conuly | A few data points:

1. When I was a child, my knee used to lock up sometimes if I had my leg bent. I couldn't open it, and it felt like it had slid out of joint. I still get twitchy if I have to crouch down for more than a few seconds. The last such incident probably occurred in my 20s.

2. I've always had weak ankles, prone to twisting.

3. A few years ago I sat down in the Bronx Zoo and when I stood up again I popped my hip, causing periodic recurring pain and aches - notably this week, where even sitting still on the bus was too much.

4. My sister used to be able to clasp her hands behind her back and bring them above her head to her front without letting go.

5. Yesterday I witnessed my mother casually bringing her foot up to her face to demonstrate that she could. She does that periodically, and at this point I suddenly put together points 1 - 4 and realized - THIS IS ALL HER FAULT! She's got some sort of freaky hypermobility genes, and she passed them on to us, and she and Jenn got the fun parts* while all I got were the twisted ankles and the hip pain! That's utterly unfair, and I told her so right then and there, too. I got completely cheated somewhere.

Edit: I'd forgotten, but well into my teens I used to enjoy sitting with my legs in a W because it was fun, and likewise I can still catch my foot in my hand behind my back while leaning over. (Though not right now, because my hip is owie.)

* Jenn's flexibility isn't all fun and games, but I'm fairly certain that our mother hasn't suffered one day over this. She doesn't even appear to have any arthritis, and I know that runs in her family.

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Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

wpadmirer

Oh, that sucks! Hypermobility is usually a bad thing.

From:

conuly

I didn't even get any cool party tricks.

From:

gatheringrivers

It might run on a "spectrum" of how badly you're affected? It's been a few years since I talked to the friend with hypermobility, so I don't know for certain.

From:

the_siobhan

Have you been tested for Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome? Because that really sounds like it.

From:

conuly

I don't think I quite have the usual hypermobility required for that. I just wish my hip would stop hurting right now. ("Figure out what the deal is with my hip/ankles" is on my list of things to do once I'm gainfully employed.)

From:

conuly

Also, moving past medical jargon it looks like most EDS variations have skin differences, and without groping everybody I meet I kinda feel like my skin is utterly normal and heals at the usual rate without odd scarring.

From:

conuly

I generally assume everything runs on a spectrum of how badly you're affected.

From:

boxofdelights

Aaaugh I used to get that knee thing when I was pregnant. It felt like one of the moving parts had moved into the wrong spot, and it felt like if I tried to straighten the leg or put any weight on it, I was going to tear something. There's a pregnancy hormone called relaxin that loosens up all your tendons, which is probably what caused it for me. I never found out how to prevent it (other than don't bend your knees) or how to pop things back where they belonged. It was scary!

From:

conuly

Although my usual response to this sort of thing is to run a google search on $WHATEVER and autism to see if people report that they're often comorbid, and the answer to that is a firm "probably". So... we'll just keep this on my list of things that I really need to settle next year when I have money and insurance.

From:

conuly

Scary and very painful if you panic and try to open your leg anyway. I'm glad I never did my knees any permanent damage that way, and hope you didn't either.

Edited Date: 2019-01-26 06:54 am (UTC)

From:

sara

Isn't it normal to be able to put your feet up to your face? That's normal in most of my family. Some of the guys can't do it but many of them can, and all the women can. I can put my heels on the back of my head, actually (though not down to my neck, even when I'm at my most flexible).

Your sister and the arms thing does sound unusual to me.

From:

conuly

No, I don't think it is normal - and even if it is, it's certainly not normal the way my mother does it, sitting straight upright without moving her head at all. She continually gets comments on it when she does it around people who don't know that this is something she does frequently - and then more when they hear that it is!

Of course, people can extend their flexibility, and what's normal for a person who does a lot of stretching to that end will differ from what's normal for a person who doesn't - but believe me, my mother is on the less effortful end of that spectrum.

Edited Date: 2019-01-26 07:16 am (UTC)

From:

hamimi_fk

Mase loves to W sit... He can lay his entire upper body on the floor while doing it. I'm gonna take a pic just to show how horrifying yet impressive it looks.

Mase also has weird bendy fingers, a trait he inherited from my sister (his birth mom). It actually freaked out his first grade teacher at first until we told her it's just genetic. I'm not sure where my sis gets it from because only she is like that but I suspect it's something from my mom's gene pool. She also has a touch of scoliosis so I have to keep an eye on Mase for that.

From:

marahmarie

I have very slight hypermobility - I can twist my arms to put my hands palm up (instead of like, twisting my wrist). Apparently most people can't do this because their elbows stop their arms from twisting all the way around. Mine don't.

And I heal slooooowly, especially skin or flesh wounds. And have had bad/weak ankles for as long as I can recall, which is sort of a PITA when your favorite things are walking, running and dancing (had to give up running by my late teens).

But outside of that I'm weirdly not flexible/on the EDS spectrum at all - forex, I can't do a split, which to me seems like a bare-minimum "more flexible than the average" move.

Which has led me to wonder if hypermobility can literally be limited to a certain part or parts of the body *recalls girlfriend in high school who could wiggle ears. I don't remember her having other flexible feats besides that one*

Oh, and I used to do the W, too. Up until recently (the last few years) I also used to lay flat on floors, then throw my legs behind my head to "relax" (it used to feel really good, something I'd done since childhood) so in that sense there's some added flexibility too, but probably still not enough to write home about.

Edited (clarity, more info) Date: 2019-01-26 08:51 am (UTC)

From:

cesy

Yeah, some hypermobile people get all the flex and none of the pain, and some get a little bit of flex and lots of pain - it's two spectrums that don't necessarily match.

From:

malinaldarose

I used to sit like that well into my twenties because it was more comfortable for me than tailor-fashion. Can't do it now because I'm 51 and it makes my knees hurt. Can't sit tailor-fashion, either because it makes my knees hurt. On the other hand, I'm 51 and most things hurt at some point.

From:

gingicat

This!

Do you have unusually soft skin or other symptoms of less-than-usual collagen?

Edited Date: 2019-01-26 01:19 pm (UTC)

From:

cactuswatcher

For I guy, I had hypermobility, nothing like some of the girls in the family, but was very flexible.

Into my teens my ankles would occasionally bend under while I was walking, and I'd accidentally take a step on the side of my shoe.

Using my other hand I could bend my fingers backward 90 degrees without pain. Demonstrating it made other people wince. Contorting my hands was no problem. If something got trapped in a odd space I could often reach in with my hand and get it when others with smaller hands couldn't even get through the opening. Playing the guys' game of trying to squeeze the another guy's hand in a handshake till it hurt, I always won. I'd let them squeeze as hard as they could, (it never hurt me much despite how much my hand got twisted), wait a moment for effect, then spread my fingers sideways and come down hard with them outside the other's hand. They would always quickly yelp.

I could sit in a tight W (ankles next to butt) into my 20's but not a spread one, which hurt. The tight W hurt less than sitting on my ankles.

I've got arthritis now and my fingers won't bend like they used to. I can still bend them backward, but not as far. Sometimes doing ordinary tasks my hand will get in an odd shape and painfully lock up, and I have to try over and over to get the task done without recreating that painful shape.

Edited Date: 2019-01-26 03:34 pm (UTC)

From:

kengr

Dunno if it counts as hyperflexible, but I can lay flat on my back, put the soles of my feet together, and move them up until my lower legs form a straight line (so my legs form a triangle with my thighs as two sides and the lower legs as the third).

That doesn't sound so hard? When I do it, both knees are resting flat on the bed/floor/whatever.

Most folks who try have their knees well above the surface.

From:

conuly

I really don't think so.

Edit: In the interest of full honesty, I do often have odd bruises, but they're the sort of odd bruises that are caused by chronic clumsiness, not the sort that are caused by, eg, wearing shoes.

Edited Date: 2019-01-26 04:44 pm (UTC)

From:

conuly

Sounds super flexible to me.

From:

conuly

It's not fair, is what it is.

From:

conuly

Oh, yeah, I could never do a split either, not even when I was taking dance class as a kid.

From:

conuly

I can bet it freaked out his teacher!

From:

conuly

51 seems early for a lot of aches and pains, though. But maybe I only think that because I'm in my mid-30s - when I was very young it sure seemed ancient.