I realised when I was 5 that I am double jointed, or as they say nowadays, hypermobile.
We were having a gym lesson and the teacher asked if anybody could do the splits, everybody started to spread their legs out sideways to the body. No,no, the teacher said. To do the splits you must push one leg out in front of you and the other leg slides down behind, and she showed us what she meant. All the children began to try and copy the teacher, including me. To my amazement, and to the amazement of the other kids and the teacher I slid straight down to the floor in a perfect splits position! Wow, said the teacher, did you know you could do that? I shook my head. She laughed, you are obviously double jointed she said.
My party trick when I was at secondary school was to be able to wrap my legs around my neck. I could also put my legs over my shoulders and stand and walk on my hands! Splits was no problem, neither was doing a high kick. My hands touched the floor with no problem with my legs straight, infact I could put my hands flat on the floor and even my elbows!
Now I am 56 I regret overusing my joints because I have back pain, degenerative disc disease in my spine, arthritis in several joints. My knees are done for, they creak and groan and are very painful. My ankles give way a lot and I have fallen downstairs numerous time because my ankle gave way without warning, throwing me down. My hip sublaxes just by my turning over in bed, my finger joints are large and painful. Now my shoulder is giving me problems and is very painful indeed if overused. This is what ehlers danlos hypermobility syndrome does to you. If I had been forwarned about what could happen, maybe I would have taken more care. I wish I had.
