Hip / Knee / MRI Update

Today is exactly 2 months and nearly 9 weeks since my last run. And I'm barely any better than I was 7 weeks ago.

I went back to my sports medicine doctor about 10 days ago, and he seemed frustrated that I was there. I told him nothing was getting better. He was annoyed and said "Look, this might be better in 9 months or never..."

Ummm... What?

Sometime between "9 months" and "never" before I run again?

He thinks it's still all sacral-related (radiating through my hip and to my knee), and he may be right. But it was time for a 2nd opinion. Well, more like a 6th opinion because I'd already seen him, 3 different chiropractors (1 runner and 1 ART-trained triathlete), and 1 physical therapist.

Swimming buddy Julia recommended Dr. Margarita Sevilla. I knew that name, and I know that I've seen her at some local races.

So on Monday, I explained EVERYTHING to Dr. Sevilla (which now takes a long time to go through it all), and she was a little stumped. Because I can sit without pain, she knows it's not a disc issue. She prodded around and said it wasn't my ACL or MCL. She was surprised how EASILY I jumped on 1 leg on the left, and how I nearly collapsed when I did that on the right leg. She told me to keep up all PT exercises and the eccentric exercises that Dr. Folske (the ART Chiropractor) gave me.

First she had me get a few x-rays in her office so we could look at them right away. I Instagrammed these next 2 images:

"My insides." (Some people tweeted me that they were concerned about
what the image was going to be with a title like that.)


"Waiting to hear back to rule out a stress fracture in my femur (bottom of image)."

On Tuesday, I was told I didn't have a stress fracture.

Next step: MRI. So on Wednesday night, I put on a sexy open-back gown:

"MRI time. Please figure out what the f*ck is wrong with me."


"I don't think I'll tell them about my Prince Albert. This should be fun.... ;)"

Mom, do NOT Google "Prince Albert!" It's a joke! I'll explain it to you later.

I was in the MRI for 30 minutes, and they did 8 scans with over 210 images total. Here are a few of them:

Cross-section of my pelvic region.


Well what do we have here?!?....




I look like a deliciously marbled steak.


I'm not totally sure, but I think that's my full bladder.


A good close-up of the hip in question.

And here's a gif that I just posted on my tumblr page:

The black hole in the middle is the hole in my soul.

Dr. Sevilla got these images on Thursday afternoon, but I haven't heard back from her yet. She told me when we met on Monday that she's confident we'll have an answer soon. We'll see.

p.s. I never answered the question "Well what do we have here?!?" above. The answer was "testes." Those were my testes. You're welcome.