New diagnoses just dropped

It took a lil struggle but I finally got to a specialist that could properly assess my joint pain issues. Considering I have good insurance and live in a major city that should've been easy to find and I feel like my doctor just didn't care enough to really check bc she didn't believe me but whatever I'm probably not seeing her again. 

The doctor that assessed me over the weekend was very nice! She was very sympathetic towards the struggles that a lot of people go through with not being taken seriously by their doctors because of bias an ignorance. I'm very lucky to have not had to deal with that since she's the second person I went to. I was kinda worried I would have a way harder time bc I see people's stories about that kind of stuff literally all the time. Ig technically speaking that could still be in my future but rn a win is a win, yay!

Pretty much from the second I started describing my symptoms she had this overall attitude of like "DUH you obviously have chronic issues" which felt very validating bc I have been gaslighting myself about it HARD. Most of the assessment was verbal, she had both my testimony and my mom's as well. She also did a few physical examinations as well. She touched my knee for like a SECOND and went "oh! I definitely feel hypermobility" lmao??? I didn't know it was that easy to feel???

She also put a lil heart monitor thingy on my finger and had me lay down for a little, get up for a little, lay down more. She asked me if my heart rate usually goes up when I lay down and if I experience dizziness getting up and instantly in my head I'm like "is that not normal???" Apparently not in my case at least.

The two diagnoses she gave me were hypermobile spectrum disorder and dysautonomia. Apparently disorders that affect autonomic function, such as POTS, are commonly comorbid with connective tissue disorders. I'd never heard of dysautonomia before but I had vaguely heard of POTS before, she told me that POTS falls under the umbrella of autonomic disorders. I don't think that my symptoms for that are really all that severe tbh. Originally I figured that stuff was just caused by my extremely low appetite, which was slightly true ig. The symptoms used to be way worse, then I started taking meds to increase my appetite and now it's like a minor inconvenience. The pain is the real big problem here. She gave me a lot, like seriously a lot, of options and said that I could think them over in between now and our next visit. She basically gave me homework. I've been looking into it a little bit but I still have time. She also sent me to do a fuck ton of labs bc they're ruling out all other possible comorbid disorders, particularly autoimmune disorders. I don't think I have an autoimmune disorder I feel like my bones are just fucky bc why not, but tbf I don't know anything about autoimmune disorders. I got to process my own blood for labs which was kinda funny.

I'll probably continue to update when I actually know what's going on. I've never had a diagnosis of something that wasn't psychiatric so this is all very out of my knowledge comfort zone. All this information at once is kinda overwhelming but I definitely am glad that I got a definitive answer on paper and that it was relatively easy. That is a huuuge privilege that a lot of people don't get. Still this is pretty frustrating. One of the things that's usually weighing me down is just how many things I have stacked on top of each other that are "different" that make me struggle all the time. And before it was just mental, now I ALSO have a fucked up body apparently. AND IT'S ALL CONNECTED TOO! At the end of the day all my fucking issues lead back to autism fr bc all the psych stuff is the trauma that's caused by being autistic in an allistic world and the two physical things are linked to the way my autism brain didn't develop me correctly bc it's a developmental disorder. Cuz apparently hEDS is very commonly comorbid with autism which is how I even started suspecting I was hypermobile. Autism be damned. /lh I'm also frustrating bc like this doctor is very nice and all and I'm happy to be working with her and figuring shit out but like OMFG IM SO TIRED OF SEEING DOCTORS RN. I HAVE DOCTOR FATIGUE. I NEVER WANNA SEE A DOCTOR AGAIN. You spend so much time trying to be productive and fix shit and it's just so exhausting even when good progress is being made. And apparently I'm due for my annual wellness exam with my primary and for some dumbass reason it can't be telehealth. I don't need a physical exam anyway I JUST got one. Not even the one from this specialist, I literally was just at my primary's office. Whatever life just goes brr all the damn time and I must constantly "it iiiis what it iiiiis" my way through like the bad bitch I am.