1. I noticed the inability to kneel on my knees and do anything in front of me. I feel like I will fall forward on my face, since I have no strength in my lower abs.
Answer: Anything leaning forward always give me a lot of trouble when my SH is flared up bad. I used to go through the house at the end of the day and clean up my toddlers toys (bending over) and it was brutal. I stopped doing this. It makes sense because leaning forward causes you lower abs to be the leverage point to hold your upper torso in place. This puts a lot of strain on the pelvic bone area where the injury is located.
2. Fatigue. I can usually work for about 3 hours before I feel fatigued. I also am extremely tired and worn out every night. I feel like this injury really saps my energy.
Answer: Absolutely. If you read my previous post I was always fatigued at the end of the day. I attributed a lot of this to stress prior to getting my SH diagnosed. I would wake up in the morning hoping to feel better, only to have my pain increase as the day wore on. I was worrying like hell about WTF was wrong with me. After Dr. UM saw me and I knew what was going on and how to contain it, it helped a lot. I now feel much better after doing the rehab I shared with you in a previous post. My pain has been reduced by up to 50%, but as soon as I do something to puts a lot of pressure on my lower ab, it flares right back up again. Being a General Contractor probably is going to make this tough for you, but try and limit any kind of leaning over and use your legs big time when picking stuff up.
3. When walking, I notice an almost involuntary tightening of my abs to compensate for the pain in the lower abs/groin. If I try to stop the tightening of the abs, the pain increases in the lower abs/groin area.
Answer. Read Alberts post. The mid section / pelvic area is extremely complex in how it controls the balance of your body. Now that there is in injury, other areas have to compensate to try and hold things together. This is what you are feeling. I feel it to, but not as much after doing my rehab for the past 6 weeks. I'm much stronger around the injury now.
4. Even though the pain subsides when sitting or even relaxing lying down, there seems to be a constant tension in the groin/lower ab area. This seems to be the source of the fatigue that saps me everyday.
Answer: I think you are feeling the nerve pain as much as anything else. When sitting down the compression on the nerve is at its highest. This will cause radiating pains all over your lower abdomen, groin, testicles, inner leg and upper thigh. This just drives me nuts. Some days the pain is sharp, but most of the time it is an annoying pain. It kind of feels like an itching sensation in my ab/groin.
I still think you have a SH injury rather than an Inguinal Hernia due to the pain in your lower abdomen and groin. Dr. UM will bring you peace of mind after you meet with her. Do the rehab in the mornings for 30 minutes and try to strengthen the area around the injury to try and get some relief while you work to a cure for the problem.
Mike in Va.