I dove competitively all throughout middle and high school. Dealing with hip pain throughout those years I was still able to finish 3rd in the State my senior year. Diving throughout college now at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL with a club team and the college masters division, my hip pain came back with vengeance and forced me to not only discontinue practices, but it made me unable to focus on school, and I developed an obvious limp. A single x-ray was done and it was clear this was no normal athlete pain, I had been living with Perthes disease for a long time, most likely secondary to genetic nail-patella syndrome, making sense of a lot of the pain I had been dealing with for nearly a decade.
A local South Florida doctor referred me to Dr. Feldman, who gave me the hope that he could take away my pain AND allow me to stay active. I chose to work with Dr. Feldman who we together chose to aggressively treat the Perthes and reconstruct my femoral head, and 6 weeks later reconstruct my hip socket this last fall. 6 months after the last surgery I got my hardware removed, and not a day too soon: I now get to fulfill a dream of mine, and I will be competing in Nationals In Georgia in the first week of April.
Thank you to Doctor Feldman for not only taking away my pain, but allowing me to not just live a normal life, but thrive as an athlete and get me to a place where I can compete as a diver in Nationals my senior year of college. Living with Perthes is not easy, and it sure does force you to be strong, but I thank God for Dr. Feldman and my therapists for doing what it took to get me to a place where I can live pain-free again, and challenge myself and thrive as an athlete to stay the active, healthy, young woman I strive to be.
