Black and Blue Ribbons
— Karen Del Vecchio

As I walked outside and felt the heat and humidity envelop me, I realized that summer has arrived early here in Virginia. Summer humidity is sweltering, and so far this year, we’ve been breaking both heat and drought records, which is a really tough combo when, like me, you have…

It’s been eight months since a fall off my horse led to a badly broken rib and plenty of associated muscle and soft tissue damage. While I’ve made huge strides in my recovery, there are still a few things that aren’t quite back to normal — or at least my…

Sometimes it’s hard to explain what I mean when I say I feel like a twisted pretzel. While my physical therapist (PT) and massage therapist understand, they’re also trained to look for such anomalies. I don’t think it’s something the average person can see, but I definitely feel it when…

Sometimes Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) just doesn’t seem to have a discernible pattern to me. While I’ve been doing much better overall recently, thanks to fascial counterstrain physical therapy (FCS), that doesn’t mean that I don’t have triggers or pain flares. It just means that hopefully they’re less…

Note: This column describes the author’s experiences with fascial counterstrain therapy (FCS). Not everyone will have the same response to treatment. Consult your doctor before starting or stopping a therapy. It’s still hard to believe how much I’ve benefited from adding fascial counterstrain therapy (FCS) to my self-care routine.

As I drove along the highway, I could feel my muscles getting tighter. Despite my best efforts to avoid setting off a pain flare, I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to stop this one. While I’ve developed a number of strategies over the years to manage my Ehlers-Danlos…

I suspect that many of us with chronic conditions use self-deprecating humor to cope with our frustrations. For me, it’s a way to show others that while my Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS) can be challenging sometimes, it won’t keep me from doing what I want to do. A few…

Recently, I got back on a horse for the first time in several months. It’s been six months since a bad fall resulted in a broken rib and healing complications courtesy of my Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). While I did ride a horse a few times earlier in my…

Note: This column describes the author’s own experiences with over-the-counter pain medications. Not everyone will have the same response to treatment. Consult your doctor before starting or stopping a therapy. Recently, I attended my first horse show in several years. I wasn’t riding due to a bad fall last…

Note: This column describes the author’s experiences with fascial counterstrain (FCS). Not everyone will have the same response to treatment. I’ve been trying a new type of physical therapy called fascial counterstrain (FCS). Before I started it, I’d been struggling with the after-effects of a fall from my horse that…

Walking through the door for my first Pilates session in nearly six years, I felt a wave of nerves. The last six months had been a difficult recovery from a severely broken rib and a sprained diaphragm, injuries further complicated by Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). I was anxious that engaging…