Overcoming Ehlers-Danlos — Less Flexible

On Taking Vicodin Now

I had one opiate exposure when I was six months off my long-term opiate use, to which I had not consented.

On Quitting Opiates

Before anything else, if you are taking pain medicine, you must consider: how is your pain? How will you treat it? You cannot know how much pain you are in until you are off drugs. Bit of a problem.

On..., Exercise & Posture, Long Term OpiatesMadora PenningtonAugust 26, 2017

Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome

I had no idea how bad this chapter of my life would be, the getting off of the pain medicine part and recovering from that. If I had known, could I have gotten through it? I’m not sure.

Long Term OpiatesMadora PenningtonAugust 22, 2017

Drug Disposal

Meet all the opiates and opoids I had left in my cupboard once I was off. How did I end up with such a stockpile? I’m not sure.

Long Term OpiatesMadora PenningtonAugust 19, 2017

Independence Day

This was the day, maybe the exact moment even, when the last of my last tiny opiate dose metabolized out.

Long Term OpiatesMadora PenningtonAugust 15, 2017OffOpiates

Rehab and the Addiction Psychiatrist

The withdrawal got so bad, I wanted to check into rehab. Maybe Passages in Malibu?

Long Term OpiatesMadora PenningtonAugust 12, 2017

The Hard Drug Pharmacy

I remember my first trip to the Hard Drug Pharmacy, and my last, and all the ones in between. I hated being there.

Look Good & Have Fun, Long Term OpiatesMadora PenningtonAugust 8, 2017

Physical Therapy

The Power Plate brought me to Jerry Sher, my favorite physical therapist ever.

Exercise & Posture, Go Clippers!, Long Term OpiatesZachary PenningtonAugust 5, 2017NASM

Let’s Exercise

I had a problem. I needed to be a more effective patient in physical therapy.

Exercise & Posture, Go Clippers!, Let’s... !Madora PenningtonAugust 1, 2017NASM

Ehlers-Detective Syndrome

I have a disease. It’s called Ehlers-Detective Syndrome.

Exercise & Posture, Ehlers-D... Syndrome, Sleep & PeaceMadora PenningtonJuly 29, 2017

Uprightness

Do not slump. It hurts.

Exercise & Posture, Travel & LanguageMadora PenningtonJuly 25, 2017

Jumping For Joy With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

Bones, collagen and joints need impact.

At home, I do jumping jacks, ballet leaps, run in place, occasionally do a few burpees and sometimes run around the neighborhood for a bit.

India

I'm a geek by marriage. I'm Gumby by birth.

Bastille Day バスティーユの日

If you have lost your inspiration and it's nowhere to be found, go to Paris.

Ocean Swim

I love to swim in the ocean. It is where I wanted to die.

Ehlers-Diagnosis Syndrome

For a long time after that appointment with that chiropractor in 2006 who told me I had this weird thing I had been born with of joints bending backwards, the words “Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome” haunted me. I couldn’t say them.

The Day I Had A Name For It

By the time I was diagnosed, I had been practically bedridden with pain and fatigue for a few years. I say “practically” because with the taser-like pain in my spine, I couldn’t lie down, sit, or stay in any position for long, not even lying in bed, no matter how tired I was.

Diagnosis & DNA, Childhood & EDS, Doctors & HospitalsMadora PenningtonJuly 8, 2017