Help Ellie with costs to recover from hip surgery

TL;DR: 4 surgeries is a lot, and I’ve recently realized that there are more to come. I need support from my community.

I’ve been in recovery for over two years, and will need another year after this surgery to heal. Adjusting to my new body and its limitations has been challenging emotionally, physically, and financially. Surgery is costly, and there are so many extra costs that I didn’t foresee: house cleaning, gym & pool memberships, physical therapy, grocery delivery, massage, pedicures, and acupuncture are all needed to support my healing.

For surgery number 5, I’d like to purchase a ready-made meal delivery service for the first 2 or 3 months. It will make life so much easier.

No amount is too little or too much; everything helps. It’s hard for me to ask for help, and I know I need to. I’ve spent so much unforeseen money from my prior surgeries. If I can get through this one without adding debt, it would be such a relief.

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Hi! I'm Ellie and I have developmental hip dysplasia on both my hips.

I was diagnosed in 2021 after 3 years of intense right hip pain that left me with a torn right labrum, searing hip flexor pain, and back pain so intense I couldn't breathe. I had 4 surgeries on my right side between December 2021 and June 2023 to stabilize, repair, and get my joint in a place that feels stable, and less painful. There have been many challenges along the way: 2 hip fractures, adductor pain, jaw dislocation (fun stuff!), and so much more.

Early in 2023, my left hip started giving me the same pain signals as my right had in 2019. I went back to my surgeon, Dr. Zmugg, at Kaiser Oakland to get his opinion. We evaluated the dysplasia and decided to wait until the right hip felt better. After Dr. Z did a right hip arthroscopy in June 2023, we spoke about the damage he saw on my right hip: cartilage was starting to deteriorate. This alarmed me. Periacetabular osteotomy is a hip preserving surgery, that means, I get to keep my own joint. Vs a total hip replacement, where hardware replaces your joint. PAO is only an option as long as there is no arthritis in the joint. Cartilage damage is the first sign of progression to arthritis.

I knew that I didn't want to wait for my left side to be "fixed". My right hip was so bad in 2021 I could barely walk, sitting was unbearable, and my hip was always inflamed, even when I was on antiinflamatories. I don't want my left hip to get to that point. Recovering the right has been a hard journey. I'm feeling very strong in both my right and left, I'm hoping this will make recovery less hard. But I'm also not getting younger, and this surgery requires a lot of bone regrowing.

With surgery number 5 on the horizon, November 7, 2023, I have decided to ask our community for help. After my left PAO, I will be on crutches, non-weight bearing, for 6 weeks. I'll spend 90% of my time in bed, resting. I'll be off work for 3 weeks. It is a lot to ask my partner, Max, to take care of me 24/7 for 6+ weeks. He'll be helping me in and out of bed, to the bathroom, and managing my ice and food for at least 4 weeks. And driving me everywhere for at least 6 weeks. That is a lot.

Chronic conditions take many spoons , surgery, recovery, and every day tasks take spoons. Max and I don't have enough spoons to do all of it once more. We appreciate the help and support of everyone, but even having physical help doesn't solve for all of the things we need to cover.

I've decided to reach out to our large community. We've met people all over the world, near and far, have traveled to them, hosted them, met them all around. Some live close, others far. But the thing is, when someone is in your heart, they are never too far away. We haven't gotten married, we're not having children, this is my ask: please, help us out during my recovery.

Any donation helps, $10, $50, $100... The sky is the limit. Hopefully we can raise enough money to cover some of the expenses that we can't cover ourselves.

Here are some examples of what we'd spend the money on:

You might wonder, why? Why don't you just do these things? It's common to think that. I thought we could do it on our own too. 4 times. Let me explain:

Ready-meal service: This saves trips to the store (which saves spoons), it also saves time preparing ingredients and meals (again, saving spoons), it allows me to be more self-sufficient to heat up food in the microwave (so I don't have to rely on Max 100% of the time when I'm hungry). It also doesn't involve having to order take-out, which gets expensive and isn't as nutritious, or relying on friends to do a meal train or come cook for us (it doesn't use up other people's time, so we can invest it elsewhere).

Cleaning: The physical effort of cleaning the house is too much for one person alone, especially when they are taking care of me all the time.

Physical therapy: In an ideal world, I would do my PT every day. But as time passes, I find it harder to progress. Being able to pay for PT sessions sets me up for a successful recovery.

Gym/Pool access: Paying for a monthly gym membership allows me to start slow with recovery (water walking). After surgery I'll have to relearn how to walk, so access to water is wonderful.

Acupuncture and Massage: Lying in bed for 3-6 weeks does a number on the body, especially when your pelvic floor and glute muscles move into a slightly new position. Being able to get acupuncture and massage speeds up healing and keeps scar tissue at bay. I have pics of the scar tissue on my right side that was cleared during my last surgery. Would love to avoid that again.

Pedicure: I can't explain how bad feet get when there is no weight on them for a few days. Pedicures would help clean up dead skin and improve blood flow.

Grocery Delivery: Getting groceries is an all day event when you are not very mobile. It will take a long time before I can walk long distances and move in the way needed to lift and carry groceries in a time efficient way. In the past, I’ve used grocery runs as my PT. Resourceful of me, yes! However, if I can do things I love for recovery rather than things that need to happen it will bode well for my emotional health as well as my physical health. If I can choose to walk to the lake and people watch or visit friends with stairs and kids instead of going grocery shopping, that would be wonderful.

The goal is to raise money to cover the first 8 weeks. Ideally, we'd raise enough to cover my full recovery so that I can ensure it goes smoothly. Any extra, should I be so fortunate, will go towards past medical bills.

The other goal is to help share how I'm doing and possibly get some encouraging, loving messages from people. Hearing from you all over the course of the year is so important, especially in the middle and later months of recovery. It’s been a long few years, and I have another long year ahead. I need community support to do this.

Thank you all! I love you.