hi all
somebody mentioned that most people posting are those who think they have SH or are still suffering post-surgery. i thought i'd chime in with a success story.
i had surgery on the left side with dr. muschaweck in munich for sportsman's groin (her name for it) exactly two months ago. she performed her "minimally invasive" technique, and i was up and walking about on day 2, and jogging on day 14.
however, my original problems lingered, i.e. sharp pain when doing certain movements (like sharp cutting playing soccer), or pain when i squeezed my legs together, or soreness the day after exercise. although not as bad as pre-surgery, these problems were still there at six weeks, and there were times when i seriously doubted the effectiveness of the surgery.
week 7 i began working out in the water. the first day i tried swimming both breast stroke and freestyle but had pain in the left groin for both from the sharp kicking motions. i also ran in the water to work out the muscles but not put stress on the body. i was disappointed that i was experiencing pain while swimming, but decided to keep going with it.
a few days into it suddenly the pain dramatically subsided. i increased the swimming and water jogging, and a week into it i was feeling strong and the most pain free i had been since late november, which is when my SH really blew up. needless to say this was very exciting.
this last weekend i played in a saturday-sunday soccer tournament, 3 games each 1 hour long each day. this was to be my first real test since surgery, and i was excited because i felt i had turned a corner with the swimming and etc., but still very nervous because there was still some slight lingering discomfort and i didnt want to push it too soon and regress.
the short of it is the groin held up, no problems whatsover, not once during the six grueling games. the sharp pain from cutting or jumping was gone. no limitation. and, whereas before i would be sore for a few days even after playing just a bit of soccer, i am thrilled to report that i have almost no soreness now, two days after the tournament.
i don't know if it was the swimming that helped me turn the corner, or if i just needed that much time to recover post surgery and would have turned the corner without swimming. i don't even know for sure that the surgery actually worked -- maybe my body healed itself, and it just needed this much time. there's really no way of knowing.
what i do know is that 2 months post-surgery and 5 months post-injury, i am 95% back in action, the remaining 5% being ever so slight discomfort when i squeeze my legs, and just because i feel like it would inviting bad luck to claim 100%. and i also feel strongly that without dr. M's surgery i would now be where i am today. that is just my gut feeling, so to speak.
it has been super long and tough (and expensive) road to recovery. if you have any questions feel free to email me at yleeper at hotmail -- i'm happy to help where i can. please write "sports hernia" in the subject line.
best of luck to you all.
also, one thing about meyers vs. muschaweck, i did not want the abductor release and that was one reason i went to munich. the other is it was far cheaper (my insurance wouldn't cover surgery with meyers). dr. muschawecks whole thing is trying to minimize the damage during surgery, and the abductor release seems like a whole lot of damage, and i personally didnt want that. but, i'm sure the abductor release is necessary for some people. my advice would be do everything you can to make sure you need it before getting it. that goes for surgery with anyone, i suppose.