By Diana on Wednesday, March 21, 2001 - 06:20 pm:

My son who is 9 1/2 has double joints however does not have the flexiblity. He often has joint popping and pain. He says it feels like the bones separate. This happens in his ankles, knees and wrists. His laxity is in his knees and wrists but not in his fingers. Also does a person loose flexibility as they age or have problems with their joints. He often does. Could someone give me more insite into the flexibility component of these syndromes.

Thanks Diana at amersport@hotmail.com
Also posted : Need help for 9 year old child...

By Sharon on Wednesday, March 21, 2001 - 11:17 pm:

Diane,
From what i understand you can be hypermobile in only one joint or many, they say that laxity gets better with age (but i don't know mine has just gotten worse at 30)the laxity i understand comes from the ligaments being too loose and this can not be fixed. Actually having double joints is imposible and is just a term used to cover the way that hypermobiles can move in beyond normal ranges, as a child i could put my feet on the back of my head and sit in lotus position. i am now experiencing numerous subluxations of ankles, wrist, shoulder, jaw, ribs, feet etc and am hypermobile in my feet, ankles, hips, spine, neck, shoulders and thumbs and maybe knees and elbows (i don't know i can't bend them all the way back but i can go a little further that "normal". I also seem to damage my ligaments and have so far torn my ACL and had it reconstructed twice and also damaged my pelvis/hips and wrist and have a foot drop.
Your son need to see a pt to teach him to work with a more normal range as the damage occurs when we go past that into our range (from what i understand).As a child i was very clumsy (and still am)and am always covered in bruises, i bang into things, trip over, fall over etc all of the time.
I have no diagnosis except hypermobile and am seeing a rehumatologist in May as my doc now think i have one of the hypermobility/collegen disorders such as eds3).
Hope this helps
Sharon