Appointment today

Today was a pretty critical day, and one that was much needed. I drove to Westboro, MA for another follow up appointment with the doctor who did my surgery. I had a lot of questions and really wanted to make it worth it for both my physical and mental well being. Having done no running the past couple weeks (and feeling that reality drifting farther away) I've been in a very precarious mental state where I barely even allow myself to think about running. I knew I needed a fresh boost of confidence, so I saved little bit of hope that I'd leave this appointment feeling better. 

The drive down was hectic with lots of traffic but I somehow made it right at 9:30. I was stuck at a snails pace for about 45 minutes before the 93 junction. A cop had pulled someone over right at the ramp, making an already hairy merge even slower. No doubt I made up a lot of time after that cleared away. Massachusetts drivers coming out of a traffic jam, everyone is cruising at 81. It's easy to fit in when you've got somewhere to go and don't have a lot of time to get there. 

Shortly after arriving, Dr. Busconi saw me through the receptionists room and called me over to the door himself. It was nice to be recognized but it also made me feel like I've been seeing a lot of him in the last 6 months. Once we were in the exam room we both spoke quickly and efficiently on why I'm still experiencing pain while running and what I need to do about it. Lots of things were said, and I knew they'd come at rapid fire pace so I wrote them all down as we were talking. This is amazing advice by the way and something everyone should be doing at the doctors, unless maybe it's a more routine visit. People have told me to bring paper and pen into doctor visits before but this might be the first time I've actually listened. Shout out to Ali for that one. 

First thing he noticed was some pretty extreme tightness of my adductors. I need to be more aggressive with deep tissue massage along there. The main reason I'm feeling pain while running is because my adductors are basically pulling on the repaired site when I go to extend my leg. He assured me this is normal with this surgery and that once you work through that tightness the pain will go away, however long that takes. Feeling my adductors myself I could tell a huge difference between my left and right side with my left being way tighter. I don't know how I didn't notice this before. I also need to keep breaking up the scar tissue on the incision site. That's still far from 100% too. 

Regarding my right side, he said it is normal to experience pain there, but hard to say if there is a tear right now. Interestingly, he said 12% of patients who get sports hernia surgery find out later (once they've recovered and their "worst" side is fixed) they find that their opposite side is actually more bothersome than they initially thought and end up requiring the same repair but that side. When I asked him further about it, he said my MRI showed inflammation on my right, but no tearing like on my left. Good enough for me and I'll leave it at that for now.

To address the inflammation and potentially help with pain and recovery, he gave me two cortisone injections in my pubic bone area. No lies here, it was definitely painful. I squeezed my eyes shut and gritted my teeth to avoid any kind of twitch or movement while he was giving me the shot. 

Here's my plan for the immediate future, suggested by the doc:

Deep tissue massage on both adductors from SC (Shawn Crotto) at least once a week, hopefully twice. Not sure of his schedule these days.

Resume PT next week

Start light running in 10 days

Slowly build up over the next couple weeks

When might I be back running to my normal standards? I have a new sense of hope that I'll be back running relatively consistently by late summer. If you'd asked me that yesterday, well, I'd have given you a completely different answer. I need to find a way to bottle today's positivity and drink a few tablespoons a day. 

Buddha elephant agrees. 

AH