definitions: Subluxing/dislocating joints

[sheppeyescapee]

I've been having a similar thing with my right knee. I can't straighten my leg as when I do it keeps feeling like my knee cap is catching on the glute, ouch! I have had to click it back in place quite a few times but it refuses to stay.

[nemonie]

So not only have a learned to dislocate my feet in recent days but I think my wrists have decided to join in the fun. Can anyone describe what a dislocate or subluxated wrist feels like please? All gross details welcome

[Triality]

Wrist ones are especially nasty - I think because there's more than two bones that joint there... When my dad does his - mine has only gone once, thank goodness, wrists are my least frequent dislocation - the 'bump' that would normally be a bone in the correct position juts out more and the flesh around it swells up, and depending on how you've done it, with him it presses up against the heel of his hand and hurts like crazy.

[nemonie]

Huh?! See my wrist normally need to be clicked quite a lot but this time my left one would click and felt stuck and was quite painful and like all the bones were all mushed up. Though I could still move it about a bit. Eventually it unstuck with a big grinding noise that was rather painful but a relief at the same time, but my hand was a bit weak for a while after. Probably a sublux I think.

[tireesix]

My soulders have dislocated in my sleep but they don't swell, they do hurt, ALOT.

My kneecaps dislocate, I can get mild swelling/bruising with it but mostly its just pain. My fingers also go sometimes but again no swelling.

I was kinda surrised by the no swelling thing, but then I remembered, when I was younger and I broke bones, I swelled up a lot, but, as I broke bones over the years, the swelling wouldn't appear as much, the last time I broke my arm there was no swelling, I broke my collar bone (shattered it in fact) and there was no swelling, they couldn't believe how badly it was broken, even with the x-ray because it didn't look at all broken from the out side, it was really odd. When I broke my jaw though (my most recent break, I had some minor swelling, but again, they didn't think it was broken, they thought I had cracked a tooth, when the x-ray came back showing I had broken it in two places between 1 cm and an inch apart, they were some what amazed, I needed an operation for that one.

I do swell up after operations but I guess there is more involved in that, lots of fiddling.

I find when something subluxes/dislocates, there is an obvious clunking, grating sound (no popping, from what I gather, popping is tendons and ligaments). Its the feeling of it, it feels horrible, it feels wrong, it kinda makes me feel claustraphobic, can't really describe it, its just plain WRONG. You feel it grating, it makes me yelp, I think more through surprise than pain.

I think the other thing with my joints not swelling is that the vast majority of the time it is quite literally a strainght out and in job, the bones come out of place for an instant and then go back into place. My left knee cap has gotten so bad that I now, generally, have to manipulate it back and my jaw as well. So, I guess that maybe there is very little damage done in the quick out/in jobs therefore, reducing the risk of swelling?

[Keeley]

Could somebody please tell me if it sounds like I’m experiencing subluxing.

The latest case has been my shoulder. My shoulders are very ‘clicky’ and loud anyway but 2 days ago I got a sharp pain in my shoulder and it felt like it slipped. For the past 2 days its been very painful. It would begin to feel better but as soon as I moved it above waist height I would get a sharp pain through the whole of my shoulder. A few hours ago it popped and all is better. This has happened a many times before. Sometime it can last for a few day, other a few minutes. I also get a similar feeling in my fingers.

Both my hip are also particularly bad. In one hip I get pain similar to above but I can make my right hip slip automatically. I don’t tend to get pain in this one but you can actually see my hip kind of roll about when I do it.

Hope someone could shed some light on this as my doctors just give me a funny look when I tell them.

Thank you 

[pretzel]

It sounds like the answer to my question may be "its different for everybody" as with so many other HMS related jiggery pokery events.

I had a minor motorcycle accident last week and as part of the jolt I think I may have subluxed a shoulder and my hips.

All just felt "kind of odd" not quite right and over the last few days all have resolved with a clunk and a sensation like something is moving back to where it should be, you know the kind of clunk you got as a kid when you were reattaching a dolls head or arm after a fight over said doll with a smaller brother... Everybody did this didn't they?

My hips just feel "tired" now, kind of like I need to move around to keep them moving but not too much or they'll start to properly ache again, my shoulder on the other hand feels really nastily bruised point on the tip of my shoulder.

Does this sound familiar to anybody?

[Nataliyatan]

ahhh so subluxing is what happens to me every day!!
I get similar sensations to what everyone has said, sometimes theres a click, sometimes a movement causes it, other times it just does it for no apparent reason. More than anything though, i can feel that the joint isnt where it should be (mainly my hips, making it difficult to put weight on that side.). When ever i've said this to the doctor I just get a disapproving look and fobbed of with pain killers if im lucky. At least i now have a professional word to use!

[Llaurin]

I have clicky hips, but as far as I know I've never subluxed (if thats the right term, sorry I am new to the forums!). When I'm lying in bed on my side, my 'top' leg rolls forwards and my hip joint sort of clunks and sticks up more than normal, but it doesn't hurt at all - I can do it when standing if I take my weight on one leg and turn the other leg outwards at right angles, it gets to a point and then clunks and goes a bit further, but again it doesn't hurt. The 'clunk' isn't always audible, but I can feel it.

I dislocated my jaw once and that was a completely different feeling, no pain but it just felt 'wrong'. The nice Casualty doctor didn't have a clue and just kept asking me about dog bites and tetanus, he thought I had lockjaw... that was years ago though, I don't think hypermobility was well recognised then.

Is this hip thing a prelude to proper subluxing and/or dislocation? Just wondering what lovely things I've got to look forward to!

[Tess]

I can relate to this too! I don't think i've ever fully dislocated anything - thankfully - but i do get the sensation that my knees or hips aren't quite right when i'm walking along. I usually have to stop and 'click' them, then they are ok for a while before they need clicking again. My fingers and wrists are the same, especially when writing long pages of text. My shoulders constantly feel uncomfortable and clunk every time i move them, usually with a short sharp 'tender' feeling, but it isn't particularly painful. I get a lot of trouble with them when carrying heavy bags etc with my arms extended by my sides, so i tend to carry things up in my arms, or on my hip whenever possible. (although this is probably causing damage to other areas of my body!?)
When I lie in bed i very often get the urge to click my hips - i lie on my back, move one leg out to the side (still on the bed, not up in the air), then bend it and bring my knee up towards my shoulder as far as i can until my hip clunks. I can't explain how it feels if i don't do this, but it just feels very uncomfortable and wrong, and i get very frustrated if it won't clunk straight away!

[Eloise]

My physio doesn't believe me that you can have a dislocation and relocate it yourself - that if I had truely dislocated I would be in A&E!

Well I am trying to find medical reference saying that with EDS you can - I know someone said there is a quote in one of the rosemay keer books - but I can't find it anywhere. Can anyone help me? I want something to wave in front of her when I go on friday. She also doesn't believe that the warm water from hydro is the cause!

[Triality]

Try this article, Eloise - it says in the clinical description section that "reduction often occurs spontaneously or can be accomplished by the patient or a friend/family member". This is one of the documents with which I 'bludgeon' ATOS into submission about my illness

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK1279/

[Eloise]

Excellent Thanks loads

[peksy86]

Is subluxing when a joint pops past a certain point, get a crack and a painful burning sensation until you move the joint back and it carcks back??? if so, I get this all the time with my leg/hip joint...can anyone help?

Ipek xxx

[peksy86]

Just thought of another question,

I think I subluxed my jaw once. I spent a week not able to eat yawn or chew food because of the inflamation and pain around the joint. I don't think it ever fully recovered as I still get a lot of discomfort there. Anybody have any ideas whether this was a dislocation or a sublux??