Current symptoms include extreme ligament laxity in every joint in my body causing dislocations and subluxations many times a day. Most commonly with both wrists, elbows, shoulders, neck and sacrum. Although occasionally a rib will pop out or my femurs and fibulae will also subluxate causing very painful nerve compressions, muscle fatigue and spasms, and inflammation. A couple times a month my entire nervous system will freak out sending me into excruciating pain with no specific source that can only be remedied with vicodin, nothing else helps.
History:
When I was 15 I had to go to physical therapy for 8 weeks because my middle back started hurting for no reason and with no accidents as an onset. I had muscle spasms and weakness that was mostly aleviated with the PT until I was 23 and not have the spasms again. At 19 I realized that pressure on my wrists caused the bones to spread out and not necessarily find their way back to the right position, causing soft tissue pinches and nerve impingement with pain and inflammation. At 21 I woke up one morning and my shoulder was out of socket. This started happening a couple times a month until my first rib on the right also started to subluxate and cause problems in my right arm. Now my first rib on the right and both shoulders need to be adjusted several times a day because they find their way out of socket. Somewhere between 21-23 putting my hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders and sacrum back into place became a several times a day occurance and at 23 I consulted doctors for muscle relaxers.
What I have done for it:
At 23 I started having massage and chiropractic once a week but that did not help my symptoms and could cause more problems than it helped. I take glucosamine and EFAs as well as vitamins and I drink lots of water. I have quit eating a lot of the "nightshade" foods and notice they do increase my joint pain. I get acupuncture and chiropractic and those help for a couple of days. I usually have 5 days where I don't have to take any muscle relaxers or pain killers (still in pain and spasm, but not enough to take my prescriptions) and then go for a couple of days with debilitating spasms and muscle tightness along with shooting nerve pain.
Possible causes: Ligament laxity caused by??? One doctor said it could be from a genetic disorder called Ethers Danlos, but I don't have any other symptoms from that disorder. An acupuncturist said it is my pituitary gland and that sort of fits, but I don't know how. Other symptoms that may be attributed to the pituitary glad malfunctioning in one way or another: For a year at 21 I had a persistent cough because I felt like there was fluid in my lungs. Doctors didn't know what to do about it but a homeopath told me it was my kidneys not draining properly. I took Kidney Factor and the cough was gone within a month. I also have pretty high muscle tone. I was going to the gym 5 days a week and doing martial arts 2xweek before 22 when I had to quit, but I still look toned even though I haven't been in the gym in 2 years.
HELP!
How can I tell what part of my pituitary might be affected or if that is it at all? I have some symptoms from a couple of the hormones it produces being off their normal levels, but not all from any one. I am now taking a pituitary supplement to see if that helps, it has been 2 weeks and no difference that I can tell. Should I get a CT to see if I have a tumor? Thanks!