Hi, Great thread and I though i would add my story in here.
12 years ago I had a mesh put in place for a sport hernia. I suffered for a few years and was mainly sent to the urologist (piriformis pain mistaken for prostate pain and ache in my tesitcle) Eventually i was diagnosed as having a sports hernia and they slapped a tension free mesh in there. The mesh was never particularly comfortable and there was huge scarring. The surgury didnt seem to help much so I rested and then had a lot of PT then a couple of years down the line I was back to full activity. I always could feel the mesh and scar tissue though.
jump forward to 6 months ago. I was working in my garden breaking up a concrete path using a forceful downwards/cross body motion with a long crowbar when a felt a pain down the old scar. Only lasted a few hours but after the next couple of runs all the old symptoms came back in the right hand side (abductor pain, SI joint pain, piriformis pain and lower ab in the crease)
I found a surgeon who claimed to do be knowledgeable in this area and had the mri and cortisone injections and ant-inflammatories which are pretty standard protocol and then he recommended surgery to check it out.
I had an open op and he freed the nerve which was trapped and removed the old mesh, scar tissue etc (100g of material) He is happy that if there was any weakness, tear or buldge it is now gone. I felt far better than when I had the mesh put in at first op and was happily back to running (although gentle) in four weeks. I had a break from physical activity over xmas and that is when I started to feel pain in the scar tissue again. This was about 8 weeks after op. I decided to rest and see where that went but unfortunately the symptoms started coming back. 11 weeks out I had a cortisone shot in the scar tissue and Everything was brilliant for a week then it all came back. Looks like the nerve is not happy, probably due to reforming scar tissue. Surgeon is out of ideas except time (I am only 13 weeks post op and using lidocaine patches to break cycle)
My experience is this is an infuriating condition but I know eventually I will heal. My plan is plenty of PT and massage out as much of the scar tissue as possible. Ibuprofen and lidocaine gel daily. Work with foam roller and a sacrowedgie to loosen up si and hips. A program of light running, weights and rehab protocals up to the point that is comfortable. Most importantly get it to the back of my mind and stop worrying about it.
If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them also if anyone knows of a good surgeon in the UK please let me know. i will have a checkpoint in three months time and if no progress has been made I would like a second opinion and another MRI to be on the safe side. Probabley will go to Gerry Gilmore but not covered by my health plan so will ahve to come out of my own pocket (Probably should get a cheap flight to Germany)
Good Luck all