A Patient’s Story: From Pushing Herself to Be Stronger—To Acceptance

She came to me after years of struggling with chronic fatigue and pain. Her story was one I’ve heard many times, but it’s always deeply frustrating and all too familiar.

From a young age, she was the flexible one. A natural in gymnastics and dance, always praised for her agility and grace. But by her twenties, things started to shift. She began experiencing frequent sprained ankles and joint pain that never quite went away. She went to physical therapy and pushed through the pain to “get stronger.”

Over time, the pain spread—to her back, neck, and hips. Still, she kept going. Every trainer told her pain was part of progress—“no pain, no gain.”

So she kept pushing. Even as the injuries piled up.

Her joints began to dislocate and sublux with basic activities. She bruised easily, struggled to recover from even small cuts, and was repeatedly told she just needed to “build more core strength.” But no matter how hard she trained, her muscles stayed tight, her energy drained. She felt like she was falling apart.

Then came the other symptoms.

Her stomach became unreliable—bloating, pain, and nausea without a clear cause. She often felt dizzy when standing up, her heart racing. She developed strange sensitivities to smells, medications, and foods—once ending up in the ER with a reaction no one could explain. Through it all, she was told it was anxiety. Or stress. Or worse—all in her head.

When she came to the Kaplan Center, she had internalized a damaging belief: that she was lazy. Or weak. That if she just tried harder- maybe eat better, or try another type of exercise she’d feel better.

After a thorough evaluation, I told her I believed she had Hypermobility Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS).

She froze. And then the tears came—not from grief, but something else.

“This whole time,” she whispered, “I thought it was my fault.”

What she was really living with was a genetic connective tissue disorder that explained everything. There are many types of EDS and hypermobility is the most common and can also cause:

• Joint instability and dislocations
• Chronic joint and muscle pain
• Easy bruising and poor wound healing
• Crippling fatigue
• Gastrointestinal dysfunction
• Orthostatic intolerance and POTS
• Mast Cell Activation symptoms
• Anxiety and depression—not from weakness, but from years of pain and dismissal

Suddenly, everything made sense.

At the Kaplan Center, we are well-versed in recognizing and managing EDS. Through careful history-taking, physical exam, and tools like the Beighton Score, we identify the patterns many patients have lived with but never had explained.

We collaborate with:

• Our physical therapists specialize in mobility, proprioception, and joint stabilization—so you can learn to support your body instead of pushing through its warning signs.
• Our nutritionist, who helps create personalized, protein-rich diets that reduce inflammation, support healing, and address sensitivities.
• Acupuncture and craniosacral therapy help untangle the tension and dysregulation that so often live in the muscles and fascia of EDS patients.

We also know how to address the many comorbidities that accompany EDS—like MCAS, POTS, GI issues, and mood symptoms—because they’re not separate problems; they’re all part of the same story.

If you think you may have EDS—or know someone who might—please reach out. You deserve answers. You deserve a plan that honors your body.

And most of all, you deserve to know: it’s not your fault.