Patient Stories

Kaila’s Story

My name is Kaila and I was diagnosed with congenital dislocation of the hip when I was just a baby. I had a pavlik harness put on when I was a baby but this was taken off after a few days as I was screaming in pain. At 18 months i spent 5 days in hangmans traction before having an open reduction, I had a full hip spika on followed by a half one but that didnt stop me crawling around and i had to keep getting the knees on the plaster repaired as i kept putting holes in it !!

This didnt fix me though so when i was 6 i had a femoral osteotomy it was hard to get around and i had to use a little walking frame and a wheelchair….after a year I went back and got the pins taken out.

Over the years i kept getting checks but the xrays showed that my hip was getting worse again so in 2010 aged 11 I had a pelvic osteotomy………….after this op they put me in a half spika from the knees down which was horrible and meant i could only get around in a wheelchair. My xrays were really good after this and Mum said that for the first time I had 2 matching hips!

But again this didnt last for long after about nine months the pain started to escalate and cause me extreme pain. I started to use my crutches again to go to school, and places where I would have had to walk around a lot.

At the beginning of this year I then went for an arthrogram. I had been to the hospital so often now that I nearly new the nurses off by heart. Everytime I was in the hospital for an operation or an Arthrogram I would have a wobble before we went in. But the wobbles were getting bigger, every time I was there someone different would promise me the same thing “Everything was going to be fine and I would be fixed at the end of it” I was starting to get tired of these false promises so like any other person would be I was scared. But I went in and went under general anesthetic and when I woke up I was being wheeled through the corridors to the recovery room. We were met by the Prof where he told us that I could go back to normal but nothing high impact. I was glad I could go roughly back to normal but unfortunately that wasn’t the end, even though I had been given a special jag to take away the pain, I was in agony.

This meant I had to attend hyrdo therapy sessions every week. But again there was no improvement, so unfortunately this left Professor Clarke with no choice. He told my mum and I that he had decided to operate again. He told us that he would perform a femoral osteotomy and a shelf. All we had to do was wait for a date.

I have never been the type of person that just gives up. So when the opportunity came to go to Herm with the school for Time Off Timetable week I took it. So I went to Herm with the school Hopped up the hill on crutches went to the beach and hopped around the whole island and then came back on the boat to find out when I was having the operation. It made me sad but I knew it was for the best, luckily the next two weeks were full of sunshine and fun before I went to Southampton for the op.

On the 6th of August my mum and I had to get up early so we could get the plane. The next day went quickly. We woke up the next morning at 6 so I would be ready for 8 so I could go down to the operating theater. Once we were in the waiting room we were asked some quick questions and then I was taken into the Operating Theater and I was put under local anesthetic. The doctor had decided that he would only do the one operation which was the femoral osteotomy. I can’t really remember much of the week as I slept a bit and the had meds and then I slept some more. I was in a half spica for six weeks and I am now recovering well but I am still not aloud to weight bearing for another six weeks. This should be the last hurdle for me. But we never know………..