Hello all,

I must apologize for my absence. I promise it was for a mostly good reason. Remember how I said back in January one of my goals was to go to the gym more and run, but that I was still in physical therapy for some hip issues?

Turns out these hip issues aren’t just a little fixable problem. It’s a HUGE fixable problem, and it’s called hip dysplasia. Basically my hip sockets are too shallow so the head of my femur doesn’t sit in the acetabulum deep enough, thus causing instability, weakness, pain, and eventually osteoarthritis. Luckily, I have zero arthritis in my hips and I’m pretty young and overall healthy, allowing me to be a perfect candidate for a hip preservation surgery called “Periacetabular Osteotomy”. Sound scary?

IT IS SCARY. They make a 4-8 inch incision on the front of your hip, move aside muscles and tendons, and then they cut your pelvic bone around the socket, rotate it, and screw it back into place, allowing new bone will grow in the “holes” and making it as good as new (most likely).

So after seeing 2 ortho surgeons, one finally said the term “hip dysplasia”, causing me to cry. I had googled everything that could even remotely sound like my symptoms, and when I got to hip dysplasia, I shrugged it off quickly. Turns out, it was real.

I found via Instagram a young lady my age also had DDH (developmental dysplasia of the hip – a fancy term for “acquiring it in your growing years”) and had flown up to St. Louis from Texas to get it fixed with this surgery. It was through her that I found out about Dr. Clohisy, one of the top 5 surgeons in the States that perform this surgery, and one of maybe 20 in the states that even perform the surgery with any regularity. I called him in January to get an appointment and was told that he had an 8-week waiting list for visits. So I waited.

Finally March 10 rolled around and I am so nervous. Certainly he wasn’t going to tell me I need to slice my hips in half, right? Boy was I wrong. He walked me through step-by-step the nature of the surgery and how it would help my own specific hips. I scheduled my surgery that day – June 22 is now D-Day. Over 3 months away. Sounds great.

Full disclosure: I am now on the other side of the surgery with a much more realistic outlook about the surgery and recovery process. It sucks. So definitely stay tuned.