The last one of this type I had on my 40th Birthday how’s that for timing?

Hubby immediately sprang into action and got my migraine grab bag so I could take all my meds and then go back to bed. I absolutely hate the aura stage of a migraine which for me can last up to an hour before the headache begins. During that hour the visual disturbance just gets worse and worse, even with my eyes closed in a dark room. There is no escape from it and it leaves me feeling terribly disorientated. I am so grateful to have finally been prescribed sumatriptan, it is my wonder drug as it really does just halt the migraine in its tracks. Some days I feel as rough as a badgers arse, for those of you outside the UK this is what a badgers arse looks like. Other days I may feel a wee bit groggy but after a few hours I can do some bits and pieces and I am not totally wiping out a day. It really has been life changing. However the number of migraines I have been having lately has been averaging around 2 a week and I am heartily sick of having them. Of course it is now leading up to the window that always means migraine time the 18-22nd of each month. I am hoping ( god loves my optimism) that this month I wont get it but who knows? I have had more than my fair share these last 4 weeks.

So that was Friday, which was then followed by an eventful Saturday. About an hour after I got up on Saturday a nice bout of Vertigo started. The room did one spin every so often and when I walked / stumbled really anywhere it felt like I was on a boat. Thankfully I always have a stash of meds nearby for this and to be fair it has been quite a while since I had the spins. I sat down with a coffee and tried to relax and let the medication do its thing. After a while I was bored so I decided to go and sit out in the garden. Big mistake as I went arse over tit over a plant pot ( concrete ) that Mr Myasthenia Kid has so helpfully left in the middle of the patio. Had it been a normal day I may have been able to right myself but with vertigo? Not a fucking hope – apologies for the language today it is just happening. So I tumbled across the patio all the time trying to right myself without success. I realised at this point that I was going to end up crashing through the fence and falling 4ft down onto the patio in front of our shed if I didn’t stop staggering, so with the fake turf on top of the gravel I aimed my dive onto that figuring it would hurt a lot less than landing on the gravel.

Gracefully I hit the deck and if you believe that, you will believe anything. Immediately I was in a world of pain, both wrists, my left shoulder, my left knee, my left buttock and all along the left side of my back.

The only reason I didn’t scream obscenities out loud was because the neighbours children were playing in the garden and I didn’t want to teach them anymore bad language than I had already. Most of it was aimed at Mr Myasthenia Kid for being so stupid as to leave a bloody plant pot right in front of the patio doors! When he knows my vision is a bit dodgy and I can lose the sight in one eye if my ptosis strikes and I can’t open my right eye.

So all my plans of sewing etc went out the window. Instead I spent the day dosing myself up on pain killers and sitting on hot water bottles. My ankle blew up like a balloon, i had to take my slipper boots off because it got so large it was starting to feel constricted. I was bloody furious because I needn’t have fallen and I hate feeling vulnerable like that. I forgot to say the minute I landed on the artificial grass Dembe came rushing over showering me in kisses checking I was ok. Initially he wouldn’t let me get up until he had checked that I wasn’t seriously hurt.

Sunday was spent doing crochet very slowly as my wrists were still throbbing from the fall and my left leg was elevated all day due to the swelling. I still hurt all over but at least nothing was broken. 

Thankfully the vertigo was gone by Sunday morning, my leak is still causing me problems. It is still there and some days the head pain is worse than ever. I am still attempting to pace myself by lying down every few hours but it is difficult when I get absorbed in something to remember to. I only remember when my head starts feeling like it is crushed in a vice and all screens seem to be burning the back of my retinas.

As I am the worlds worst person at pacing myself due to the fact that giving up work due to my disabilities has made me feel like I contribute nothing at all to society, I push myself constantly beyond what is sensible and then end up paying for my stupidity. I feel that everything I do has to be better than everyone else so that people don’t feel sorry for me and that I don’t look weak or vulnerable. The fact that the falls and faints have become much more regular occurrences is making me feel very vulnerable and it is doing a number on my mental health. I have always struggled with never ever feeling anything I do is good enough and probably also a bit of impostor syndrome (find out more here. ) People can tell me that what I have sewn or embroidered is the best thing ever, my blog could be awarded a Nobel prize for literature but I would still be waiting for one person to say that my work is shit. It is hard to live with the constant fear that people will discover that what you do is actually crap. Add in physical disabilities and you have a wonderful mixture of weird ideas running through your head, not only are you not good enough creatively but you can’t even do the stuff normal people do. It makes you feel less than. Which is why I probably do push myself too hard to prove I am worthy of my place within society.

Word for this week is Bugger!

A lovely photo of Dembe to lift your spirits