KC

I first started having pain in 2015. I thought it was a dance injury as I am a highland dancer. However after several doctor appointments and tests, they told me I had Perthes disease in my right hip. Perthes Disease stops blood from going to the hip bone which causes the bone to get sick, break apart, and often changes the bone shape.

I saw Dr. Mulpuri for the first time in the spring of 2016. He looked at my x-rays and told me I needed surgery to guide my recovery. I felt scared and cried a lot. He told me I would need to use crutches until my surgery. At first, I was really excited about getting crutches but after a while they got annoying – but at least I got really strong arms from using them!

I had to spend a total of 10 days at BC Children’s Hospital. My least favourite part was getting the laughing gas; it felt weird and when I woke up 4 hours had gone by even though it only felt like 2 seconds. I liked all the nice nurses, doctors, and volunteers at BC Children’s Hospital; my grade 3 teacher even visited me. I spent my time on the ward playing video games and having a Harry Potter movie marathon.

However, I dreaded the visits from the physiotherapists because they made me get out of the hospital bed. It hurt a lot but now I know it was good for me. Sometimes the nurses also gave me medicine that made me sick and that wasn’t fun.

I was on crutches for the summer but I was still able to go camping with my family and all my friends.  I even swam in Allouette Lake. I was able to start walking on my own just before I started grade 4 in September 2016. Walking was hard at first since I hadn’t walked on my own in almost 6 months.  Throughout the school year I couldn’t participate in gym and I couldn’t dance. But instead, I got to help younger kids learn to read during my gym time and I got to try musical theater instead of dancing and I loved it!

Dr. Mulpuri told me I could start running, jumping and dancing again at the end of July 2017. I couldn’t stop smiling and felt like I wanted to scream and jump for joy, I also cried a little. I can’t wait to start dance lessons again in September. I wish I didn’t have to go through surgery again as the plate and screws in my hip need to be removed, but Dr. Mulpuri says it’ll be easy compared to the first surgery.

I often wished that this hadn’t happened to me because I couldn’t dance for a long time, but I’m braver and stronger than before. I’m grateful that Dr. Mulpuri and BC Children’s Hospital gave me to opportunity to dance again (and gave me dissolvable stitches!).