Patient Stories

Paige

Hello, my name is Paige and I am 19 years old. I was finally diagnosed with Hip Dysplasia September of 2015.

I have gone my whole life not knowing what could be wrong. I was very active in volleyball, soccer, softball, all kinds of things and just shrugged the pain off thinking it was due to sports. When I moved to Westfield, Indiana I quit all sports. I was the new kid going into my freshman year and decided I needed to focus on myself and school. All throughout High School I had this constant pain in my right hip. It began to pop every time I would walk or move from any position to another. I kept telling everyone it hurt but it kept being blown off like it was nothing. January of my junior year (2014) I finally went to the doctor to see what was wrong. The first doctor I saw told me everything was fine, that it is normal for a girl of my age to have what they called “snapping hip”. The doctor told me I would be fine, that he has seen hundreds of girls with this problem and only one had to have surgery (make that two). He wrote me a script for therapy for three months. After those three months were up I felt okay, and only went one more month before I had to find a new doctor because I knew something was wrong.

I went to this new doctor and he told me I tore my labrum and had too much bone on the cup part of my joint on the left side (not even the side I originally went to the doctors for). Surgery was scheduled for July 3, and that is where it continued to go downhill. I had an arthroscopic surgery to fix my torn labrum and shave down my cup. I had an awful recovery, I would throw up every time I would move and I even found out that I was allergic to my medicine (hydrocodone). I went through my next three months in therapy hoping everything would get better.

Right after I ended therapy I started noticing the pain in my right hip was back, so I went back to the doctors. More MRIs and X-rays to find the same thing, torn labrum and apparently too much bone on my hip again. Next surgery scheduled for December 16th, 2014. After I woke up from surgery and was brought back into my recovery room the doctor came in and said “this is a very common thing in dogs” (not sure why he told us that) Then my dad turned to me and said “oh so what kind of bread are you?” and my response was “the pretties bread you will ever see duh.” I spent my Christmas sleeping from all my pain medicine, not a fun way to spend it. I went through three more months of therapy (nine months all together so far) and again I was hoping everything would be fixed this time. Not much time went by before I realized I am not quite done yet.

I went back to the doctors to have more MRIs and more x-rays for this time to be told I tore my labrum again, and I had extra bone on the femur as well. Third surgery scheduled for May 8, 2015. This was the hardest one to recover from because it was right at the end of my senior year, I had projects, finals, even graduation. I took my first steps after this surgery as I walked across the stage to get my diploma. I again had three more months of therapy (12 months all together). I went to my last doctors appointment and I was told everything looked great, that it was going to be my last visit ever for my hips because nothing else is wrong or could go wrong, right in time for my doctor to move to L.A. I have never been more excited. I thought I was going to be able to enjoy summer and enjoy my freshman year of college, but unfortunately I was wrong, again.

I got to enjoy my summer pain free thankfully, then I moved to attend Ball State University. Around September 2015 I started to have worse pain. This time instead of just popping my hip would actually lock up to the point where somehow else had to come either bend it or unbend it for me bc i would lose the felling in my leg and the ability to bend or straighten it. I went to a new doctor, my third one already, and I got more tests done. I was then diagnosed with Hip Dysplasia. My heart dropped, I felt like all the other surgeries were for no reason, which come to find out they were. My old doctor should have caught the Hip Dysplasia, which would of saved me from three other surgeries. The new doctors told me that my old doctor made it worse by shaving down the cup because he gave me less coverage on my femur. My first PAO was scheduled for December 18th, 2015. I did not know what to expect, all I knew was that it was way worse than all the arthroscopic surgeries I had.Recovery has been hard, especially with the who numb patch on the upper outside thigh which is extremely sensitive. Today is five and a half months are my PAO and I am still on my long journey through recovery.

My left hip is still in question, it causes me pain but rarely. I will have my first doctors appointment for it in a few months, fingers crossed its good, but who knows. The doctor told me that I will know him the rest of my life because I will have a full hip replacement when I am about 30 years old.