Margaux Farrell

In 2012 I qualified to swim at the Olympic games. I am a dual citizen of France and the Olympic trials were in March. After making the team I felt that my back was tight. I assumed the long flight and intensity of the competition had resulted in a pulled muscle. I took a week off after the meet and then went back to training.

I was in the weight room doing hang cleans when I felt something weird. Instantly my back seized up, and within the next few hours, I was limping around with tears in my eyes. The trainers and the doctors at my university said I had pulled a muscle and that we simply had to do PT and some localized injections.

The next few months were some of the most painful months of my life. Due to the fact that I would be competing in the Olympics I could not take any time off to rest, and I was told that my pain would not subside until I rested. I could not take time off because that meant jeopardizing my chance at racing in London.

So, from March to August I had a series of injections and was taking medication to get through the pain. Five days before my race I had nine injections in my spine. I was petrified that I would not be able to swim, I did not want to vocalize just how bad the pain was and I tried to hide my limping.

Thank God that on the day of my race the stars aligned and I was able to race. I got a bronze medal in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay. I was overjoyed but still consumed with pain. From August until February, I went to doctor appointment after doctor appointment. I had countless MRI's and the conclusion was that there was a cyst on my spine that could be where my pain was coming from.

However, the pain had now been moving from my lower back into my leg. The pain felt like my leg was locked up and I could never get relief. I told my first spine doctor that and he said that he could not look into that because it had nothing to do with the spine and that would be a separate appointment. This same doctor then told me he initially thought was cyst was a tumor, but it in fact was not (nice of him to let me know). I then had to wait two months to go see a neurologist and a tumor specialist.

The tumor specialist told me with certainty that the cyst was chasing my pain, but still was not acknowledging my leg pain. This tumor specialist told me that I should get a second opinion because the surgery he was recommending was on my spine and that was a major procedure.

My pediatrician has followed my swimming career and suggested that I go to HSS because they were the best for athletes. I called HSS and explained my situation and my life as an athlete. Within a couple weeks I had an appointment with Dr. Sama, a spine specialist. Dr. Sama looked at the cyst but was not convinced that was the root of the problem.

I told Dr. Sama about my leg pain and so he ordered a hip MRI. When the results came back he told me, "I am not a hip specialist but you have a massive tear in your hip.... and that might be a better place to start instead of your spine."

From there I was seen one week after by Dr. Kelly, the hip specialist. He confirmed the tear and talked me through my options but ultimately telling me I needed surgery. My first appointment with Dr. Sama was on February 14th, 2013, I had surgery on my hip on March 28th, 2013. Within six weeks HSS diagnosed my problem and fixed it. The other hospital I had gone to not only made me wait for months at a time but they disregarded my athletic career, were not all on the same page and essentially going to perform a very serious surgery when there was another underlying problem.

My recovery was intense, and because I had my tear for a year without knowing about it, the damage was extensive. However, I went back to swimming, and though I recently retired from the sport, I did it at a high level for a year. Today, I can do all of the things I love to do, including running (and I WILL run a marathon one day). I am careful to listen to my body but I am miles ahead of where I was two years ago.

I will forever be grateful to HSS and the work that Dr. Sama and Dr. Kelly did for me. The doctors and the staff at HSS from the top to the bottom are amazing. I felt like I was so much more than a patient, I was more than an athlete, I was a human being.