I had congenital left hip dysplasia; meaning I was born without a hip socket. I had the ball part of my hip but not the cup that holds your hip together. My first surgery was when I was about 6 weeks old. It failed and I was put through many other surgeries and casts. The surgeries left me with 2 scars; one that goes from my back down to the middle of my thigh on the outside and the other from the side of my stomach down to just the outside of my groin.

One of my biggest surgeries was when I was in 3rd grade. From what I understand, my femur was cut and turned and shoved up making my left leg shorter than my right which turned into a limp. I still have the limp when I get tired or am in pain. As you guessed, that surgery failed. A few years after that, my doctor fired me. He was having nightmares about me and called my hip "the hip from hell". I couldn't blame him though, his wife passed away shortly before and he could no longer handle my case anymore.

When I was 17 years old I had a total hip replacement. It made my legs even and once I was recovered from the surgery I was pain free. Before I was in pain everyday. Even school became hard to do without coming home in tears because of the pain. The hip replacement changed my life and I was able to get my LPN licence last December.

My hip never stopped me from being happy. I was never upset with my condition. In fact, it made me realize what I wanted to be when I grew up and I never stopped fighting for what I wanted. Because of the amazing nurses that helped before, during and after my surgery I realized that I wanted to give back to those that were there for me, even if it wasn't those specific people that helped me.

The goal of my story is not to make you feel bad for me but for you to take the negative in your life and change it to be something positive.