Nail Art as a Voice

Last post, I explained that I like to use my new found freedom of polishing as my voice. It is hard to miss nails done up pretty with designs, letters, decals, or pretty polish. Also, last post I stated that Lupus was not the only thing that I bring awareness to in May. Let me first start off with a quote.

"When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras”. This is something that is taught in medical school. Always go with the simplest solution because that is usually what it is. But what happens when it isn't? For 27 years, I was that person that was mistakenly thought of as a horse, when in fact I was a zebra. It took a doctor all of 15 minutes to tell me what it was because he thought outside the box.

You see I have a rare collagen defect. I have a disorder known as Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. My knees bend backward 19 degrees (think of an archery bow and you have my knees). My fingers can overlap on top of each other. The list goes on for over-flexibility. But it doesn't stop there. My skin is stretchy and very pale and you can see my veins sitting under it in a lot of areas. I bruise almost instantly from anything. I do not walk anymore from this and one of my other disorders. I have multiple degenerative discs that are getting worse. I have begun to have osteoporosis already and barely in my 30's. I have 2 valves prolapsed in my heart (meaning they are leaking out instead of sealing shut when the blood comes through). I have a pacer in my stomach to make sure I can eat due to another complication of this disorder. I faint a lot and get dizzy plus my blood pressure stays abnormally low and my heart rate stays abnormally high or drops dangerously low due to another complication. There is no cure. I didn't know I had this when I had children even though I knew something was wrong. One of my children has this disorder though not to the same degree and I pray to God every day it does not disintegrate to this level for him. My other son developed a syndrome similar yet more dangerous than mine. There are other parts to this but I won't go into it now.

You ask why bring this up on a nail polish post. I will explain why. My nail art is my voice. The symbol for EDS'ers everywhere is the Zebra. My Jedi bless her heart knows my journey in life and she is starting her own line of polish. She took it upon herself to create a Polish for those of us on this Journey. I put it on yesterday and I cried. She hit the nail on the head with it. It is everything I would imagine a polish to be for us Zebras. A touch of this and a touch of this. Bits of black and bits of white. I placed it over my neon Color Clubs because as Zebras we are all colors. We define no boundaries. We are all bright spirited. I hope you enjoy Hoofbeats as much as I do. I will cherish this polish. She has made more bottles to sell and is going to make a donation once they sell to EDS Network C.A.R.E.S and I bless her for that. For this organization gives only to research. On that note I (again no camera sorry!) give you Hoofbeats layered over Color Club (different neons).