My main issues have always been digestive, including extreme bloating, sharp abdominal pain, pressure around the lower abdomen and stomach, constipation, and other pelvic floor issues. I’ve been to several different GI doctors since I was about 13, but I never was provided any answers as to why I was in so much discomfort. I played softball for 15 years, including in college, and while I never had much joint or muscle pain, I did frequently roll my ankles, give myself a dead-arm from throwing, and had difficulty holding up my bat because my wrists always felt so weak. I’ve always been very clumsy, running into and tripping over things constantly, to the point where my family and friends would ignore me when I said “ow”. My belly has always stuck out unless I flex my abs, and I always got made fun of for my “see through skin”. Even though I’ve never gained or lost a significant amount of weight, I’ve always had stretch marks. Out of nowhere, I got low back pain, and it’s been there for 10 years. I also started to have episodes of near passing out and random allergic reactions to unknown things. Most of these things never affected my friends, so why was it just me? I always wondered if this is how everyone else felt all the time- feeling pain, bloated, tired, and like my brain couldn’t think straight. This was my “normal”, so this just must be life, right? I started treating people with hEDS, MCAS, and POTS, and I realized that all of their complaints were MY complaints. And that’s when I started searching for more answers.