I need help finding specialists in the UK that deal with all subtypes
I’m honestly desperate for any help or advice on what I’m supposed to do in this situation as I’m at a completely loss and have no idea who i can see who will actually be able to provide me any type of answer. People in this group will probably have the most knowledge on what I should do or who to see, I swear you are all like mini genetic detectives.
Everybody in my care separately questions and thinks hEDS doesn’t explain the issues they are independently seeing from me and the diagnosis doesn’t tell them how to manage me either. My genetic testing results were clear but the lab states it has technical limitations with TNXB.
I have a very muscle dominant presentation that genetics felt was still unexplained, I have significant low muscle tone (hypotonia) and global muscle weakness alongside what looks like muscle wasting and brisk reflexes. Orthotics also thought I had fixed and stiff ankles with limited movement (possible ankle contractures). I feel my hypermobility is secondary and the least impactful for me.
I was born with congenital flat feet, have extremely stretchy skin (over 3 inches in some places) with a complete absence of atrophic scarring (only hypertrophic and a few keloids), my skin is very fragile and splits and tears easily and bruises spontaneously without injury, very doughy skin texture, premature aging of hands, slow wound healing causing infection etc
I have severe progressive eye manifestations that my EDS informed opticians felt they could not explain, was being investigated for a vascular fragility incident, mildly curved toes, fragile mucosal tissues which cause significant bleeding and I have a complete absence of family history apart from a VERY distant singular relative being born with congenital hypotonia and hypermobility.
My bowel also just stopped working 4 months ago for absolutely no reason and I have significant GI issues and rectal bleeding from tears in my GI tract every five minutes 😐
Nobody else has any CTD manifestations in any of my family lineage (not even mild) and nobody else in my entire family history has hypermobility apart from that very very distant relative. The only things my mother and her sister do have is mildly brachydactyly and mild snydactyly and all of us have sacral dimples but the genetics said this was all unrelated.
What am I actually going to do in this situation because nobody in the NHS is taking any responsibility of finding out what this actually is or helping at all? I’m literally crying right now because I have no idea what to do or who to see, where I’m supposed to go for somebody to actually find out what is wrong with me. I’m terrified because clearly there’s something going very wrong here.
I also have a pulsating abdominal mass in my aorta region after a suspected AAA but the ultrasound showed no aneurism but vascular surgery and radiology still felt it was abnormal and too strong to just be nothing. They suggested vascular type EDS but I was already tested and have no COL3A1 variants.
Are there any specialists in TNXB in the UK or somebody that you can suggest who can actually deal with situations like mine who can revise my diagnosis to something that’s accurate or just any clinician you can recommend that I can see privately. I’m literally open to any and all advice at this point, I’m guessing everyone in this group will be able to give more meaningful advice as you guys have a variety of subtypes and a whole host of unknown CTDs here.