My story

I was diagnosed at 9 months. I inherited MED from my mum, who has had 5 hip replacements and 2 shoulders. And is now awaiting a knee replacement. It's been very hard living with this, it causes pain everyday and I'm on a lot of pain meds. I have my hip replaced after having my daughter as child birth and pregnancy are two of the biggest causes of joint deterioration in women with med. I'm 26 which is very young for a 1st right total hip replacement.

Mad a child I was limited to not doing any form of physical education due to the condition and still if I wasn't to do anything to keep fit swimming is the best choice!

It's been hard and I have it worse than my mum, med is 50/50 inherited so my daughter has been tested but me and my mum are in the rare 25% who don't know what caused the mutation in our Dna that means we have MED so my daughter will have to be monitored as she grows, so far she seems ok.

MED has affected my spine (curvature), flat feet, lack of hip joints, knee malformations which look to become arthritis as I age, as well as being short (4ft8"). It's limited my options with work as well as parenting which I find increasingly hard and the lack of support out there for parents with a condition like I have.

Still I will continue to make people aware and answer questions, I'm very open and believe the only way to get more done for MED is talking, sharing experiences and coming together to share and help each other too!

Thank you for reading this.

Sats

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