A 40-year-old runner, wife, and mother of two said her ability to walk was temporarily stolen from her, and she was left with a dreadful diagnosis of congenital hip dysplasia.
Carrie Bradshaw has always been a runner; she even grew accustomed to the aches and pains that come with it.
“I had been experiencing a little bit of nagging hip pain, enough where I would limp around for the rest of the day,” she explained.
Then one day, the pain stopped her in her tracks.
“My leg completely locked up and I had to limp home,” Bradshaw explained.
She was diagnosed with congenital hip dysplasia. Which means the hip socket is too shallow and causes trouble with the joint. Many people are diagnosed with this as babies. Some mild cases go undiagnosed into adulthood, when arthritis may show up in the hips at an early age.
“It makes you prone to developing arthritis in the hip,” explained Dr. Greg Stocks with the Texas Orthopedic Hospital. “Some folks may develop arthritis in their thirties, forties or fifties because they’ve had that hip dysplasia.”
How does it get fixed?
“The only way to really fix it is, it’s a pretty big surgery where it’s called an osteotomy. You actually cut the hip socket out of the pelvis and move it around so that there’s not too much stress on the hip where it will lead to arthritis. So it’s a big surgery, even bigger than a hip replacement. But, in some cases it’s the best approach,” Stocks said.
Despite that recommendation, Bradshaw tried with all her might to avoid surgery. She turned to pain management with physical therapy, anti-inflammatories and platelet rich plasma. Nothing worked.
Eventually she had surgery on each hip, five months apart, without knowing if she’d ever run races again.
“Recovery was tough, especially being a young mom with two young kids. I think that was probably the most challenging part other than the pain,” Bradshaw said.
Stocks said technology for these kinds of operations has improved to where patients can return to just about any activity within months of surgery.
“Now I’ve had three patients run full marathons, dozens of patients run half marathons, and I’m not seeing any problems with hip replacements,” Stocks said. “Kerry and I, for example, had a conversation about, you know, if running a lot of miles would cause wear out in 25 or 30 years instead of 35 or 40 years, is that an acceptable tradeoff? You know, if you had to have another surgery to put a new piece of plastic in and I think she fully understood that and thought, ‘sure, that’s a risk I’m willing to take personally.’”
Amazingly, Bradshaw returned to running six months after surgery. She even gifted her medal from her first race to Stocks.
“I feel like Dr. Stocks unlocked the second chapter in my running story. It’s totally different now, but I have such a greater appreciation for running,” Bradshaw said. “The whole time when I was navigating this, I was praying for a miracle, and it turns out he was my miracle and changed my life.”