Hypermobility Syndrome

In the ongoing process of doctors, referrals, x-rays, etc. to get my chronic back pain diagnosed and fixed, I went to the physical therapist today and had the best health care experience I've ever had. He took his time, spent an hour with me, and made a diagnosis that totally made sense to me and just felt right. I left feeling completely high on life knowing that someone knew what was wrong and how to make it better. Let me show you in pictures! B is an example of someone who does not have hypermobility syndrome:

Notice the humped, barely 90 degree angle of his back and the inability to palm the floor.

Now look at someone who does:

Notice the flat back and the palms on the floor.

So without boring you with all of the details that I'm too tired to write about anyway, basically my joints and ligaments are looser than they should be, which causes them to move around and cause pain. It's something that you're born with, but because I grew up as a gymnast and a dancer, I had great muscles that kept my wiggly spinal joints in place. Now that I'm an adult with a desk job, my muscles aren't good enough to keep everything together. In fact, it's an extremely common injury for former gymnasts. According to the article I found online, it's what makes you a good gymnast. So when the physical therapist placed his hands on my hips and pushed together, it instantly relieved my pain. But now I have to get my spinal and stomach muscles strong enough so they can do that on their own so he doesn't have to follow me around everywhere, squeezing my hips together. Woo Hoo!!! I know what's wrong!! And I can actually do something about it! Speaking of which, I'm falling asleep as I write this, so I need to go do my nightly exercises.

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Update:
More recent posts on this topic here and here.