I just watched a video where a person demonstrated criteria for joint hypermobility and how ehlers danlos syndrome shows on the skin and I had everything. o.O

but *knock on wood* as long as it's not a health problem I don't have to investigate this further..

@distelfliege it's certainly a good reason to keep active if you can and be mindful of overuse injuries, my experience of EDS is that deconditioning is the worst thing for it (but it's really a very varied thing, what is true for me is not necessarily true for others, and I have various comorbid stuff going on which exercise also helps)

@artsyhonker that sounds like essential advice!

could you explain what deconditioning means here? I understood it like "unlearning things/moves that aren't good for you"

@distelfliege ah! No, that's good, though hard work; I mean loss of general strength/fitness through inactivity, in my case usually because of injury.

@artsyhonker oh, thanks for explaining! :) I'm pretty active and I think I'm also an athletic (chubby) type so that is good for me.
I can't run because of my knees, I had so many injuries in my teenage years that the knees are both really messed up. I couldn't walk long disctances. but I can ride my bicycle

@distelfliege Cycling has been a really important way for me to maintain some fitness when I couldn't walk far or fast without pain (knee issues, then shin splints, then plantar fasciitis). When my knees eventually complain too much about the cycling, I plan to buy an electric assist bike.

@distelfliege At the moment my walking mobility is improving, but only because I made a big effort to strategically increase it. I have more foot and hip damage than knee damage though. Every body is different and the important thing is to do what works well for you. I've been told by multiple physiotherapists that I must not run unless I'm about to be hit by a car or something.

@artsyhonker that's good! I'm glad to hear your strategy works! I mustn't run too..
I have shoulder and finger joint issues as well, which is a bummer sometimes because I love crafts and I'm a craftsperson and I need my fingers all the time.

@distelfliege I have ring splints which help me a lot with hand pain:

@artsyhonker wow, neat! and beautiful!!

@distelfliege I suggest trying plastic ones first, silver is expensive but more comfortable and stronger. Jussec, getting big computer so I can dig out some links...

@distelfliege OK, links.

Plastic splints: https://www.3pointproducts.eu/en/attention/a/3pp-oval-8-finger-splint-graduated-set/23 don't buy them from anywhere else or they are about three times as expensive!

Silver splints, over-the-counter from a UK maker:
http://ringsplintsbyzomile.co.uk/ I don't think she ships to non-UK but no reason someone else couldn't

Custom silver splint designer in Utrecht:
https://www.silversplints.com/en/ I got my thumb splint from them, it's great, but was expensive because I had to have it prescribed by a hand therapist.

@distelfliege It may also be worth looking at what people are doing on Shapeways with 3D printed splints:
https://www.shapeways.com/marketplace?type=product&q=splint&s=0#more-products

@distelfliege

With all of these splints there is some loss of manual dexterity, which is annoying. After a while you get used to it, but tying shoelaces is still way more annoying than it used to be. But I wear a lot of splints, you may not need to splint as many joints as I do.

Some hand therapists think splinting is a good idea and some are very anti-splint. I use my hands more with the splints and they are getting stronger as a result.

@artsyhonker I don't need splints at the moment I think. I hope it stays that way for a while! loss of dexterity would be a nightmare for me.

what I like is how they keep your fingers from bending the wrong way.

I do have the tendency to get trigger fingers and I had surgery for trigger thumb.

@distelfliege There are splints for trigger finger too, I think the We Design site is probably the best of the links I've shown you. There are also some American ones.

In general, splints that are flat are more comfortable than those made with round wire; something to bear in mind if you're exploring various options.

@artsyhonker 💜 💫 I have to go grocery shopping now, thanks so much for sharing all this!