Monday, August 27

Have I told you lately you were a cripple? No? Hm, weird.

After all of the problems I've had with my hip (several injuries, surgery, massage therapy, chiropractic care), I was talking with my mom today and she said "Oh... that reminds me.  When you were born, your hips were abnormal so we had to put an extra diaper somewhere to widen your hips."
 
She went on to compare me to a child in a third world country (i.e. "Without that extra diaper, you would look like a poor kid").
 
Battling my urge to scream at her, I simply said "You never told me that."
 
With mild interest, as though we just found out we both like popcorn: "Yeah I can't believe I never told you that."  Like it's just some trivia that might be useful to know a few years into my hip and back problems.
 
 
For that matter, the grand prize goes to my dad, who never mentioned it at all.

8 comments:

me said...

i'm not sure i understand. an extra diaper to widen your hips? where was the diaper placed? on top of the first diaper?

i can not picture this in the slightest.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand this either...
I think a drawn diagram is in order.

Unknown said...

This is actually somewhat common. It is called hip displaysia, and my daughter was born with it last year. Basically one or both hip sockets are underdeveloped due to one of various possible reasons (in our case, the baby being in the breech position, thus putting more stress on the hips). The hip can disclocate or move around loosely in the socket.

If caught in infancy (the doctor can feel a pop in the joint and can be verified with ultrasound/x-ray), there is now a brace that the baby wears for several weeks to promote proper development (legs in "spread eagle" position"). In most cases, this does the trick and no further treatment is necessary. The longer it goes without being treated, the more problems it can cause (pain, trouble walking, etc.), usually leading to surgery at some point (like TAB).

The double diaper technique can simulate the positioning of the brace, but it is not as effective.

Hope this helps. There are websites that can do a better job explaining than this (with pics).

Moderator said...

Oops. I just figured you knew about that. I would have told you otherwise.

Anonymous said...

Thank you Kenny!

Anonymous said...

You had to have surgery without that knowledge? You poor thing!

H said...

Wow, wonder if that's what's wrong with me?! Agh!

Los Cabron Negro said...

recently, at a BBQ my mother and father hosted, my mom casually dropped on me that I am 25% French. It went something like this "You are your one-quarter french AND Spanish. Pass the mayonnaise please". WTF is with these baby boomer freaks?