My Sports Hernia Experience

 I have never blogged before but after a complicated injury that has set me back from running marathons and dropping out of my target Boston Qualification race, to my long and frustrating road to recovery, I felt compelled to write about my experience.  More importantly to spread the word about the lack of information on doctors who specialize in groin injuries in hopes to help a fellow athlete that may be facing the same injury.  I am an avid runner and have completed several half and full marathons. In August while I was in mid marathon training for my third full marathon in 2012, I developed dull ache in my left lower abdomen/ groin area. When the symptoms first came on it was a gradual onset and there wasn't a notable day that it occurred.  It only bothered me with physical activity such as running.  The strange thing about it was that it would be uncomfortable for a mile or two and would then disappear allowing me to continue training for several weeks. However, it got to the point where that discomfort level increased significantly eventually causing me to reduce and alter my marathon training and eventually causing me to drop out of the ING Hartford marathon at mile 9 which would have been my 6th full marathon. I scheduled my first of many frustrating orthopedic appointments to confirm my suspicion. I just knew that I had a Sports Hernia though I hoped for the best. A sports hernia is usually classified as long standing groin discomfort or pain and is NOT actually a hernia but more of a tear in the groin where our adductors, rectus abdominals , and external obliques all join near the pubic area.  A Sports Hernia is often called Athletic Pubalgia or even Gilmore's groin.   It is unbelievable to me that so many doctors have little understanding of what a Sports Hernia really entails and that they have little informations as to who to send you to. Due to my rising frustration I took to the internet in hopes to find a groin expert.  I spent several days  research hoping I could find somebody local that could help me out.  One day I got lucky as to how I Google searched the topic and found a blog by an athlete by the name of Pat Dwyer blogging about his very similar experience with Athletic Pubalgia.  He in fact had the surgery for Athletic Pubalgia in Massachusetts out of UMASS. Great stuff! I googled the orthopedic doctor he used (Dr. Brian Busconi) and immediately came to the realization that this doctor and a local general surgeon had several publications related to athletic pubalgia. I made my appointment with Busconi. He was two hour commute but worth every mile. He conducted X-rays of the area and read my MRI and determined that I had slight cam impingement in my hip as well as Athletic Pubalgia and believed my hip issue was asymptomatic.  Dr. Brian Busconi attempted an injection into the groin and I was told to rest (once again). I rested and continued ongoing PT, stretching, ART, core strength but no relief just decreasing fitness and increasing frustration. I made the call back to Busconi who recommend me seeing the general surgeon. Dr. Demetrius Litwin, the same guy in the publications and exactly the fella I read about in the blogs. Very recently I met up with general surgeon Demetrius Litwin at UMASS Memorial Hospital. At first I was very uneasy about the whole deal because researching the internet and running forums, it appeared that there were two ways that doctors fix this type of injury.  These methods were either through an arthroscopic mesh overlay procedure and open surgery suture technique.  From my findings, many athletes were having bad outcomes with the arthroscopic procedure and later had to go under the knife again.  Based on my research , there were only three doctors that people talked about who operated via open surgery.  Dr. William Meyers located in Philidelphia (the guru in Sports Hernia surgeries), Dr. William Brown out of California, and Dr. Muschaweck in Germany.  After calling Dr. William Meyers office (where all NHL, NFL players go) I learned that he no longer deals with insurance companies.  My luck was beginning to run out. It all came down to my visit with Dr. Litwin and the technique he used for his procedures.    I'm happy to say that Dr. Litwin along with Dr. Busconi are the right men for the job. Before Dr. Meyers worked in Philadelphia he recruited Dr. Litwin to work side by side with him. He uses the same open procedure as Meyers and doesn't believe in using mesh for this type of injury. They consider it pelvic floor repair. I am finally scheduled for surgery on February 4th and it is truly exciting to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel and I cant wait to get back to the competitive addiction within sport I have grown to love.