Adventurous Sally enjoying life after major surgery at Shropshire hospital

Sally Gabriel is marking Hip Dysplasia Awareness Month by highlighting her own experience of living with the condition and sharing how surgery she had at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH), near Oswestry, has changed her life for the better.

Hip dysplasia is a condition affecting the hip joint where the socket portion does not fully cover the ball portion.

The 37-year-old expat, who now lives in Whistler, Canada, but lived in Wrexham for a number of years, was diagnosed with bilateral hip dysplasia at the age of 28, after spending most of her life suffering constant pain and missing out on activities she enjoyed such as hiking, mountain biking and snowboarding.

She said: “I was born to be an active person, extreme sports have always appealed to me but I wasn’t able to enjoy those sorts of activities because of the constant pain I was in, which progressed as the day went on.

“My left hip became a huge problem and as I was walking to work one day, I felt severe pain and was kind of stuck for a while.

"It was after this moment that my left hip became achy and got worse throughout the day, this was about a year and a half before I had the eventual surgery.

“One of my favourite activities is hiking but that started to have lasting consequences, for example, my hips would seize up for a number of days afterwards.

"I had thought about how much longer I could live with this constant pain and the high probability of alternative surgery in the form of a total hip replacement at a relatively early age, due to the abnormal biomechanics of my hip joint, accelerating the onset of arthritis.”

Despite feeling anxious about the prospect of having major surgery, Sally decided enough was enough and chose to have a triple pelvic osteotomy on her left hip, under the care of Nigel Kiely, consultant orthopaedic surgeon.

She said: “I was under absolutely no illusions; a triple pelvic osteotomy is major surgery.

"It’s where they cut the three bones, which make up your pelvis around the hip socket to free the hip socket, and then rotate the socket, so that it covers more of the femoral head. Three large screws are then inserted to hold the hip socket into its new position.

“Initially, I had declined this surgery because of the severity of it. However, I’ve not looked back since having it done. It’s totally transformed my life for the better. I can’t thank Nigel Kiely and RJAH enough for that.

“Since the surgery, I no longer have the constant ache in my hip or the pain. The catching sensation was there for a while afterwards but seems to have settled.

“I’m now extremely active and regularly enjoy activities such as mountain biking and snowboarding. I certainly push my body and hips athletically. I don’t think my quality of life would be this good had I opted out of the surgery.”

Mr Kiely added: “It’s fantastic to hear how well Sally is doing following on from her initial surgery all these years later.

“Hip dysplasia is a common but often unrecognised cause of hip pain in younger adults and can lead to early arthritis. A pelvic osteotomy, the surgery to treat the condition, is a major procedure, which is only undertaken at a few centres in the UK.

“I’m immensely proud to be part of a specialist team that can help patients with this type of problem.”