Hello all, how are you? Good I am glad you are ok if you’re not just remember it does get worse before it gets better! I cannot believe Christmas & new year are literally around the corner. If I write it in time I will get up a blog about my new years resolutions next week – or I might make a video, hint hint.

So, onto todays topic, this is a little bit of a story about myself – if you’re interested great if not don’t worry! However, it is kind of a blog I have been putting off for a while because I have thought that my stories not important, it wasn’t that bad, how is this going to help me, but then I thought it might help others! So, this is about when I was 16 & I had both of my hips replaced (READ & PICTURES BELOW). Where do I even start with this, I feel like it’s such a strange statement to make, I mean hip replacements when people are older are just common knowledge that it might have to happen, but to go through it within the first 16 years Is just a bit mad and also, the fact that I suffered with severe arthritis, I use past tense in that I still have little bits of arthritis in my body but nothing that has caused the seriousness or the pain that my hips did.

So, ill start with when I was a little person, when I was little I did go through a stage where I didn’t want to walk, & as I got older & did start to walk I would walk slightly off balance or lean forward. The earliest sign I personally remember was when I was swimming & when I did breast stroke (you know the one where you swim like a frog) I could only kick one of my legs out, the other one just wouldn’t want to go properly! So, my mum took me too a few doctors & osteopaths around the age of 10-13, I got a lot of different diagnoses at first, one doctor X-Rayed me & said that I was absolutely fine, that I’d grow out of my funny walk & one kicking leg, one specialist said I had one leg slightly longer than the other – which definitely wasn’t correct & then another hospital due to some blood tests I had, said that it was an immune system type disease.

Now all of these were very confusing to me because nothing was ever set & I didn’t know what was wrong with me. From about the age of 14 this is when I started to get severe pain in both my hips which gradually got worse to the point where 2 years later going out shopping I just couldn’t do so sometimes would go out in a wheelchair. Because of the pain that I first started to experience I would also walk funny (kind of like an older person) so I got a few things wrote on my maths book such as ‘granny’ & just some mean comments about how I walked – now in school I was never really popular, so this did not help the reputation that I barely even had already! Although I do look back now & just think those teenagers were all twats anyway (no offence). So, I can’t remember when exactly, but we finally got the diagnosis of Rheumatoid & Osteoarthritis in both my hips – now Rheumatoid is where your immune system is responsible for attacking that part of your body, this is a lot more of a common form & quite common in other young adults. From what I can remember this is what they discovered first, now because of this I had to have steroid injections every couple month’s or so, this was where a fat off massive needle was poked right in between my hip joint on both sides – it was the most uncomfortable feeling ever, but I did it! It would work for that couple of months, but it always seemed to ease off. Then I started to take a drug called Methotrexate to help/prevent the inflammation of the arthritis, this was the worse drug I had taken so far (and trust me I had tried a lot) I had the same dosage some cancer patients would have so I was told & they just used to make me feel so exhausted & sometimes sick, but they were supposed to help me.

So after about a year of being with University College London Hospital & taking lots of drugs & having lots of MRI & CT Scans they bought me in and told me that my hips were so damaged they would need replacing. Now I got this news shortly after turning 16 & it was a lot to take in – on the one hand I was really happy but the other I was absolutely terrified as I had never had a proper procedure before & new I would be under for a long frigging time! But we went with it so in May 2014 we got to the hospital nice & early, I got all marked up (I did ask if I could keep my old hips in a jar, but they said no), taken down to the surgery room, they offered an epidural as well & I was like bitch you can put that in once I’m under! Which they did – so they injected the aesthesia & I remember looking at my mum saying I am going to try so hard not to fall asleep because I really want to beat the anaesthetic… but I couldn’t & after about 2 minutes I drifted off into some deep dreams. The procedure was about 6 hours & waking up was the strangest, I kept going in & out of conscious & then being sick! Then just talking a load of nonsense which seemed to amuse my mum. I also had my own morphine pump which was great fun for the pain.

The recovery – Ok I am almost done, so I think originally the doctors said I could be in for 10 days – 2 weeks, but I was like hell no! So, after the first 2 days of barely being able to move, pissing all over the floor when I did manage the toilet & being washed head to toe by a nurse, I started to walk, very slowly & not very well but I did my best – I managed to make it out in about 5 days. Recovering looking back was a lot quicker than I thought It would be & the pain was tolerable. I certainly threw up a lot of bile but oh well. Also, because I feel like this is something I wanted to know – sex, I was so worried about it because I thought I am either going to have to wait months or I wont ever be able to open my legs so to speak. I did it with my partner in 2 weeks! I literally just laid on my front limp as anything, but that’s just how we did it for the first few months & then as I got better so did the positions! Anyway – moving on! I didn’t even need a wheel chair & it was more uncomfortable to sit than it was to walk so we got that sold. I started being able to go out more at first with crutches & then without, after 3 months I went on a wild holiday to Zante, my legs ached horribly in the morning due to me dancing all night & my muscles still being rather tender. That would be my other tip if you are going through something similar make sure you work out lots before your procedure because you don’t know how long it will take you after.

So yeah eventually I could dance more, I could start wearing heels, I went back to college, I got a job, I wasn’t in pain! It was a new life & I loved every second of it. Now after about 6 months I stopped taking the methotrexate because that was holding me back – I told my doctors & they were willing to give it a go. Also, my scars were quite big at first, but it didn’t bother me & they kind of make me feel sexy & powerful because it reminded me of what I can do! I never used bio oil & they have shrunk & aren’t very noticeable now. It will be 4 years next year & I still have regular check ups & MRI’s to see if the arthritis has spread anywhere, I still have some in my lower back but nothing severe & so far everything’s been great so I just have to hope it won’t come back. I must just say that I am so grateful to our NHS & the doctors & nurses who did & still look after me, we tend to moan a lot about the NHS a lot in England but they really helped change my life. If you or someone you know is going through something similar feel free to comment any questions you may have.

Thanks for reading & I’ll see you soon (if not next week then MERRY CHRISTMAS OR not if you don’t celebrate it & HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR)

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