An unknown injury that put the 2012-2013 season on hold

It was just 5 months into my first training season that hit me. Just a side stitch at a 10k race. Nothing more nothing less. It was hurting, I couldn't finish well, my time was off. "Just a side stitch, it will go away" I thought. Then it came back again at a sprint triathlon race two months later, and again at my first half-distance and again at some of the interval training sessions and again at the age-group Nationals.

Yet another race in pain.
Holding my right side, still thinking
I am having a running stitch!

I could race through it, still win races but I was in pain and not able to fully throw myself into the battle. What the heck was it?! I would stretch regularly, I would take care of my diet and drink plenty of water, I was careful with what I was eating before a race or a training session. Yet that pain, a sharp stabbing knife into my right (and later left) abdomen, symetrically across the middle-line and laterally between the rib cage and the pelvis would come again and again nearly immobilizing any running movement!

The pain started sporadically throughout my first season then it became more persistent. I had myself checked to anything you could possibly imagine: numerous blood tests, pelvic, abdominal, and trans-vaginal ultrasounds (for endometriosis or cysts), colonoscopy (for colitis or intestinal inflammation), doppler of the abdomen (for possible blood clots), MRI (for soft-tissue damages or hernias). Everything was clean. I followed a physical therapy with three dry-needling sessions to release any trigger points of my abdominal muscles with no success. I had steroidal injections into my abdominal wall. I went to sports med physicians and pain specialists, I was even applying a strong anti-inflammatory cream on my belly for 2 months. Still no success. The pain would be there every time I was attempting to even jog 100m!

I stopped racing, I completely stopped running and I was just cycling and swimming through my entire second season. The pain was so severe it would get me even when I was walking and sometimes when I was cycling. I was desperate, I was in pain, nobody could help me. Most docs said that I had to
stop running and competing for the rest of my life. It was the most devastating year ever! Lots of time and money spent to hospitals, lots of agony and negative thoughts. I would wake up every morning, put my running shoes on and think "..maybe the pain will go away today..maybe I ll be able to run and race some day again." But no .. the pain was there, day in day out for a whole year and a half !!!

It took a very skilled and experienced massage therapist, Nathan Henderson, who listened to me and worked on me methodologically, step by step into my injury to figure out what the problem was!