This really hit close to home for me. I was diagnosed with “hyper-mobility” when I was a teenager, but my doctor told me it was kinda a catch-all diagnosis. He told me it is degenerative and the only “treatment” is exercise to have tone muscle support my joints. Other provides have echoed this over the years.
I haven’t had a day free of pain since 2nd grade. It affects all my joints and I have frequent dislocations. I’ve been able to manage it with exercise for years and it’s provided me with an insane pain tolerance. But covid + RSV + pneumonia and secondary infections + long covid had me on my ass for so long, I neglected my joints and I’ve been in the worst flare up of my life.
I have to rehab slowly, but every time I exercise, it causes such bad systemic inflammation and cervicogenic migraines. It’s a vicious cycle that’s hard to break. Dry herb (Volcano) vaping medical marijuana and then gaming is literally the only time I feel an escape right now.
It helps me to disassociate from my pain and focus my attention on something so engrossing that my brain can’t spare attention to the ‘dulled’ perception of pain. It’s not like the pain is gone, but it’s changed and it’s a momentary relief. But even if only momentarily, finding some sort of respite is essential for your sanity.
I would still be here without gaming, but my quality of life would be a hell of a lot worse.
Yeah, I’ve got EDS, and gaming is one of the few things I can do and not risk being too much in pain (I do have to watch out for my fingers spraining and dislocating, though). Days when I can’t walk very well, I can still sit down and play a game.
EDS is what my last provider mentioned might be a better diagnosis. The joint symptoms fit, but I definitely don’t have the skin or blood cell issues that can present in EDS. Which I’m definitely grateful of.
Well, there are thirteen different types of EDS (most of them are REALLY rare, though), based on which connective tissue they impact the most. The most common are hypermobile, classical, and vascular. I have the hypermobile type, which mostly impacts joints. Classical EDS can have skin issues, and vascular is the type where it can cause your blood vessels to rip open inside of you. hEDS is the least likely to kill you, but most likely to negative impact your quality of life.
As someone who became mostly very suddenly disabled, and an avid gamer who has been forced to give up most games, including some of my favorites, I have to say that this is the best article I've read on the topic so far. Thank you for sharing. Hopefully people will actually read it and think about it.
And giving all of that up, or I guess we should say losing all of that, has dramatically deteriorated my ability to socialize. It's just lose lose lose if you are a gamer who can no longer use your hands properly.
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