Patient Stories

Danielle

I am 37 years old and was just recently diagnosed January 2016 with Hip Dysplasia and Osteoarthritis in my right hip. I have been suffering with pain for the last 5 years since my daughter was born in 2010 but apparently was born with this congenital defect.

I was lucky to have made it through 32 years without pain. Although I did have a painless limp that many people would ask me about. I had no idea what they were talking about since I felt fine. It was really more embarrassing than anything else. After my daughter (second child) was born and the pain started, I just shrugged it off thinking it had something to do with childbirth. After 5 years passed and the pain was getting worse, I really couldn’t just ignore it anymore.

After all the ‘baby” was no longer a baby anymore. So I finally decided to go for the X-ray that told me exactly what’s been wrong with me all this time. I have to admit I freaked when I first heard the diagnosis. I kind of knew right away that it would mean surgery. I then went on my hunt for a good orthopedist and saw a couple of different doctors. The first one is a surgeon and he basically said that I either had to try to live with the pain or have the Total Hip Replacement surgery. Of course they always try to get younger people to hold off if possible because of the chance of needing to have a second Hip replacement later in life. I then went to another doctor for a second opinion who suggested the steroid injections. I had one and it was wonderful to be out of pain but unfortunately it only lasted about 5-6 weeks and here I am, back to square one.

I went back to the orthopedic surgeon because he is without a doubt the doctor I want to perform my surgery. I have heard so many great stories about him from people I know, he came highly recommended. He was very honest about all of the risks and what the recovery will be like and he doesn’t pressure you to make a decision. He doesn’t recommend getting too many of those injections though because of the increased risk of infection and to be honest, it’s not something I really want to have to do every couple of weeks.

So here I am at the point where I decide whether to continue living in pain or just suck it up and have the surgery. To be honest, my tolerance for the pain has definitely decreased now that I know how it is to live pain-free but I’m very leery of having such an invasive operation. I have never had surgery before, not even a C-section so this is quite frightening to me. I really have no issue with my age. I understand that I will most likely need to have another THR in the future. I would rather have a good quality of life now and not feel 87 at the age of 37. We are also planning a trip to Disney next year and I want to be able to enjoy that instead of hobbling around and not being able to keep up with my kids.
By writing this, I am hoping to make a connection with someone who is going through the same thing as me. I have great family and friends, a lot of support but nobody that truly can understand what this is like. I would also like to hear some success stories from people that have been through the Total Hip Replacement surgery.