Today I went to Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia to see a doctor who specializes in Ehlers Danlos, a possible medical problem a doctor I saw in November 2008 though I might have Ehlers Danlos because of my extreme flexibleness. Let me rewind a little bit though.

In Mid-January 2008 I started missing school daily because I was always tired, achy, my stomach was upset, (not nausea, my mom describes it as when you each a rich/fatty meal and your stomach feels “ughh” afterwards) and a few other things. I was achy, tired, etc 24/7 no matter how much I slept, even if I wasn’t active, etc. I’ve been to numerous doctors, had tons of tests and blood work done on me, etc. It’s not even funny, and it’s stressful because I want to feel better so I can actually go out and see friends, be active, and I just want to feel better!

So as I said above one of the doctors I saw in November 2008 thought I might have Ehlers Danlos. Here’s why he thought I might when he examined my flexibility:

-I can put my arm over my shoulder and reach down a little more than halfway down my back. Not normal.

-My arm span is longer than my height by an inch or two. It’s usually less than your height.

-I can push my fingers down backwards like towards my wrist, everybody can push them down to your palm.

-When swinging on a swing, I can make my two elbows touch and go past each other.

-I can put my arm around my head and touch my chin…well actually I can go past that and touch my cheek.

We put that on the back burner until April, when my mom called Children’s Hospital in Philly to see if we could get an appointment. Before they schedule an appointment with an Ehlers Danlos doctor they send you a questionnaire with certain questions ranging from things about birth to family, etc. It all has to do with if you may or may not have ED or not. You then send the questionnaire back to them. If they think you might have ED, then they schedule an appointment with you. If they don’t, then you don’t get an appointment. We were lucky to get one. But the appointment was two months away, however.

So today was the appointment. Around 8:30 we left to drop my brother off at his basketball camp. After picking up his friends, driving them there, etc we were on the road around 9:10 am. We arrived around 11:00. We then met with the doctor, etc. I was examined and we reviewed my medical stuff, etc. The one doctor looked at my flexibility, body, everything. Kinda embarrassing I had to strip down to my boxers and such and then put on a hospital gown, but it’s life. Heh. At least I got to change in privacy, lol.

In the end, they said it doesn’t look like I have it. They suggested I might have depression, but unlikely. This is the second doctor to say I might have it. It seems unlikely, because I don’t act depressed. I’m not sad about anything, I feel motivated to do things, etc. She said that because it’s unlikely, that it’s better to pursue all other avenues first, and then move onto it. My mom’s going to email a few doctors that have been helping us throughout this whole process, and then decide what to do next.

After the appointment my mom wanted to stop at Trader Joe’s, a special grocery store. She was going to go to it, but noticed there was one right in downtown Philadelphia. She went downtown to look for it, but got “lost”. She couldn’t find the store, so here she was driving around amidst all the other taxis and sightseers. We ended up seeing some of the horses pulling carriages, some people in colonial outfits, the Betsy Ross House, Constitution House, and a few other things while she tried to figure out how to get back onto the road so she could get to the other Trader Joe’s that was about 20 minutes away, which she knew how to get to. She ended up calling our neighbor as she was familiar with the area, and we got out and were on our way to the other Trader Joe’s. This Trader Joe’s was actually in the same town I almost moved to in 2007, when the company my dad worked for locally was having bankruptcy problems and he looked for work elsewhere, in the same field he was in previously. He found a job, two hours away. He was employed, and he still works there. He stays at a hotel up there two or three times a week, the other days he works at home. I only told you about his job so I could explain why we almost moved there. We passed the hotel we stayed at when my parents brought us up there. The only reason we didn’t move there was because our house wouldn’t sell, as it was pretty expensive (half a million) and the company my dad had previously worked for was bought and they wanted him back. But at Trader Joes I saw this really hot girl, but she was probably a year or two younger than me. :(

Hah, if I did move up to where my dad currently works, who knows, she could have been my neighbor. :P

So yeah, that was my amazing and boring day.