Bilateral acetabular dysplasia. I was born this way, with both hips affected by shallow sockets and abnormal growth. It's not an incredibly rare condition, in fact one in every thousand babies turns up with some form of it, albeit less severe. It's not a new thing either, Hippocrates was describing it back in 300 BC days. For me, it's the way that things have been and for most of my life I didn't even know that there was anything wrong.
My parents told me from a young age that there was something going on with my hips as a baby, but I wasn't clear on what the something was. I knew that I had been in some sort of hip harness for most of my first year, that I had worn ugly baby shoes to help correct the issue, I thought that the problem was solved.
I had no idea that other kids didn't hurt when they sat cross-legged on the floor, or that you weren't supposed to be so sore after riding your horse. Adults complained about it, so that seemed reasonable to me.
As an adult I decided to try out running. The themed 5K was coming into popularity and I was there for it. I grabbed the couch to 5K app like everyone else and started training. But I started to hit some strange walls, I was hurting after every run. I was sore the day after every time. I didn't understand why people said that this felt so good when I felt so bad, and friends kept insisting that I had to run further to find my runners high, that's when I signed up for the 10K that changed everything. In October of 2014 I showed up at Moonlight Beach unprepared for a 10K that I had no idea I would barely finish. I ran, then slowed, then walked, then showed up last at that finish line to kind friends who saved me a medal. It was humiliating, and I had no idea why I couldn't rally when I had been running in preparation. When I called my Dad to talk about it on the way home he dropped what he thought I had known all along: I didn't have the right working parts to accomplish this.
All of my life up until this point I thought that I was just a little behind, less athletic, not as coordinated. As it turns out I am literally ill equipped to handle the things that I am going out to do. I wasn't sure how to feel or what to do. I spent time mulling it over, and when a very active friend extended the invitation to go on a casual, uphill hike, I said yes. I said yes and I kept saying yes.
I realized that I wanted more out of my life than "I can't do that, here is my valid excuse" and that means that I have to start working for it. I didn't get serious about it right away, relying on others to lead the way out of my comfort zone, but this past year has been an exercise in pushing myself to prepare for more. I've started hiking regularly, and not just nice nature walks, but things that I find challenging. I often do it with assistance of trekking poles because the downhill portion is often the thing that will dislocate me fastest if I don't have support, but I'm still doing it. I've started doing Pilates regularly to strengthen the muscles around my hips and help me to rely on more than just my imperfect bone structure. With the support of good friends I've started down a path that I hope will lead me to more.
Next year I'm hoping to do something I didn't think was possible: I'm going to walk the Camino de Santiago from Porto to Santiago de Compostela.
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