Patient Stories

Diagnosed when I was 22

Hi my name is Gwynn. I was diagnosed with hip dysplasia when I was 22. I always had trouble walking and couldn’t run for as long as I could remember. My mom took me to my doctor’s when I was a child. He just looked me over and said I was fine so my mom thought I was just being a lazy kid. As I got older and into high school my hip started dislocating. For a few years I thought it was just because I was out of shape. I finally saw an orthopedic surgeon when I signed up for the navy and my hip was bothering me more and was diagnosed. He did hip reconstruction on my left hip and I had 2 corrective surgeries soon after. Obviously I discharged from the navy before boot camp after I was diagnosed. My mom convinced me to move with her after my left hip surgeries so she could take care of me. She felt so guilty after I was diagnosed but I didn’t blame her, I blamed my pediatrician cuz he didn’t even try to find out what could be wrong. After I moved with my mom I had reconstruction done on my right hip. That didn’t work and I had to find a better Ortho surgeon cuz the one who did that reconstruction sucked. I ended up have to get total hip replacement on my right hip just a month after the reconstruction. Soon after my knees and back started getting effected. I will need knee surgery in the future. I had back surgery on my L4/L5 discs. My L5 disc completely collapsed and had to be replaced with a fusion and they had to replace part of my spine because it was too narrow. I will probably need another back surgery in a few months for my middle back. I’ve had 2 kids, 1 is 8 and the other is 2. The first thing I didn’t when they were born was have the pediatrician and my Ortho surgeon check their hips. Luckily they don’t have hip dysplasia. I know it’s hard for us adults that have it and a lot of us just want to give up sometimes because of how hard it is and the chronic pain we’re in. One major thing I do beg parents to do though is to listen to their kids. If my dysplasia was diagnosed when I was a kid, I could’ve avoided all this and been fixed with simple therapy and braces. I have been living with chronic daily pain for half my life and I hate the thought of anyone else going through this. I’m hoping to be half way decent soon so I can be the mom I want to be and start working again and just for once, enjoy life and be able to do anything I want to do. I hope everyone who has this condition is getting the help they need and will be ok