Anyone with experience of Joint Hypermobility Syndrome?
Discussion
My 10 year old son has had some issues with his shoulders clicking out of place when he rotates his arms, this has come to light with him playing cricket and throwing the ball whilst fielding.
My wife took him to see the GP this morning who has said it is most likely to be JHS and advised he does nothing which may cause his shoulders to click or crack until he has seen an orthopedic surgeon (which could take a couple of months). My wife has taken this to mean no more cricket, football (he's a goalie) or swimming until then. My son is very upset about this as he loves playing cricket and football.
It's his pals birthday party at the weekend and it is at the local swimming pool. I don't see a problem with him going as he won't be competing in the front crawl, just messing about in the water but she's said he can't go. I have put the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons by saying I can't see a problem with the party tomorrow, but fair enough about the cricket and football.
Who is unreasonable here? Me or the wife?
Your opinion if you know anything about the condition would be appreciated!
My wife took him to see the GP this morning who has said it is most likely to be JHS and advised he does nothing which may cause his shoulders to click or crack until he has seen an orthopedic surgeon (which could take a couple of months). My wife has taken this to mean no more cricket, football (he's a goalie) or swimming until then. My son is very upset about this as he loves playing cricket and football.
It's his pals birthday party at the weekend and it is at the local swimming pool. I don't see a problem with him going as he won't be competing in the front crawl, just messing about in the water but she's said he can't go. I have put the proverbial cat amongst the pigeons by saying I can't see a problem with the party tomorrow, but fair enough about the cricket and football.
Who is unreasonable here? Me or the wife?
Your opinion if you know anything about the condition would be appreciated!
It turns out that my other son has a friend who has an older brother that suffers from this, and has had multiple (painful) shoulder dislocations in the past year. In some instances requiring a general anesthetic to to allow rectification.
It was only when my other sons friend came around to play this afternoon and the mums got chatting that this was discovered. My son having now watched a couple of videos of shoulders being re located is not so bothered about missing out on his sports until he has seen someone at the hospital who can give a more informed opinion than the GP.
Ironically my wife had softened her stance and was okay with him going to the swimming party but he doesn't want to go now after finding out about dislocated shoulders, I think she has scared the poor kid!
It was only when my other sons friend came around to play this afternoon and the mums got chatting that this was discovered. My son having now watched a couple of videos of shoulders being re located is not so bothered about missing out on his sports until he has seen someone at the hospital who can give a more informed opinion than the GP.
Ironically my wife had softened her stance and was okay with him going to the swimming party but he doesn't want to go now after finding out about dislocated shoulders, I think she has scared the poor kid!
I have its bigger nastier brother. Stopped being able to walk well around the time of puberty, been a wheelchair user since I was 18/19. Screwed my shoulders up after a decade of falls and using my arms to support my mobility in various ways.
Keeping the muscles around joints in good nick is critical to keeping things working well - so avoiding all exercise would be a mistake. Definitely avoid stuff that predictably puts enough force on joints to move things, so an older lad playing proper rugby with tackles etc would definitely need to do some careful thinking, but how physical does it get with 10 year olds? (Genuine question, only ever seen any kind of rugby on t'telly but know what kids do is different.) Swimming - it was only some years after the fact that I fully understood that I was partly dislocating a knee with every kick trying to do serious-ish breaststroke on a youth training squad, but crawl was much less bad and I can't imagine any inherent risk from *one* kid splashing about for fun. If he's mature enough to be a bit cautious with his pals (eg don't let anyone get hold of an arm and pull hard) then if it were me I'd go for it.
Keeping the muscles around joints in good nick is critical to keeping things working well - so avoiding all exercise would be a mistake. Definitely avoid stuff that predictably puts enough force on joints to move things, so an older lad playing proper rugby with tackles etc would definitely need to do some careful thinking, but how physical does it get with 10 year olds? (Genuine question, only ever seen any kind of rugby on t'telly but know what kids do is different.) Swimming - it was only some years after the fact that I fully understood that I was partly dislocating a knee with every kick trying to do serious-ish breaststroke on a youth training squad, but crawl was much less bad and I can't imagine any inherent risk from *one* kid splashing about for fun. If he's mature enough to be a bit cautious with his pals (eg don't let anyone get hold of an arm and pull hard) then if it were me I'd go for it.
I have it my knees and fingers....possibly my wrists and ankles too. I had to give up rugby as a result because my knee started to dislocate far too easily (last injury before early retirement resulted in ACL and MCL tears) and the required knee support would not be safe for other players. However I was able to play ice hockey as I could hide a substantial hinged knee support beneath my kit. As for my fingers, I can dislocate those whilst pushing down on the recycling 
One thing that has helped me is weight lifting. It is non-competitive and a solo effort so I don't feel under pressure to push myself if I feel uncertain. Part of hypermobility is the excess movement and the instability in the joints that results, stronger muscles from weightlifting have helped to stabilise my joints and reduce the dislocations/subluxations. Touch wood, my knee has stayed in place for five years now
fingers are another matter
Resistance bands are an ideal piece of equipment as they are low tension at the start/end of a rep which is where hypermobile people are at most risk of popping a joint.
Hopefully your son doesn't have it too bad and is able to strengthen the muscles/ligaments in his weak spots and continue the sports he loves
Out of interest, how much does he stretch before sport? With hypermobility you need to be careful to avoid over-stretching so dynamic rather than static stretching might be a useful switch.
One thing that has helped me is weight lifting. It is non-competitive and a solo effort so I don't feel under pressure to push myself if I feel uncertain. Part of hypermobility is the excess movement and the instability in the joints that results, stronger muscles from weightlifting have helped to stabilise my joints and reduce the dislocations/subluxations. Touch wood, my knee has stayed in place for five years now
fingers are another matter Resistance bands are an ideal piece of equipment as they are low tension at the start/end of a rep which is where hypermobile people are at most risk of popping a joint.
Hopefully your son doesn't have it too bad and is able to strengthen the muscles/ligaments in his weak spots and continue the sports he loves
Out of interest, how much does he stretch before sport? With hypermobility you need to be careful to avoid over-stretching so dynamic rather than static stretching might be a useful switch.
Thanks for taking the time to reply. It sounds like he needs to be careful as it sounds like an unpleasant condition to have.
With regard to warming up, he doesn't do specific stretching for football or cricket before the training starts. He is going to play in a football tournament next weekend as he doesn't want to let his team mates down at this late stage and he says won't play any more cricket as the bowling and fielding has been causing him discomfort.
I hope it can be sorted out as cricket and football have been really good ways of him making a wider circle of friends, I don't want him to end up as a couch potato obsessed with his PS4.
With regard to warming up, he doesn't do specific stretching for football or cricket before the training starts. He is going to play in a football tournament next weekend as he doesn't want to let his team mates down at this late stage and he says won't play any more cricket as the bowling and fielding has been causing him discomfort.
I hope it can be sorted out as cricket and football have been really good ways of him making a wider circle of friends, I don't want him to end up as a couch potato obsessed with his PS4.
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