I was diagnosed with hip dysplasia just two days after I was born. At first the doctors thought it was only affecting one hip, but a scan showed it was both of my hips. When I was one month old, I was put into a pelvic brace. Unfortunately, it didn’t work and at about 16 weeks old, I found myself in the hospital, in a cot, in traction for eight weeks. They moved my legs a little each week to get them to a 180-degree angle, and then set them in plaster but, that didn’t work either. I was then referred to a specialist consultant who performed a closed reduction. That didn’t work either, so after my first birthday, I had open reduction surgery on both hips. I was in plaster from waist down to my ankles, in my first hip spica. A family friend found a small rocker at a charity shop and the angle of my plaster allowed me to sit on the rocker and move around more freely. I had to wear oversized clothes because there were no clothes designed for kids with plaster casts and hip issues back then, my parents used tips from the STEPS website they were made aware of.
At 3 years old, I had another surgery where they used pins and plates to keep my hip in place with another hip spica to help the healing; I call this my “shark bite” because of the scar it left on my right hip – which me and my primary school teacher made up as I was scared to tell my friends what it really was as I didn’t understand completely at 5 years old. This surgery helped my left hip but not my right hip. I started seeing another specialist at an orthopaedic hospital. Since then, I’ve had regular appointments and physiotherapy as well as in between minor procedures, like blue dye injections for better visibility of my joints. At present, 13 years old and due to the shape and onset of arthritis and cysts in my right hip, there is nothing else my current consultant can do to prolong the hip replacement I will need on my right hip which looks like it will be next year – we will find out more at my next consultation.
The last 2 years at high school have been a massive change for me and realisation that at present I can’t do all the things my friends can do – no contact sports or running club, no trampolining, I can’t sit on the floor in assemblies as I can’t cross my legs which then other students ask, ‘Why can’t you sit on the floor’. My school and medical team have been really supportive as well as my family, big sister, mum and dad. I have taken comfort reading other stories on the STEPS website of other children with mobility issues.
This brings me to the reason why I chose to make a hip keychain in design technology at school this year. We had to make a keychain for a charity of our choice, so, I decided to make my keychain for STEPS. My design for my keychain is a shape of a hip to show awareness for hip dysplasia and what people at STEPS do to provide help and how much they can help a child with a lower limb condition and to know we are not alone.
Thank you
Ruby Grace x
