Anyone ever had a "Sports Hernia" aka: "Sportsman's hernia", "Gilmore's groin", or &quot

I'm at about 6-7 weeks right now. I actually feel quite good. The left side SH repair, which was straightforward, is essentially pain free with virtually no reminders that I had the repair except a little pain at the incision. The right side, which was like a minefield, is pretty good too. The only real reminder that I had the repair + old hernia re-repair is some 'hot-spot' type irritation after intensive PT sessions. I'm on a stationary bike now, can walk pain free, have gotten a lot of my flexibility back, and am just progressing into some more therapy to get me back on skates, skis, bikes, and in the gym.

Although I have to admit, I'm always waiting for that "Oh fu*k" moment where I push too hard and end up back at square 1.

Hi guys!

I am really sad right now. I had a ultrasound today and the doctor did not find anything. She said that I might have a hernia anyway(I laid down under the exam, not so good from what I have heard if you want to see small hernias).

I have so much pain in a really big area maybe 12 cm diameter in both sides of the groin,the MRI saw two small 4 cm hernias(bi-lateral) but said that he wants me to do PT before surgery.

I want to hear how you cope with this mentally, I have always pain and if it wasn’t for my family (wife and two children) I don’t know what would happen. My friends and brothers thinks that I am \"weak” and that I should do the surgeries and just go on with my life(they think that it is just normal hernias) but it isn’t that simple, which I think you all know…

I have always been the best athlete among my friends(captain in my soccer-team and so on) but now I cant do shit and my way of socialize has only been with sports (and that has been wonderful) but now when my friends go hiking or play soccer,floorball or run together I cant go with them! I cant even help them move! I fell so sad… And at work (I run my own construction company) I have always pain and I fear that it is gonna be this way forever. Please tell me how you have felt during this injury, mentally etc… And how your friends and family treated you. I have always been my younger brothers hero(I have three) but now they don’t respect me and think I am strange,If I do play some soccer (with my little son I

And my biggest fear is that something is gonna happen with my sexual ability when I do have surgery, because I have waited so long to get the diagnosis and now it is to much scar tissue and shit.

As always excuse me for my poor English.

Carpenter, so sorry to hear about your situation. I'm living through my older brother's hell with this. I see his pain in missing out on the things he loves to do. Life is tough enough without missing out on the things that give you the most pleasure.

Sorry that your family isn't supportive. Sounds as if they don't even know you.

My brother has been injured with this #%$@#%#@$ for over a year. I tell him that everything will taste sweeter when he is able to get back to soccer and running. We're going from the US to Munich (Dr. Muschaweck) this summer and hope to get him healthy again.

Muschaweck says that if this is "sportsman's groin" it can only be repaired thru surgery. We'll find out one way or another. I hope you can do the same.

Carpenter,

It is very tough mentally. But I can tell you that I have shown improvement through physical therapy without surgery. However, I have had at least two setbacks. I also have some hip problems, My groin seems to be showing improvement, but I have a lot of hip pain.

I still have doubts that I can heal without surgery. I could barely walk three weeks ago, but I'm much better now. I stretch/do P.T. almost two hours a day so that I can walk easier. I'm going to a hip specialist on Thursday since I may have a hip impingement and a torn labrum.

I can ride a stationary bike, walk, and do physical therapy -- so I guess that is how I get through this right now mentally; some people can't do much at all. Also, my groin has improved enough so that I can do an exercise drill with a soccer ball -- which seems to be helpful to my hip and groin. I go watch my old soccer team play on Sundays... it is sad that I can't play anymore, but I like hanging out with them and watching the games.

My situation:

I was running 40-45 miles per week for about three years, nothing earth shattering, over time I could feel my lower abdominals and adductors become very sore. Thought it was a weak core, muscle imbalances...all those buzz words. Did core work ,rested, long term motrin....nothing. I was fit and kept running through it. Next, the pain radiated to by pubic bone, then the fun began. The pain was agonizing at times, I was misdiagnosed with osteitis pubis......got cortizone shot (into pubic bone), lazer therapy, chirpractor, checked for leg length disrepency, check for traditional hernia, prolotherapy (which allowed me to at least work and play with my kids), orthodics, physical therapy, massage therapy, rolfing..............anything you can think of I tried for about 1 year. My search brought me to a websight in Australia which reffered me to this one which led me to Dr. Cattey. I had bi-lateral repair in January and was running 6 weeks later. No pain now, can do sit-ups, pull ups again for first time in 2 years......What I have discovered is the possible reason why my sports hernia developed which is a condition called hallux limitus. In my opinion, if you are landing improperly and/or not dispersing the impact of running throughout your body you will be prone to this injury, at least for people like me that aren't running a crazy amount of miles like I was. My trunk was impacting all/most of the forces generated by running. Dr. Cattey was excellent and well worth the trip. I was/am one of those anti-surgery guys. I feel we are quick to jump to surgery, but it my case, Dr Cattey gave me my life back. Good luck to you guys

I'm seven days out from surgery with Meyers (bilateral and adductor release)and feeling pretty damn good. Walking about a mile and a half each morning, and, while there has definitely been discomfort (especially sitting) I haven't had any severe pain.

Right now, I would say to Carpenter-go get fixed!. I'm a builder/carpenter also, and work was no fun when I had to always worry about my SH. I was also a soccer player until 15 months ago, which is how I did this. I'm an old guy (56), but I haven't given up on playing again for a few years. Maybe I'll have a major setback, but right now I really feel that I made the right choice. Meyers said I had two fairly major tears, and he cleaned up some other stuff. No way was I going to get better without surgery (I tried for 20 months) We'll see how the rehab goes (that 3 week protocol seems almost ridiculous for me-I'm expecting to do a slower version of the six week) I have the luxury to take as much time as I need, although I know I'll be lifting stuff at work in a month.

Thanks again to everybody here for all the great info over the last year and ahalf.

Jeff

CRNN,

My hip never really felt better with rest, unless it was like complete rest with no walking etc. Even just walking around thought would give me pain. Although my hip feels better since surgery, now that I have resumed biking my adductor is hurting again. My doc says he thinks it is a strain and that given time it will heal itself. I hope he's right because this is sure frustrating!

And as far as compensation goes, I agree with you. I have all sorts of new aches and pains, including pain in my other hip, and I think they are caused by my overcompensating. Good luck to you!

I was wondering how many of you who have had surgery with meyers got it covered by your insurance? and if so, what plan are you on and how did you go about doing that? My insurance does not want to pay.....also those of you with hip issues...what are the symptoms of a labral tear??

Hi guys,this is my first message in this forum. I ask help to those who had a surgery for the "sports hernia" injury.

This is my condition :

I had a chronic groin pain for more than a year,on the right side,with pain in the abdominal region,a little bit also in the adductor region. I've suspended all physical activity and started a conservative rehabilitation with stretching,laser therapy and postural exercise.This work didn't help me,so i made 2 visits with 2 orthopedic specialists. Both of them told me about this possible sportsman's hernia and after the clinic exams the diagnosis was complete. So i had the surgery(bilateral) to fix this problem 20 days ago. The surgeon uses the mesh tecnique . I started after a week a program of rehabilitation,now i have some walking,cycling,stretching (adductors,ileo-psoas),core stability and flexibility.

My pain is about the same that i had before the surgery. I know that i'm in the first post-operation phase,but i can't understand if i have to expect that the muscles and tendons pain will become lower in the next months or if there's something wrong with my situation.Anyone had the same situation?

Thanks a lot..

p.s.sorry for bad english!

I don't know what the symptoms of a labral tear are, to be honest. Sometimes, the labral tear is associated with a hip impingement in some cases -- as I understand it. I was having some bad hip pain for several days, but it started to subside today. I went to the doc today and he doesn't feel that I have an impingement (FAI) and didn't seem to think it is likely that I have a labral tear because my mobility is not that limited. But I'm going to have an MRI with dye to confirm.

He said that the reaction in my hip is likely due to stress -- most likely from my groin/inguinal region where my pain has been since day one of this beast.

It has been frustrating for me like most everyone else here. The upside is that I've been able to continue with core work and stationary biking. I still want to get an appointment with Meyers, but I want to know what the MRI shows in my hip first.

Alberto,

I'm 11 weeks post-op from bilateral mesh repair for SH and still feel the same dull aching pain in my groin and adductors as before surgery. My surgeons says I'm still within normal limits to feel discomfort.

Some things to consider is that I had this injury for close to 3 years before surgery. Also, the mesh may repair the torn transversalis fascia, however, the mesh is also acting as a support for both posterior and anterior pathology in the groin-thus, the longer the injury, the more extensive damage and subsequent recovery time period. My surgeon also stated that roughy 60% of healing occurs by 8 weeks and 90% by 12 months.

Since you're only 20 days out, I wouldn't worry. Focus on RICE until about after 4 weeks and then begin some light core work, running/walking, and stretching (unless you have nerve irritation). I'm giving myself until 6 months before I consider other surgical options.

I feel your frustration. Keep in touch. Chris

For any of you who are interested, I think a lot of my hip pain is due to a hip flexor/iliopsoas problem. I don't have near as much groin pain as I did a month ago, but my hip has been really troublesome lately. I went to see a specialist and he thinks that the psoas stretching probably caused some irritation because it does not appear that I have an impingement or a labral tear -- although I'll let the MRI decide that.

I do a drill every day with a soccer ball that seems to help me in the hip flexor/iliopsoas areas. Perhaps it might help some of you having similar symptoms -- if you can do it without pain. Basically, you create a box frame with a soccer ball by pulling the ball straight back (right footed), then right, then forward, then left; and then reverse it after one minute. Even if you don't play soccer, you might try it if it is comfortable. But I wouldn't do it otherwise. You might consult with your PT or doctor first. It just seems to work for me right now in keeping things tone since I can't jog or do anything intense.

A question for those of you who've had surgery (especially with Meyers) Did you use a physical therpist to do help with rehab? I was looking ahead to the rehab program and I'm not sure what some of the exercises are.

Jeff

Jeff,

Although I haven't had the surgery, my guess is the exercises would be about the same as what I'm doing -- a lot of core strengthening, stretching. I use an exercise ball often to strengthen the muscles in the pelvic area. I also do a lot of leg lifts, hip flexor/iliopsoas stretches.

I won't attempt to give you any serious advice on rehab. But you should find a very broad-based, comprehensive routine that focuses on your lower back, trunk, abs, hips, and legs. I would recommend going to a therapist to learn all of the exercises. That's basically what I did for a month (3X per week) and I have a routine (20 or so various stretches/exercises) that I do about two hours every day, which has shown pretty good progress despite some really bad setbacks due to the fact that I pushed the rehab too quickly. Here's a website for basic core work which should be geared by a therapist for your recovery... two of the exercises I do regularly (shown on the site) are the side-lying hip abduction -- and the supine bridge with the swiss ball -- which can be modified into several different exercises...

http://www.brianmac.co.uk/corestabex.htm

I've also found that walking is about the best substitute for heavy exercise. I'm also getting rolfing treatments, but for those post-surgery, it is probably something you should do later to help with your posture etc. I'm still not sold that I can recover without surgery, but I'm giving it my best shot before going to see Myers.

good luck!

Thanks to everyone who's contributed to the messageboard. It's helped me to find out more about my condition and what to do about it.

I went to Munich to see Dr. Muschaweck almost one month ago. I was diagnosed with a 2cm bulge in my left inguinal canal, (sportsman's groin as she refers to it) and had surgery the following day. After 2 painful weeks of post-operative recovery, I decided to start some light jogging and after 3 weeks went back to playing soccer again. There is still some tightness in the area but it feels significantly better than before the surgery and I'm sure I will continue to progress.

If anyone is considering heading that direction, I would say go see Dr. Muschaweck. She is a true professional and a delightful person. Her staff is also impressive. And of course, Munich is a beautiful city worth checking out if you can stretch it into a vacation. I recommend staying at least a few days afterward even if just to recover from the surgery a bit before flying home.

Hi Jeff;

A Physical Therapist who has a good manual therapy background to make sure you are aligned properly before you start exercising and a Physical Therapist who has a good background in myofascial release for your scar is important to make sure all the abdominal layers are gliding smoothly against each other and not rubbing on the nerves when you exercise is important.

I have already started the scar tissue work with the Physio and I had my surgery on the same day as you.

Dr. Meyers protocol is pretty straight forward. I am a Pilates Instructor and it is pretty basic but I would not want to push it too fast. Hope that helps!

janet

Hey fellow groin-pained individuals,

Heres the story with me (for those interested): I had surgery with Dr. Meyers 5 days ago (May 7th, 2008). I\'m a post-collegiate sprinter trying to continue my chase for elite status and I\'ve been hampered with groin issues for a couple years. I\'d been running through the pain until this past december when something officially tore (I assume my left adductor, but I don\'t actually know that). I found Meyers and I of course eventually got surgery.

Prior to surgery I found one of these threads and they actually freaked me out because there are so many different individual experiences going on that I didn\'t know what to take from it all, so I stopped coming here all together. Someone posted on my blog about this thread and I just figured that maybe I could throw my hat in the ring just for yet another \"individual experience\". I\'m hoping that I fully recover by August or September, but whether or not that is how my experience will be is still to be discovered. I am documenting my experience in detail here:

http://johnnybiacofsky.blogspot.com/

I wrote an indepth blog a day after surgery about the whole experience here:

http://johnnybiacofsky.blogspot.com/2008/05/philadelphia-experiment-post-surgery.html

A man a few pages back asked about a Dr. Larry Stevens in Indianapolis and if anyone has any experience with him. Well, I had surgery with Stevens about a year ago and my personal, individual experience with him was not all that excellent. But I think, for Stevens sake, I need to explain a few things. The surgery he did went relatively well and I was able to recover pretty well only 5 or 6 weeks after it. He was a courteous fellow and treated me well throughout the ordeal.

The problem I had with Stevens is that after the surgery I still had the EXACT groin pain I had prior to the surgery, and the only reason I had his surgery was to get rid of that groin pain. I\'m not confident in his full understanding of athletic pubalgia. Six months after his surgery I was running a 60m Dash and I busted something real bad in my groin/lower abdomen area which left me unable to train at all.

But my problems with Stevens are rooted in the fact that I\'m trying to squat way over 300 lbs, clean over 200 lbs, and I have a goal of breaking the 10 second barrier in the 100m Dash. My standards are off the charts. What he does might work for lower standards and for other situations than mine. But it is my opinion that he just doesn\'t have a full grasp of the very complicated issues of groin pain (but I\'m not sure anyone has that much of a full grasp, all I know is that I\'m hoping that Meyers fixed what was wrong and that by August/September I\'ll be training full go again). If I could go back I would avoid surgery with him all together, it did me nothing. I hate to be so harsh, but that was my experience.

Anyway, for those who have read this far, I am a sprinter hoping/trying to fully recovery from \"athletic pubalgia\" and I was worked on by Dr. Meyers. I want to compete unhindered for the 2009 outdoor season, and that is the plan as of right now. You can go to my blog and you will see the whole recovery thing go down if you are interested enough to (you won\'t be that interested I\'m sure).

I also have my own website.

www.johnnybiacofsky.com

. I\'m trying to develop it into an informative site for sprinters, as well as an informative site about how I\'m doing.

Sorry, I forget to link this:

http://johnnybiacofsky.blogspot.com/2008/05/bluequiet-week-in-review-2-comparing.html

That link is specifically for the guy who asked about Dr. Stevens in Indianapolis. That is my comparison of the two surgeries I've had in the past 11 months based on the 3 days post surgery I was from Dr. Meyers.

Again, I caution you with this: that is my own individual experience. He might fit your needs better than he fit my own. That is only something you can figure out. I wish you luck man, no one deserves this silly/stupid injury.

Janet,

Thanks for the info. I appreciate the insight from you. because I believe you have had several surgeries. How are you doing this time?

I specifically wondered about the scar tissue, because it appears that it will be significant. I was doing great for 10 days, but unintentially pushed it at day 10 and spent a couple of miserable days. Seem to be be somewhat better now, but humbled.

I hope this surgery is your last!!!!!!

Jeff