This is my past and present and hope for my future. I was born with bilateral congenital hip dysplasia, my left hip was found first and my right was found weeks later.
i started with the traditional tripple diapers. closed reductions and spika casts came next.
we followed those up with open reductions and pin tractions.
I didnt walk until i was 4y/o..
Eventhough i couldnt walk i got into everything most of which my mom got blamed for. i learned how to pull myself along using my arms, instead of the little mermaid i was the beached mermaid. with a plaster tail.
Nurses stayed on my mom for turning me on my back when they wanted me on my stomach, giving long lectures on bed sores. of course no one knew it was me. i hated not being able to see what was going on. lol.
I found my free time in the hospital was best spent doing pull ups on the trapeez as i grew. by this time we were on to salter shelf procedures and derotation osteotomies. with my all too familiar spica cast. i could be carried by the wonderful bar in the middle.
I remember my first boyfriend he was cool he had a fiberglass cast, i'd always had plaster. I was around 8, we met on a rainy night in the play room. me in my wheel chair that was long like a bed with pillows surrouning me ,playing nurf basketball. the nurse brought us milkshakes. our romance was soon over because he went home and we never saw each other again. that was my favorite cast though, one of the nurses aids was an artist and drew disney characters all over it. i even made them save them. i kept them until the plaster crumbled.
by this time i was 12 my last surgery, i'm up to number 22. this was my chairi. i had goten avascular necrosis in my right hip and the did an osteotomy and core decompression. but the shelf on my right is amazing. it has lasted until now and i'm 36.
i have to say. i was still a rebel. i had my first fiberglass cast this time. a 1/2 spica. and i was on crutches with strict instructions not to walk. well everyday when my mom would leave and the sitter would be in the other room i took steps around my room and since out of necessity comes invention i figured out how i could prop myself to use the bathroom. no more bedpans.
this was the stopping point there was no more reconstruction to offer. i was way too young to do replacements on and although they left quite a masterpiece, no two like mine, this was the bridge until i was old enough to have them replaced.
when i was 17 i thought it was time. i was seen at mayo clinic rochester minnisota. my dr report said that i had a well compensated gait. with minimal limp. 1 was 134lbs and 5'6" and obese. i needed to lose weight , use a cain and reduce activity. . i couldnt even get into handicap
Gym because they were afraid i'd hurt myself. They offered to replace my hips then and said it was up to me if i didnt i'd be back in 4-6 years. my mom and i talked (she'd been revised two times by this point and had cement disease from her first hip. she told me if i really felt like it needed to be done ok. but to remember that there was no telling if they could revise it and it would only last 10-12 years. i'm greatful she left the decision to me because if she said no i would have said yes. (17 you see). i knew it was better to wait
i had pain and limped more when i was up for long periods and oh how i hated the long halls at school. but i was just going to have to deal with it.
i finished high school and started waitressing. i couldnt do long distance walking but i could do alot of short distance walking. boy did i have a good time. i'd never been given anything for pain. only the couple days after surgery so i had a pretty good tolerence. i also had a fear that i would become tolerant and then what would i do.
as i got older i'd go thru months at a time with severe pain but then it would ease up and i'd be fine for a while. eventhough i walked ok.(not great) the difference in my legs took its toll and by the time i was 22 i ruptured a disc. oh yeah sciatica. right let down to my big toe. i refused to have my back operated on and in about a year the fluid moved off the disc and it fused itself and went away.
I went on to have my first baby. everyone's question. would i be able to deliver and then the really nosey folks. what about ummhumm? well heres the answer " never been a problem just got to be creative". i delivered with no problems. a few years later i went on to have my second but by this time i was having alot more paing. i had actually broken down and started taking something for the nerve pain, then i found out i was expecting. i cried, i dint know how i was going to get thru it. see after living so long with nothing for pain to have relief, its hard to give up. but i did. and had healthy baby #2. i didnt go back on any meds.
as time has gone on the pain has increased and the cycles got shorter and that brings me to this year. just over a year ago i lost my mom to lung cancer. my biggest fear for her was always how much she would hurt as she got older. she was on her third revision and had titanium ties holding her femer around the prostesis because she started to stress fracture below it.
she is my mentor. she kept on me with that wonderful mantra. heel toe, heel toe, dont drag your feet bend your knees. aint isnt a word. lol. i always worked on how i walked because she had such a harsh limp. she worked on my walk for the same reason i know now.
i started having trouble with my right leg, severe unrelenting pain shortly before i was pregnant with # 3. i asked God and for a new car and he gave me a car seat. ironically finding this fun fact after two forms of birthcontrol on a trip to the dr to have my tubes tied. lol. Yep he always gives us what we need... well this time the pain didnt end and i couldnt take anything i couldnt even find out what was wrong no xrays. and after struggeling for 5 months i got to where i couldnt make it from my car into work. i spent the next 4 months in a wheel chair on the rare occasion i went to the store. i spent days where i didnt even see my kitchen it was way too far.. about 200 feet. i couldnt sleep in my bed because my right hip would cross midline and shift waking me in excruciating pain i had no stability in either leg and dreaded leaving the house because i have three steps that if i got down them i didnt know if i could get back up.
i had my daughter and i loved my epidural. i chose to have it before hand so that they could move my hips as much as possible and if they dislocated they could replace them without me feeling it. i was brilliant. i had her in about 3 hours she was 7lbs and 8oz. i was sore for a couple days my legs still unstable but improved. at 5 weeks i went to my OS.
he finally got to xray and found the right hip completly collapsed. it is fixed and locked in position when i asked him about the left he said it only looked good compared to the right.
he said he had to wait until my baby was 6 months so my hormones would normalize and i told him i had to go back to work and to "dope me up doc" at least this time i could have some relief while i wait.
