meghan3216

Very active 26 year old female, handful of issues at birth (TEF repair among others), I guess the docs were so busy worrying about keeping me alive they failed to notice my hips. Walked funny all my life, finally got sent to PT to help resolve 'scoliosis' and 'lumbar curvature' that they thought was caused by tight quads and walking funny. Finally after a few months of PT I told them it hurt too much and something wasn't right (was ~14 I think), so they finally took some films of my hips (which were never even accidentally caught after multiple abdominal and chest films!) and the doc went 'woah'.... turns out the hip deformity (on both hips) was CAUSING the scoliosis, lumbar curvature, and funny gait!

I have almost no femoral necks, and very large greater trochanters, with some strangely-shaped balls/sockets, so the great trochanter tends to smack up against my pelvic bone and the hip grinds pretty badly against other stuff too. This is both hips. At 16 they sawed off one greater trochanter (of more painful hip) and screwed it in down lower on the leg. This was a bandaid of sorts, and experimentally only on one hip. Now, at 26, both hurt a lot. Hiking for more than 10 minutes means lots of ibuprofen with little relief. New doc says they both need to be replaced.

I am so frustrated. Replacements do not last long enough yet but putting off this surgery really literally hurts like heck. Also, I am active duty and I think there is a good chance I would be found medically disqualified if I get them replaced. I do not understand why now in life the pain is much worse, when anatomically it should be the same mechanical problem?? I have not gotten good answers from the docs........

Anyone with similar experiences?? I have found nothing similar on the net, crossing my fingers in a last ditch effort here.