Ask-a-Zebra has Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), which makes her joints and muscles prone to painful dislocation. In a great post, she documents her experience with Silver Ring Splints, custom-made jewelry that stabilizes her hand and helps her write and type — while looking absolutely awesome.
Having Ehlers Danlos Syndrome sometimes feels about the equivalent of being composed of jello and wet spaghetti. Nothing stays where its supposed to. Literally every single cell in the body is floppy, so fingers are definitely an issue for many of us. I can almost guarantee that for the majority of us, writing is not only slow and painful but nearly impossible at times. FIne motor skills? What even are those? An EDSer surely doesn’t have any of those. Even typing which is far easier than writing, is painful and daunting at times. But last year I joined the population of shiny zebras by getting fitted for a set of Silver Rings Splints and they are beyond magical.
For those of you who have not heard of The Silver Ring Splint Company, they are a company that custom makes finger splints that look like elegant pieces of jewelry. Don’t believe me? Well I can’t even tell you how many compliments I’ve received for them. Nobody even suspects that they might possibly be medical. But more importantly, they work amazing! I still have hand pain and finger dislocations when performing fine motor skills and writing is definitely not something I look forward to but I have saved myself thousands of painful dislocations, I can open doors easier, type faster, write longer and hold objects in my hands without looking like an alien from a sic-fi movie. With the rings on my fingers actually look like fingers rather than tentacles!
(via Wil Wheaton
)
