Emotional Support Sisters

Hypermobility

By the time I was 5, I had dislocated my elbow 3 times. The last time I remember well. It was a few days before my 5th birthday. I was playing ring around the rosy with a friend. We spun too fast and too hard. I stumbled and he didn’t let go. My elbow dislocated. 

My mom is a registered nurse, and my grandpa was an orthopedic surgeon. The previous times I’d dislocated my grandpa had put it back in place. When I dislocated my elbow the 3rd time we lived in a different state than him, so he walked my mom through putting my elbow back in place. After several attempts, and what felt like an eternity to me, we finally went to the emergency room. After several more attempts and another eternity, the doctor declared it to be a nursemaid’s elbow. They put me in a cast for a few weeks which allowed everything to stabilize. The doctor told us that young children sometimes have loose ligaments and as they age the ligaments tighten up and everything is fine and dandy.

When I was 10 I hyperextended my knee during a kitchen dance party with my mom and Rae. It wasn’t even a crazy dance, just a gentle dance with my baby sister. It damaged my ACL. That was my first time having an MRI.

When I was 12 I sprained my ankle carrying Rae down the stairs. (Maybe I should blame Rae for all my injuries). By the time I was 18 I lost count of the number of times I sprained both ankles. I had surgery to strengthen the ligaments in the weaker ankle. 

During my first year of college, I again hyperextended my knee during an aerobics dance class.  I went to the doctor and he did some mobility tests. The conclusion: hypermobile joints. His recommendation: strength training. At the time this diagnosis seemed minor. I enjoyed working out and hypermobility  wasn’t cramping my lifestyle too much. Since being diagnosed with chronic fatigue, balancing the need to exercise with the fatigue is difficult.

Migraines

At the onset of my period, when I was 14, I also started having migraines. At first, they started as horrific headaches that felt like my head was being torn in two. They then progressed to include an aura before the headache. For me, when I get an aura I see spots like I looked at the sun, but then the spots get bigger and I lose my close-up vision. I still have long distance and peripheral vision but it is really hard to read or see anything close. The first time this happened I was really scared. I tried to explain it to my mom, and she thankfully understood what was going on. As it turns out, my grandma had similar auras. Once I started hormonal birth control and later started having kids the frequency and intensity of the migraines went way down. Now that I am done having kids and no longer on hormonal birth control they have made a comeback and now include nausea. In an MRI done for unrelated things, a neurologist confirmed that my brain looks like it has migraines. I hadn’t realized that you can see evidence of migraines through an MRI.

Chronic Fatigue and fibromyalgia 

After 3 babies in 3 years, my body started to tell me to slow down. I tried to listen but didn’t do a good job. I went to my family practice doctor with complaints of extreme fatigue and aches throughout my body. Blood work was done, came back normal, and I was told I was just a tired, young mom. 

Fast forward 2 years and we’d move states. I was still tired. All of my kids were sleeping through the night, so I couldn’t blame it on kids waking me up through the night. I decided that I just needed to get in shape. I started walking on my treadmill for 45-60 min in the morning and also worked on losing the weight from baby number 3. I’d gained 50 lbs through the pregnancy and had only lost 30 lbs post pregnancy. I thought maybe the extra weight was what was making me achy. 

Turns out that was all a horrible idea. I lost weight but the fatigue increased instead of getting better. There came a point where I was falling asleep reading to my kids at 9 in the morning. I was nervous to drive further than 30 min away because I got so drowsy. I felt like I was watching life pass me by, unable to keep up.

Finally I found a DO (doctor of osteopathic medicine) who listened to me. He believed that I was tired and that I ached. We again did blood work to rule out the easy stuff. Easy stuff was ruled out. We did a sleep test to rule out sleep apnea. Sleep apnea was ruled out. He sent me on my way to a neurologist. The neurologist had me do an MRI, a CAT scan, and a Nerve Conduction Study. Guess what. The tests all said I was perfectly healthy. That’s when the neurologist diagnosed me with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia.

Postpartum depression and anxiety:

After I had my first child I was so exhausted it was indescribable. I was  living in a fog. I didn’t experience sadness. My only symptoms were extreme fatigue and lack of motivation. I would go days without showering or changing my clothes, and I love showering. I struggled completing tasks that I’d previously enjoyed. My husband and I chalked it up to a lack of sleep. I stopped nursing around 4 months because my milk started drying up. After I stopped nursing the fog started to clear up, and I continued on my merry way. I had postpartum depression 3 times each time I stopped nursing the depression cleared up. 

After my second child, despite a traumatic birth and recovery, I did not experience the lack of motivation I had felt after my first. I was still tired, but I had the desire to take care of and participate in life.  In fact, I was feeling so good that when discussing birth control options with my husband I knew I wanted to have my next baby soon and didn’t want to start birth control. It was a lightbulb moment for me. Looking back, I realized that what I experienced after my first baby was postpartum depression.  During recovery from my second birth also when I started feeling the fibromyalgia aches. However, my doctor just chalked it up to postpartum recovery.

When I brought my third baby home I had a 2-year-old (almost 3, but still technically 2), a 15-month-old, and the new infant. To say life was crazy and exhausting is an understatement. I enjoyed it, once I stopped nursing. Was I exhausted? Yes. Was life a little foggy? Yes. Did I have postpartum depression? I don’t know. A lot of my malaise cleared up when I stopped nursing at 5 weeks postpartum.

3 births in 3 years took a toll on my body. It was between babies 3 and 4 that I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. That is a different story, though.

Baby number 4 was a happy, but slightly anxiety-inducing surprise. Happy because we love kids. Anxiety inducing because in the past child-growing and child-birthing had caused some health problems. I had just started to get a handle on understanding how to live life with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia while taking care of 3 kids when I found out I was pregnant again. I was afraid. How far would this set me back? Would I be able to take care of my family? What would I do with a newborn? How would I get enough rest? I had a hard time regulating my emotions, especially in the first trimester. In my third trimester, I had 2 bouts of diarrhea that took me down. My body wouldn’t stop spasming even though it had completely emptied itself. After I gave birth I had two more bouts of diarrhea. After each attack, I was so exhausted I needed help taking care of my family for a couple of days.  The diarrhea started giving me panic attacks, the panic attacks gave me diarrhea, and everything spiraled out of control. During the panic attacks my heart would race and it felt like I couldn’t breathe. One of them was so bad my mom had to come and take care of everyone while I lay in bed unable to function. I was scared. I went to my doctor and told him I was having panic attacks and debilitating anxiety, and bowel issues. He gave me an antidepressant. The first few days on it were nerve-racking. I got shaky. My skin was tingly. My brain felt like it was being rewired. My husband patiently said to give it a few days. I did. The side effects calmed down and I started to feel better. I was less anxious. I was less angry. Turns out anger, for me, is a symptom of anxiety

IBS

After several months of antidepressants, I was still having diarrhea flare-ups.  Although not to the extent of the first few, they were still often enough that I was concerned. I went to my family practice doctor, who sent me to a specialist. After ruling out gallbladder issues I was diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). I did a FODMAPS diet and found out that high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a huge trigger. Eliminating HFCS and continuing with antidepressants really helped control the IBS.