Fairly relaxed day today, I had a bit of a layin then got myself up and dressed.
Physio man came to see me and I was introduced to the 3rd physio on the team. She seemed a little more hesitant about the EDS risks during physio than the other two but I gave her my copy of ‘you know you have HMS/EDS when…’ by Hannah Ensor of Stickman Communications, she seemed to relax a bit.
I headed off to the gym and got myself on the exercise bike for 10mins.
I survived that fairly well but had to pause the session to get my cool vest before walking practice.
I managed 2x the length of the parallel bars on my crutches with a little break at each end of the room.
I laid down in the gym for a bit before heading back to my room to crash for a while.

On the way to lunch all hell broke loose when the powers that be decided to run a crash drill while the staff were trying to get 20 old people into the conservatory at once! The staff had no choice but to play along with the fake heart attack but did not seem happy about it! I slipped back into OT student mode and helped the old folks arrange themselves ready for dinner, got everyone seated and filled the time with polite nothingness. I’m starting to think this will count towards my practice placement hours and one of two of the staff have already expressed a wish to keep me here after I’m fit to go!
After lunch and physio I went back to my room and crashed. My back has been playing up more that usual and it’s becoming reminiscent of the problems I had before my hypermobility diagnosis. I’m pulling out all the stops with Pilates and TENS but it doesn’t seem to be improving, I’m hoping once I can get my postural and walking muscles symmetrical again my back will stop complaining.
New physio seemed to think that I was doing too much Physiotherapy daily and that was the cause but I once I explained I’d been doing atleast an hour a day for the last 3 years she agreed that it’s probably because I’m asymmetric at the moment. We’ve agreed I’m ok to keep doing up to an hour a day at the moment but to rest when it’s really flares.
I’m also struggling with my ankles at the moment. I suspect this is a combination of problems 1st I’m doing more resistance work on my ankles and 2nd my ankle braces don’t fit.
Since orthotics won’t do new ones till I’m out of rehab I guess I’m stuck with atleast half the problem!
After a pain and fatigue flare this afternoon I finally broke down and cried… Just as Dad arrived bringing a pot plant, grapes and beading materials. This cheered me up considerably although I’m not sure he was quite prepared for the mascara streaked mess he found!

We chatted about work, golf, rehab and more. Half way through dads visit 3rd physio arrived to swap the stoppers on my gutter frame to 2 more wheels (at my request) the vibration from the ferrules dragging on the floor was causing me quite a lot of pain and my wrists are already under a lot more stress than normal from all the walking practice not to mention transfers, added self propelling and only having one wrist brace.
The wheels on the back legs don’t face totally forward so they do tend to skid/bobble around a bit but it’s a massive improvement for me! As this isn’t something the team here have done before I’m back to walking with supervision for the weekend but it’s worth it for the smoother ride!

After Dad headed home I fell asleep reading my kindle and woke up just as my tea arrived. (Jacket potato and tuna)
After tea I laid down with a good book and pased the time quickly.
My plan for the rest of the evening is a little bit of floor physio and an early night.
I’m being smuggled out for the day again tomorrow!