Now that the basic introduction is out of the way, let me tell you the whole story. There is so much to tell, I don’t know where to start. I should start at the beginning, but really, there is more than one beginning to this story. There is the beginning of the issue, the beginning of the pain, the beginning of the treatments, the beginning of the disappointment, and the beginning of the end. I guess I will start at the beginning of the issue. Technically it started when I was born. Or at least, that’s what most doctors think. I was born with retroverted hips, which is a form of hip dysplasia. The part that makes it all confusing is that most doctors check for this when the baby is first born. Many people who have hip dysplasia have stories of being in a brace for the first several months of their life. But for me, it was never known. Maybe it is because my dysplasia is more unique, or maybe the doctor just never checked for it. Either way, it took sixteen years to really find it.
I was a dancer for about ten years. I did all of the sports that little kids do. Soccer, swimming, basketball, cheerleading, gymnastics, you name it. But dance was always my favorite. I started doing jazz and ballet, but soon quit ballet to pursue gymnastics. Once that phase blew over, I started ballet up again. My love for dance was growing every day. I was convinced it was what I was meant to do. Until one day, in October of 2015.
In ballet, there is a common move called Grand Battement. It’s when you lift your leg up slowly to about 90 degrees and then slowly lower it. Every time I had done this move, my hip would crack. I didn’t think anything of it for some reason, and imagined it would happen to everyone. It was about five months before I figured out that it was an issue. I did not want to admit to myself that something could be wrong. But, my ballet teacher recommended that I get it checked out immediately, so I did.
The doctor I went to diagnosed me with hip impingement syndrome. This was a big deal to me. It sounded scary, and very serious. By this time, the pain had started. It was bearable, but still uncomfortable and I wanted it gone as soon as possible. He didn’t seem to think it was a very big deal, and told me to start physical therapy and it would naturally feel better soon. Then, when I asked for a note to excuse me from gym class, he looked at me confused. He asked what I was doing, and I told him it was flag football. He looked me right in the eye and told me that I should be fine to keep playing, and that it seemed like I was just a girl trying to get out of flag football. I was stunned since I had just been recommended physical therapy, but had to continue gym class when I was in a lot of pain.
Throughout this whole experience, I have done so many rounds of PT. If my count is right, I have done about 21 months of PT throughout the past 4 years. My most recent physical therapist told me that it is an unspoken rule between most physical therapists that if after 2 months there is no improvement, the patient should visit a doctor again. I was at Athletico Physical Therapy for roughly 8 months. The therapists there did not help me at all, despite their efforts, and sometimes it feels like those intense 8 months only made the pain worse. So, finally, it was time to get a second opinion.
When I went to a different doctor to get my hips evaluated again, I had no idea how much was truly wrong. I wasn’t ready for what they would tell me. To this day I still do not even know most of the things wrong in my hip that they told me. All I knew by the end of the appointment was that I had a torn labrum which required surgery, and that more would be fixed while they were in there.
My first surgery was on July 18th, 2016. I had my labrum fully reconstructed out of cadaver tissue, and much more done. The recovery was not too bad, only 6 weeks brace and crutches and couple months of PT. Everything seemed to be getting better, and after only about a year and a half, it seemed to be fixed. I was ready to move on and get back into dance and everything I loved to do, pain free.
It was going great until I realized that my left side hurt just the same amount, and cracked just like the right one did. And, believe it or not, I needed surgery on that one too. More physical therapy, more MRIs, and one surgery later, I was ecstatic. The second surgery was a success, and all of the same things were fixed. I now had 2 new cadaver labrums, and I felt unstoppable. I was going to go back to my life, and be able to do everything that normal middle school girls do without the added pain.
Soon enough, my world came crashing down. I started to feel the same intense, intolerable pain as I had before surgery. I went back to the same doctor that did my surgeries, and he decided that it would be best for me to have more X Rays and MRIs. When those were all said and done, he was the one who first saw my dysplasia. However, he really downplayed it. He looked at my parents and I in the room and told us he didn’t know why pain was still continuing. Even though he knew very well that the retroversion was what was causing it.
A couple of months later, we went back to try talking to this doctor one more time. This time, he did talk more about the retroversion and informed me about the PAO. The irony of this surgeon talking about how terrible of an option the PAO is is simply hilarious at this point, as now it has come out in recent news that he was assisting PAOs the whole time.
Once it was clear that this doctor would no longer be of help, we got several more opinions. I had more MRIs, cortisone shots, CT scans, X Rays, etc.
I decided to go to get another opinions. This new surgeon spent hours talking to us, listening to our story, and trying to think of ideas. He gave a lot of useful information about the PAO. It was the most professional, comforting, and caring doctor I had ever been to. It was then that I decided the PAO was what needed to be done.
I ended up decided to have my surgery done at the last surgeon I went to in Chicago. The appointment I had with him was just as amazing as my last one. My surgery is now scheduled for June 25th, 2019. I will have a reverse periacetabular osteotomy on my right hip. Although I need it on my left hip as well, you can only get one side done at a time and no plan as been made for my other side yet. I plan to write a couple days after my surgery and keep updates on my healing.
get up! 