Emily has dislocated her shoulder three times since September, crazy, huh? This is part of living with Ehlers-Danlos/Hypermobility Syndrome for her. So today she started physical therapy to hopefully strengthen her shoulder muscles. There are some really neat and somewhat freaky things we learned today.
For instance, we knew she was extremely flexible and that she could be a contortionists but to see the range of movement that the therapist got her to do was unbelievable. I never knew my daughter could move some of her joints almost 180 degrees! Ok, at least it looked like that and it was a little freaky.
I didn’t know that her shoulder muscles were so loosey-goosey that they couldn’t even hold her shoulder (the bone) in place properly. No wonder she keeps dislocating them. It also explains how inconsistent her volleyball serves are and why she kept getting called for double hits on her sets. If you watch her serve, she starts out great, but as she goes through the motion you can see the wobble starting at her shoulder-blade and move through her arm as she strikes the ball. This will now get fixed! Yeah! That will make her so incredibly happy!
The neat but kinda freaky thing was this. Hold your arm out to the side like you’re gonna pitch a baseball. You know, elbow bent and hand in the air. Know take your hand back to throw a pitch. Most people can go about 90 degrees back when they throw. She can go back 150 degrees without any effort. That’s crazy! It takes most pitchers years of practice to get like that!
Her therapist and us were just amazed at her range of movement. She says she feels like a freak of nature! I told her that it was just something to see because it’s so rare. She is handling it really great today but I know she has a lot of days where it is overwhelming. We will be starting on the journey of strengthening her muscles as much as possible. We’ll keep you posted! Hopefully this will help others who have children going through the same thing.
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