I discovered, much to my amazement, and that of my teacher, that I could do splits at the age of five. We were in gym class and the teacher asked if anybody could do splits so everyone started to slide their legs outwards from the hip. The teacher put up her hand and called, no you slide one leg in front and one behind you, so we all started to try splits the way she told us and to my amazement I slid smoothly to the floor! The teacher looked at me with an amazed expression and said "did you know you could do that?" I shook my head, no I had no idea.
Of course I then discovered I could high kick, I could bend and touch not only my feet but the floor without bending my knees, and I could wrap my legs around my neck. By the age of nine or ten I was having trouble with my knees and hips, my hip would slip as I walked home from school causing me to fall to the pavement with no warning, and my knees would swell, which according to my doctor was housemaids knee ! He advised mom to bandage my leg from wrist to ankle and I was sent to school hobbling painfully, stiff legged as the bandages were so tight I couldn't bend my leg! Presumably it was meant to push out the fluid on my knee but just caused me great embarrassment and pain.
When in my twenties the back pain began, getting worse when I fell on black ice one at on my way to work, causing me to hobble painfully home, I later learnt I had ruptured two discs.
I managed for a while, I had physio and ended up at a back pain centre in a hospital in Manchester for three weeks. I learnt relaxation and pain coping techniques, and got back to work for a while.
Arthritis started to complicate matters, degenerative disc disease not helping and an unstable spine and knees which bend backwards contributed to my problems, and though I tried to keep going the pain often gets too much for me. I use a mobility scooter these days, I fought against it for a long time, especially as I was diagnosed with osteopaenia a couple of years ago and walking andk exercise keeps bones strong, but constant pain was wearing me down, walking was too difficult and too painful for me, using a mobility scooter gave me my independence back.
It's been 52 years since I found I could do splits and it was realised I am hypermobile, once the pain came it was hypermobility syndrome, now known to be the same as ehlers danlos type 3, perhaps if my doctor had even heard of this debilitating condition years ago I might have been treated differently, who knows.
