Dealing with EDS

Illustrated cover image titled “Our Team’s Favorite Go-To Support Aids for EDS/HSD,” featuring sketches of a recumbent bike, shoulder brace, Thera Cane massage tool, SmartCRUTCH forearm crutch, and a McKenzie neck roll pillow arranged across a white background.

Up Close and Personal: Our Team’s Favorite Go-To Support Aids for EDS/HSD

This month, we wanted to give you a peek into the daily lives of our team members by asking them to share a few of their favorite go-to supportive items for Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) or hypermobility spectrum disorders (HSD). While these aids might be what work for us personally, we hope they offer inspiration and ideas to help you live your life to the fullest with EDS/HSD.

A group of people with boxes walking on a campus. One young girl sits in a wheelchair.

Netflix’s Run Away Quietly Gets EDS Right: Ambulatory Wheelchair Use

Run Away, Netflix’s latest Harlan Coben adaptation, has many twists and turns. However, for the EDS community, the most meaningful revelation isn’t even a plot. It Is one of the first accurate depictions of an ambulatory wheelchair user. Run Away is a dark thriller/drama about Simon Greene, who is searching for his daughter Paige. With […]

Two blonde children in a hospital. The boy is lying in a hospital bed while the girl is next to him making a victory sign with her hands.

The Silence After Survival

This week arrived like a storm we already knew by heart,yet somehow… it carried a different kind of wind. For years, they told us our pain was imagined,that our wounds were illusions,that our illnesses lived only in our minds.Those words carved scars we still carryscars that whisper warningseven when no danger is present. Three years […]

Illustration of a young woman with straight, shoulder-length hair, looking slightly to the side with a calm expression. She wears a plain T-shirt and a green lanyard around her neck decorated with yellow sunflowers. This lanyard is the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyard used to signal her invisible disability, EDS.

The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Lanyard: Making the Invisible Visible

The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower lanyard can help patients with EDS signal to others that they may need extra understanding, support, or time in workplaces, shops, or other public spaces. 

Book cover of The Chemistry Test, which shows a woman in a yellow dress who sits in a wheelchair with a cat on her lap. Next to her is a person with short brown hair sitting on a chair looking her in the eyes

Interview with Georgina Frankie: Author of “The Chemistry Test”

After the “Fourth Wing” book series, Chronic Pain Partners became aware of a new romance novel, “The Chemistry Test”, written by Georgina Frankie, which features a character with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). In a genre where disabled characters are often either absent or reduced to stereotypes, Frankie brings a refreshing perspective: a love story that embraces […]

CHristie, a woman with long dark blonde hair bound to a pony tale sits in a corner of her room on a gymnastic ball with her arms spread out widely. She smiles. Next to her, on a zebra-colored chair, is a black and white cat napping. In front of her is a small desk with another black and white cat looking straight into the camera.

AWOL Zebra Podcast: Building Community (and Laughs) Around EDS

When host CHristie was not able to walk and talk in 2021, she lost the career she had built as a radio DJ. What began as a personal way to process those changes—recording short reflections on living with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome—has since grown into AWOL Zebra, a daily podcast that has reached listeners across countries. AWOL […]

A patient and a doctor sitting on opposite sites of the table. The doctor examines the patient's eyes with a large machine.

Building a Supportive and Caring Medical Team No Matter Where You Live

Guest post by Jon Rodis, President of the Connective Tissue Coalition   Finding respectful, knowledgeable care can be difficult, especially for those living with complex or chronic conditions. After years of what I call “the doctor shuffle,” I discovered strategies that helped me strengthen my care and build a supportive medical team. Here are the […]

A hand holding a piece of glass reflecting the persons sad face.

The Quiet Weight of Chronic Illness Grief

Living with a rare, chronic illness is profoundly isolating—not only physically, but emotionally. Even when surrounded by others, I often feel like a ghost, disconnected from the world around me. I remember sitting at a party, listening to conversations that once felt familiar, and being hit with the stark contrast between their lives and mine. […]