Sometimes life just doesn’t make sense. If you had asked me five years ago, after having both of my legs broken and having to walk again, that I would be here with a broken leg, going through the process again, I would have laughed in your face.
I was supposed to be done. And I was, I felt great! My knees no longer hurt. And while I still walked a little funny, I was able to walk without the pain I had experienced in my knees for almost my entire life.
But then my hip started hurting — something just didn’t feel right.
I’ve had people tell me that I was making it up…that it was just my mind ‘making up’ pain with all I went through.
That I simply needed to get it off my mind.
And to be completely honest, I started to think that maybe I was crazy? Perhaps I was making everything up, and the pain/sensations I was feeling consistently in my left hip weren’t real?
Let me say this right now — it is so important that you advocate for yourself. Do your research and seek second, even third opinions.
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Being a pre-med bio major, I’m no stranger to researching symptoms and what they may lead to. And while doctor Google can undoubtedly get you into some trouble, everything that it was leading me to was adding up to what I was experiencing:
- Sharp groin pain
- Backache
- Flare-ups
- Leg giving out
- Weird gate/walking
- Inward pointing foot/internal rotation
- Labral tears
The list went on, all leading to one thing: femoral anteversion. Basically, my femur was rotated, either naturally or due to prior surgeries, resulting in the symptoms mentioned above. Outside of physical therapy, which I had done for the last several years, the only option to address this issue was to have a femoral derotation surgery, where they break your leg, fix the rotation, and use pins and plates to piece it all back together. Essentially the same kind of surgery that I’ve had already four times before.
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I held hope that maybe this wasn’t the cause, but after meeting with several top-ranking surgeons and undergoing test after test, it was confirmed that I had femoral anteversion and needed to have my leg broken yet again.
If you take a look at the pic above, you’ll see holes from the pins I had there from the previous surgery.
It’s been a little over a month, and I feel absolutely fantastic! It’s a long process; I’m four weeks into an eight-week stint of being non-weight bearing on my left leg. I still have a long way to go. With months of physical therapy to come, I can thankfully say that I haven’t felt any of the pain I experienced before since having this surgery.
I’m almost in tears — before the surgery, I thought I would feel this pain for the rest of my life. So all I can say that God is so good. I can’t thank Him enough for steering me on the right paths and connecting me with the right physicians to address the problem.
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I’m excited about what the next few months and years will bring. I’m feeling very optimistic like I have my life back. I can’t wait to wear my high heels again, go roller-skating, and, as silly as it may sound, to sit ‘Indian style’ as I was never able to do that before.
So here I sit and halfway stand, proudly — a thirty-year-old with a walker — knowing that this now is not only a continuation of my story but the start of a whole new journey.
Until next time,
xo
Ps — Remind me to tell you next time about how I woke up during surgery…as they were breaking my leg.
