How It All Started

I was 25 years old when I was finally diagnosed with Hip Dysplasia. I never experienced any pain or problems with my hips as a child. The first I remember of any pain was when I was about 14 years old. It was really only when I was running, or walking for a long period that I would get the uncomfortable achy, and occasional sharp stabbing pain in my groin. I remember complaining to my mum after a couple of months, who then took me to the doctors to ask his opinion. I was told it was simply growing pains, and we accepted his explanation. Looking back it's quite funny, as lots of members of my family used to comment on my 'walk'! My nan in fact used to tease me by saying I should be sent to finishing school to learn to walk like a lady! She was always saying I should practise walking with a book on my head to stop my waddling. I wonder if my 'walk' had anything to do with my hips?
As time went on and I got older, the pains never went away, and I began to find it more painful in the winter than the summer, and despite really enjoying playing hockey I gave it up in my late teens. I then started aerobics (being inside seemed to make a difference) and swimming. I carried on as normal and got used to the pain, it was bearable so I just accepted it.
This carried on for years, until I was 23 and pregnant with my little boy. I was probably about 6 or 7 months pregnant when it got noticeably harder, which was no doubt down to the weight I was putting on. In total throughout my pregnancy I put on nearly 4 stone! Most of this was in the last few months when I was struggling with the pain. My son Daniel was shall we say 'rather large', just 1 ounce off a whopping 10lb! I ended up having to have an emergency caesarean as after 13 hours of labour they decided to do a scan to find out why things weren't progressing, to discover he was too big for my pelvis!
After Daniel was born and I was fully recovered I wasted no time in trying to shed some of the weight, I managed to lose around 2 & 1/2 stone and found my hip pain was decreasing. So I began to get on with my life again, and was loving being a mum!