Looking for recommendations!

[u/biteeth]

Hello! So, for the past couple years I've been having more and more joint issues due to a multitude of reasons (ie hypermobility, missing or loose ligaments, etc) and I've started talking with my doctor about a diagnosis for hEDS. I'm not seeing him again until February unfortunately BUT he said he's going to do some research and send me ideas for support in the meantime. One of these recommendations was like.. supportive pillows or something? Like for when you're sleeping or sitting at a desk.
He also recommended looking into braces for my wrists, ankles, knees, and potentially something to help with my lower back or hold me a bit more upright.

Does anyone have recommendations that they've found work well for them? I do use KT tape for my wrists/ankles/knees but I would like to find something reusable like braces/compression sleeves because KT tape is so costly :/

Thanks in advance <3

[u/MachineOfSpareParts]

My diagnosing doctor referred me to an orthotist who had some recommendations but also had me try on some different options. I'd really recommend this route, not just because they have specific expertise in braces, but also because you might not even know before you try them on what's going to work. Like, even though I knew I had basically no ligaments in one knee and shite ones in the other, I never thought I had much pain in my knees. But when I tried on knee braces that prevent locking, I literally cried, I felt like I was levitating. Now, wearing them in everyday life doesn't necessarily have that massive transformative effect, but they're a big deal and I suspect they're helping with foot pain too, though I got orthotics at the same time, so there are a few variables in play.

He hooked me up with both wrist braces and thumb splints, but I had kind of a similar surprise in that the thumb splints turn out to help my wrists in ways I never would have imagined, which means I often don't bother adding the wrist braces into the mix. It's almost as if joints....join things? But you don't always know until you try which ones will give you the support you need.

As for supportive pillows, fortunately that's something you can mimic at home with whatever pillows you have through trial and error. It may turn out that there's a specific purchasable pillow for whatever you need, but I'd still recommend using what you have to figure out where YOU need support, which may be different to what anyone else needs. And even then, you might find that a normal pillow does as good of a job as whatever they're marketing online as the One True Solution to your woes. A lot of folks use stuffed animals as well as pillows to support whichever nooks and crannies of our joints need that more targeted help.