Pauline Morris, a retired teacher aged 69, from Airedale began with pain in her hips around 15 years ago. The pain gradually worsened and in 2012 she decided she needed to do something about it.
Ms Morris went to her GP surgery, Dr Bance and Partners in Castleford, to seek help and advice about her painful condition. She received physio to begin with; after this didn’t work she then began to have steroid injections in order to help relieve some of the pain from her hips. Neither of these treatments helped sufficiently, so she went back to see her GP and was told she would need both hips replacing.
“I wasn’t surprised by this diagnosis,” Pauline says. “I just hoped they would stop the pain.”
Ms Morris was then referred to Spire Methley Park Hospital for a consultation with orthopaedic consultant surgeon, Mr Aaron Ng.
“Mr Ng was so reassuring at my initial consultation and all the way through the journey. He made me feel safe and that I would be in good hands. He gave me a lot of confidence.”
Pauline had both her hips replaced in 2013; she had the left hip operated on in April and the right in September. Speaking about her operations she said, “Everything was fully explained to me, so I felt no fear. All the staff were wonderful.”
Pauline’s life has changed a lot since 2012; she is without pain and can enjoy some of her hobbies such as walking and swimming again. Pauline can now do her own shopping, drive, look after her pet cat and is even looking at returning to do some supply teaching again.
She says, “Everything I do now is remarkable as I was unable to do so many things before due to the pain. My advice to anyone in the same situation as myself would be please do not wait like I did, I did not want to leave my cat! Do it sooner rather than later, it has an amazing effect on your quality of life.”