Holding It All Together when You're Hypermobile

Achieve a Better Life Experience with EDS, POTS, and Joint Instability

By: Christie Cox

Narrated by: Rebecca Winder

Length: 7 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

Tired of being told there’s no name or treatment for your illness? That it’s "all in your head", or that your pain can’t be real because you’re too young/old/pretty/bright/healthy/normal to have a chronic disorder?

What if instead, there was someone who knew what you were going through and could teach you strategies for coping with rare chronic illness?

This is not a false hope. You can turn pain into possibility with this life-changing book that can help everyone with elusive hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS)–from those newly diagnosed to those who have suffered in silence for decades. Wherever you are on your journey navigating the complexities of chronic illness, you're not alone.

Christie Cox explores not only the physical effects of hEDS, but its emotional impact as well. As a fellow patient and medical rarity, known to doctors as zebras, she’s experienced her body’s betrayal and suffered through the myriad complications stemming from this disease. But she’s also found a way out from the depths of this life-altering disorder with wisdom you can turn into hope.

As a self-advocacy guide, she offers practical, no-nonsense advice about living with chronic illness and the concrete steps you can take to achieve a new normal. In her book, you’ll discover:

• A healing prescription for the miracle of the modern mindset.
• A look at the latest scientific research on the edge of answers.
• Q&A interviews with expert doctors and advocacy groups.
• Guidance for how to help loved ones better understand hEDS.
• Christie’s own inspiring story of how she came to live her best life.
• Lessons, questions and quotes to inspire your search for answers.

This book gives you the tools and resources you need to get back to living the life you want.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Christie Cox (P)2023 Wordwooze Publishing

A Helpful Guide to Living with a Chronic Condition

This book is a balanced look at coping with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (hEDS) and the associated comorbidities; the latter being what drew me to it as I have friends and family with POTS and gastroparesis, which are very common along with EDS. Some have managed there condition well and others not so well … and this book seems like it would be a great help for both. Unfortunately many of the resources are imbedded within the text with a few being out of date; it would have been better putting them into the companion pdf (which was missing for my audible) or better yet a public resource list on author’s website (which is still live). Regardless, there is still quite a lot of value to this fairly personal story about the author’s journey to better health, making this book a combination of inspiration/motivation and useful advice/tips for adopting the lifestyle changes required to manage a condition that will never completely go away. That by itself make this a worthy read for anybody struggling with any of these conditions.

Each chapter starts with some description and/or definitions about some aspect of the how and why the symptoms are what they are before the author goes into her own experience with trying to manage those symptoms … and across the book it is clear that the author have tried a lot of things, both conventional and controversial. Each time she reinforces the fact that everybody is different and just because it worked or didn’t work for her, doesn’t guarantee the same for others … and that before starting anything, it is very important that you coordination with your health care provider team. Each chapter closes with a quasi summary of recommendations (assess, act, affirm) followed by one or more positive self affirmations to encourage those following along her journey to keep moving forward to obtaining a better quality of life (because this may take awhile to achieve, but it is possible).

The chapters and sections in this work are:
Introduction: Straight from the Zebra’s Mouth (17m)
Part I: One Patient’s Perspective
Chapter 1: My Story (17m)
Chapter 2: EDS and Me (25m)
Chapter 3: Comorbidities of EDS (29m)
Part II: Coping with EDS
Chapter 4: Dealing with Pain (51m)
Chapter 5: Navigating the Medical System (45m)
Chapter 6: Miracles of the Modern Mindset (33m)
Part III: Learning to Heal
Chapter 7: Mastering Stress (22m)
Chapter 8: Managing Autonomic Dysfunction (24m)
Chapter 9: Mindfulness and Meditation (30m)
Part IV: Healing Habits for your Body
Chapter 10: Movement (12m)
Chapter 11: Meals and Minerals (14m)
Chapter 12: Massage and Physical Therapy (13m)
Part V Healing Habits for Your Soul
Chapter 13: Make Time for Self-Care (31m)
Chapter 14: Maintaining Relationships (18m)
Chapter 15: Mustering Up Support (26m)
Conclusion Making It (18m)

I was given this free advance review/listener copy (ARC) audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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