I was born with my thigh bones disconnected from my pelvis…this required me to wear a soft brace around the top of my legs and hips for the first 6 months of my life so that my femur and hip socket joint would grow together properly.
This issue is called Hip Dysplasia.
(It’s when your hip socket doesn’t completely cover the ball of your thigh bone, causing your hip joint to easily dislocate. Most people who have this are born with it. Doctors usually check for it in newborns, and during each well-baby visit until they’re 1 year old.)
I was my mother’s first child and as you can imagine this was concerning and stressful to her not to mention an extra hassle while caring for me I’m sure.
My mom never shared this with me for at least the first 30 years of my life and if she did it was just played down with only partial information. I’ve never shared this before either and most people in my own family don’t even know.
Why was it never shared? Relatively speaking this is not that big of an issue. After all, I have friends I grew up with, people I came in contact with, and clients I have served that were born with much more extreme physical issues. People born unable to walk let alone run. People born unable to see or hear. Other People who ended up in full-body casts and more.
This is how I’m sure my mother felt as well. After all, what’s so special about our experience especially as it compares to so many harder things that others face?!
Yet a week ago I felt inspired to tell my story to one person and it impacted them immensely in a positive way to my surprise!
Friends, do you ever avoid telling your stories because they don’t seem special or unique enough? Do you avoid sharing your personal experiences because they don’t seem relatively significant compared to what other people share? It can almost feel like a contest for who can come up with the best hard-luck story, right?
I woke up inspired to tell you that it doesn’t need to be that way. Your stories are valuable to someone else. It’s not a contest and even if the whole world or even a large number of people in the world don’t need your stories someone does and I guarantee it’s more than just a few souls too!