Pictures (by Alexe Dilworth) of Hypermobility

Massive Breakthrough

Physically I seem to be making lots of really huge breakthroughs and the latest involves calves (again) and the fact I can get so much higher in the demie-pointe, and that in ballet yesterday I could manage copious chaine turns and turns from the corner where I would normally fatigue after one set! This felt really great and that I had made enormous progress. I had one of the best Pilates sessions I had had for long time. I worked with M and we did some of the usual hamstring/pelvic tilt work but we did a very gruelling gluteal exercise which was quite nasty, and then a lot of reformer work and I was allowed to "jump" on the reformer for the first time ever! Later in the session M made me stand on the reformer and bring the carriage in. This was  a standing exercise for adductors. I was really nervous about doing it and thought I would lose balance and fall off, but I managed it and really proud that I did it after all. I don't think M realised how much of a big deal this was for me in terms of confidence, but it felt really good and I was doing all sorts of things without constantly going into my hyperextended knees - apart from a deep adductor stretch at the end, where I did hang into my knees. M suggested a more supported stretch, so I will have to think that through a bit more.

Mentally I am still massively overworking and so perhaps some mental re-programming is now required. I think I have worked at such a pace because I have had to, but I think that I need to change this, and fast, because I am rapidly heading towards burnout at work. On Monday I need to have a meeting at work to discuss my working hours and my 'hour management'. I am a bit anxious about this and hope I am not about to be sacked or anything!

General Update

Over the past week and beyond I have become aware that my calves are no longer as "hard" as they were and they seem to hurt less and I have been having entirely "normal" training pain. I would say that this is a huge improvement. On palpation they are softer and less fibrous.

On Saturday, having done some ballet from home I had a brief interlude of sensing that my right hip was properly in its socket, it didn't last long, but if this starts to happen a bit more often I might start to recover sensation on the right hip.

The new physio exercise that K gave me last week is extremely challenging. I am finding it really hard to isolate contraction in my abdominals without engaging hip flexors, quads and diaphragm. I think it will be quite some time before I am sufficiently good at this.

Over the past week I have had considerable more energy since K worked on c2 (cervical spine) and now almost become manic. K said today that we would look to see how in future we can make my extreme highs and lows a little less extreme. She warned me today that she can foresee another fatigue coming and has asked me to take work easy (she is also my line manager!). K also worked on my knee, hip and gluteals. She worked at increasing my range of medial rotation in the hip and tried also to address ITB. This is still ongoing.

Ballet has been really good and I have been managing demie-point work much better with less fatigue.

Pilates - work ongoing!

Now the focus is to avoid extreme fatigue and to rest!

Physio Update

Although I had arrived to my session with potentially a rather negative state of affairs given about ten days of fatigue and intermittent joint pain and all-over global pain,  I allowed K to review A's notes of me who kindly gave me physio last week. A had bravely tried to do some work on my thoracic spine in an attempt to free that up, but unfortunately that made lumbar spine worse and by last Friday I was so hypermobile I could hardly stand. A suggested I was doing too much, and K agreed that I might need to look at how much I have on. K was also aware of the demands of my new role at Laban and the potential impact that might have. K and I also discussed my book on hypermobilty and how this might also be affecting me at this time. Upon observation K thought she should do neck work on me, and I agreed. K said that C2 was "out" in my neck and that this would be significantly contributing to my fatigue. She also worked on my pectoral muscles and the surrounding tissue area as I was saying that I had been having a great deal of arm and hand pain just lately. She explained this was because the brachial plexus area and nerves and blood vessels were compromised. This does feel freer this evening, as does my neck. My energy levels are improved, although I am tired - but that is normal. I had a very poor night sleep last night and have had a busy day.

I said to K that I had liked the exercises she gave me because it put me in control about doing something for myself in order to try and cope with the chaos in my body. Since my deep abdominal muscles still seem very inactive, K has asked me just to consider initiating pelvic tilt without actually doing the whole movement. This is because at the moment I am still using my quads and hip flexors to  help and ribs and diaphragm far too much, as T has also noted. In order to help me initally, K took my legs so they wouldn't work. I found this difficult because I was immediately dis-empowered. After a while I got the idea of doing this.

K asked to see me sitting upright. She used her body as a support (like a chair) and asked me to try and retain what she said was actually a very good posture, but using less muscle power to retain it. That is my second exercise to do in a real chair at home.

K and I had really interesting discussions (as we so often do) about the psychological aspect of the management of JHS. It was a good physio session and I thanked K again for all her support.

My article on Joint Hypermobility Syndrome in the British Medical Journal