What's up everybody? I've been following this thread for months now & even made a couple of posts a while back, but for those of you who don't remember i'll tell my story...
I'm a former college basketball player who always stayed in great shape after my collegiate career was over. I'm almost 26 years old right now. It all started when I took a week off from the gym due to cold symptoms. When I went back on the court, I felt a sharp pain & stopped playing immediately. The sharp pain went away quickly and never returned. However, it was replaced by a dull ache that made it hard to do anything comfortably.
After seeing literally DOZENS of different doctors of all kinds & getting 2 CT scans, blood work, all that stuff done, I saw a general surgeon in Indiana who said I had an inguinal hernia. I was desperate to be pain free & uneducated at the time so I had the laparoscopic operation with mesh.
Months later, the pain was still just as bad if not much worse than before that surgery, but the sensation was the same. I couldn't get out of bed or anything without pain. I tried to stay in shape by walking but I was still in a lot of pain. I couldnt get comfortable no matter what position I was in - even laying in bed.
Saw a few more specialists after I concluded that the inguinal hernia fix was not what I needed. Finally I was referred by a family friend & radiologist to see Dr. Litwin of the UMASS hospital. Apparently he used to do the surgery with Dr. Meyers about 10 years ago before Meyers left to go to Philly.
Dr. Litwin diagnosed me with a sports hernia and performed a pelvic wall repair. I was told that at 6 weeks I would be able to start rehabbing and that at 12 weeks I would be able to do 100% of everything I had been able to do before surgery.
I had an appointment with him at 4 weeks post-op to go over the rehab protocol, but it was postponed to 6 weeks out. When I showed up I was met by a younger doctor who was his assistant and not even Dr. Litwin himself! I was pissed because I had drove 8 hours from Buffalo NY to meet with him and I had a TON of questions since I wasn't feeling the way I was told I should be at that point.
I was given a very vague list of exercises that Dr. Meyers wrote YEARS AGO and even the doctor couldn't help much in deciphering the layout of the rehab plan. This being said, I tried my best to rehab and do so very slowly and carefully, but the pain never went away. I rescheduled with Litwin for a follow up at about 3-4 months post op. This time he met with me himself and tried to reassure me that I was ok & that I was just taking longer to heal. After more weeks passed by with no results I tried to talk to Litwin on the phone but he was always extremely short or wouldn't talk to me directly. One time he had his nurse practitioner talk to me and she told me to put icy hot on the area. I was obviously pissed.
I gave Dr. Litwin the benefit of the doubt over the past 6+ months, but I am still in so much pain & it is the same type of pain I had before the surgery. It doesn't feel like nerve pain at all. I will admit I was improving a bit & tried to push it waaaay to hard in the weightroom. My purpose is not to bash Dr. Litwin, but gain some understanding of what to do next.
I feel that at 6-7 months out I should not be in the same type of debilitating pain I was in before the surgery. I was lifting & starting to jog again, but the pain never went away. I foolishly tried to push thru it as I have done all my life with injuries and now I'm just right back to square one.
I recently met with Buffalo Sabres doctor Dr. Leslie Bisson about the matter since a lot of his players have had the surgery from other doctors. He said that they usually fix a failed surgery with another surgery, but suggested I try a steroid shot in the area to calm it down. I agreed, but the shot hasn't done much since I overdid it.
I'm just wondering if I undid the original surgery or if it was ever truly fixed in the first place. I don't want to spend the next 2 months resting only to find out that it isn't going to get better on its own. However, I definitely don't want to get another surgery unless it is absolutely necessary & I am confident that it is the final solution to this problem.
I called today & scheduled an appointment with Dr. Meyers in Philly. I meet with him Oct. 27 for the MRI & consult. If necessary, I have the option of surgery the very next day.
Needless to say, I'm pretty bugged out & extremely fed up with this injury! For those of you who have gone to Meyers for consult and/or surgery, are any of you back to 100%? I know Albert & JC Sportsman seemed to be recovering pretty well, but I don't know how everything is for them at this point.
If you guys or anyone else who has seen Meyers are still around, could I email you some questions?
& please Surf, if you're still around, don't try to post any unrelated articles as scare tactics or try to use me as an example of how surgery does not work. I've been following this whole thread & you've done nothing but be negative & scare people away. You honestly have destroyed this thread single handedly. I understand you want to get better as well & I hope that you do, but what you've been doing isn't helping anybody.