These diagnoses aren’t new, actually, but I just found out about them. These two new-ish diagnoses are joint hypermobility syndrome (I will often shorten it to JHS) and inappropriate sinus tachycardia (IST).

Joint hypermobility syndrome, which I wrote a little about in the Writing 101 assignment Why Do I Write?. I have always been very flexible, but for some reason having a name makes things make more sense. Dr Spencer thinks it is possible I might have Ehler-Danlos, but the genetic testing is expensive and it wouldn’t change any of my treatments anyway. JHS is a congenital condition that just makes all of my joints extra loose.

The only thing I can’t do is the thumb on wrist thing.

I also used to be able to put the balls of my feet on my forehead, from behind me (I curled into an O shape). Dan also thinks it is really weird that I can get my foot all the way up to my nose from in front (which he discovered because I got something stuck under my toenail and I was trying to see it), which I didn’t think was unusual until he got a little sketched out by it. Apparently, both my parents have some extra flexibility in some of their joints, so they weren’t surprised.

The second new one is inappropriate sinus tachycardia. Dr J had mentioned it during my first visit, while he was talking to his computer (he uses a speech to text thing to enter his notes), but it never came up again. However, I noticed he wrote it down as an official diagnosis when he was filling out the preauthorization form for my Corlanor. From CardiacHealth.org, inappropriate sinus tachycardia “is a condition in which the resting heart rate is abnormally high (greater than 100 beats per minute), and increases rapidly with minimal exertion, accompanied by symptoms of palpitations, fatigue, and exercise intolerance.” My resting heart rate wasn’t usually up over 100, well, if I was truly resting anyway. If I was truly resting, so I hadn’t been up in about 15 minutes and was lying down that whole time, then it was in the low 80s. But I suppose technically a resting heart rate is supposed to be achieved rather quickly after you sit down. Many of the other symptoms fit for me too: blurred vision, dizziness, tingling, shortness of breath, and sweating. The only thing I don’t have is the same symptom that doesn’t fit for my POTS either: a drop in blood pressure when standing.

Maybe now that I know about the IST, I can start to do a little more (in regards to lifestyle changes) to get it all under control. Names are always helpful, but it sucks just wracking up names instead of solutions. But, I guess I have to start somewhere!