“If I’d have gone through the NHS for my hip op I think I’d still be waiting now. So I’d still be in pain - and I’d still be doing less than half of my job. Thank God I had an Equipsme plan to fall back on.”
Cross-fitter Chelsea was only 33 when her hip started aching after workouts. Thinking it was a muscle strain she tried to power through – but found her symptoms getting worse. Luckily, her new Equipsme plan through work meant she found an orthopaedic consultant, and found herself undergoing hip surgery just weeks later.
Chelsea explains: “I’ve always been fit and active, including competing in cross-fit competitions, so I’m pretty used to the odd muscle strain - and I know how to look after myself. But I started to get a pain in my hip that just wouldn’t let up.
“It was right in my hip socket going deep into the groin - and I could feel it every time I moved my leg backwards. It was hands-down the worst pain I’ve ever been in. Normal pain killers weren’t doing anything, and I wasn’t getting any better. It got to the point I could barely operate – I couldn’t even walk my dogs, and I certainly couldn’t do my job properly.
Work impact
“I’m a security technician, which usually involves being on my feet doing personnel and vehicle checks. They had to swap me into a desk-based position where I was only doing maybe 50% of my actual job role. Fortunately, my company had just brought in this new health benefit from Equipsme - so I thought I might as well see if that could help.
“I went through the app and got an appointment to see a consultant fairly quickly. Because my policy was quite new I had to go through a few extra checks to make sure it wasn’t a pre-existing condition, which involved getting a note from my doctor, but that was the slowest bit of the process.
“The first thing the orthopaedic consultant did when I saw him was get some scans and images done to see what was happening. When the MRI results came back they showed a labral tear and an impingement in my hip. So basically instead of being smooth there was a lump on the bone that was catching on the cartilage and over time had caused it to tear away. I also had bursitis – inflammation of the fluid sacks that cushion the joint.
“The first step in my treatment plan was steroid injections. They told me that it might give me relief for anything from two weeks to 6 months. Unfortunately in my case it didn’t work, and the pain came back near to the two week mark. Back in the consultant’s office he told me my next best option was surgery.
Hip surgery
“It’s not something they do lightly, because clearly it’s pretty major surgery - but there wasn’t much alternative. I never thought I’d need a hip op in my early 30s, but in some ways it came as a relief because it meant at least they could actually do something and I might actually get my life back again.
“When I saw the hip surgeon, I knew I was in super-safe hands. He was an expert in the field and had dealt with this sort of injury before. He ordered a CT scan to get a 3D model of my hip to work from - and got me straight onto the surgery list.
“When it came down to it a few weeks later, I was a bit nervous. But everyone was just so lovely and really looked after me. I had my own room and I was the first one down to theatre in the morning, so by lunchtime I was all done and in recovery.
Getting better, quicker
“I’m so grateful to my employer that they invested in staff health and invested in the Equipsme plan as an employee benefit. I guess it makes sense, because it definitely is going to get me back to my normal role quicker.
“If I’d been waiting on the NHS I’d still be limping around in pain, now. It’s under so much stress as we all know, and at the end of the day a hip isn’t life or death situation – so I’d have just had to wait until they got round to me.
“Don’t get me wrong, the recovery from a hip op is a long old process – involving nearly 3 months off work hobbling around on crutches and a lot of hard work and physiotherapy. All of which I get under my Equipsme plan! But the surgeon said that within 6-9 months I should be back doing the active and mobile job I’m trained for, paid for and supposed to be doing. And in 12 months I should even be back to cross-fit!
“I can’t wait to get back to normal. In particular I’m looking forward to walking my dogs, and just being out and about in the countryside again. You don’t realise how valuable your mobility is until you don’t have it anymore - or how valuable just living without pain is. All I can say is that I owe Equipsme a really big thank you for getting me sorted out and helping me on the road to recovery.
Equipsme impact
“I honestly don’t know where I’d have been if I didn’t have the Equipsme plan. It doesn’t bear thinking about. Every single step of the way they’ve been so quick and easy to deal with. I just feel so incredibly lucky that it kicked in just a few weeks before all of this started.
“I’m living proof that you just don’t know what’s around the corner – even if you’re young, fit and healthy you don’t know what’s going to happen. Having something like Equipsme to turn to is worth its weight in gold.”
