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

I had a bilateral with Dr. UM. Mine was a bit off the normal path though. In addition to the SH's on each side, I had neuroma on the left side from a previous repair and a mesh removal on the right. Another surgeon had to fly in to assist as the mesh was in an awkward spot and I was at heightened risk of losing some essential parts in addition to other complications.

I was strolling around the day of the first and second surgeries. The day after I was taking walks around the grounds at hospital in Starnberg.

Garrett,

Meyers is in my BCBS network. Can you use him? Even if he charges more you may pay less is you only pay 20%.

Garrett............I had Bi lateral repair of RA and Adductors, Bi lateral adductor release plus a belly button hernia repair from Meyers ....I had my mile walk already in within 20 hours after surgery....I imagine with Dr Ums less invasive repair it will be no problem....One thing I do is break up the walks into 2-3x per day...so I started out doing two 1/2 mile walks....then three 1/2 mile walks ..then two 3/4 mile walks and I think Im at the point now Ill do two 1 mile walks

ARenko,

I posted before that the surgoen found 2 small inguinal hernias on the left side when I was opened up(i thought i had a sports hernia)

I had surgery last week on Monday, had these hernia's for almost 5 months. They started to cause an imbalance in my body and was getting pain on the right side as well. I no longer have any pain on the right, seems like my body is starting to balance itself out. the surgical side is still a little swolen but coming along.

Cant stress enough to get it fixed asap as they start to cause issues all over your pelvic region.

Hi rem!

I have an important question for you!

I am facing bi-lateral sports hernia-surgery. If I do it with Muschaweck then I ahve to leave 8800 euro in deposit and I don´t get the real cost until after surgery because it depends on how much work they have to do. So it can either be cheaper or more expensive than 8800.

In your case with all the work they had to do on you I imagine that it was more expensive?

What was the total cost for your surgery?

All you other guys who has been operated on by Muschaweck are more then welcome to share your total cost! I can afford 8800 euro plus hotel+ the travelcosts etc but I would not like to hear that "sorry, your operation was very difficult we have to charge you with 13500 euro"

I Haven´t budgeted on that.

ljpviper,

This is why I'm here. The inguinal caused other problems - AR and AL muscle tightness/ tears. Working on getting the inguinal fixed, but will most likely wait until after Sept 1 when new insurance kicks in. Still discussing with a few doctors and evaluating costs. Dr. M told me no problem to continue activity - I will not make things worse in days/ weeks, but in months/ years. Of course I need to consider that the muscles in my pubic region are in tension and take some care. Basically if it hurts, stop she said.

rem & JC--I sure hope I don't have an injury as bad as yours. I'm actually positive mine isn't that bad. Dr. UM diagnosed mine as a "sportmans groin" or as she explained it a weak spot on the posterior inguinal wall that is directly compressing the genitofemoral nerve causing the pain in my testicals and thigh. I am pretty sure my RA and adductors are ok. My "sportmans groins" are exactly the same size and in exactly the same spot on each side...so maybe its genetics? I've been feeling the pain going on 9 months now...maybe it would get A LOT worse if it went on for years like some of you guys on here. I am hoping to be back to 100% by the time the year mark rolls around. All thanks to this forum!!

ARenko, My insurance does not want to cover Dr. UM, or Meyers. Although I am pretty sure Dr. UM is the one for me. Like I said above I don't think my pain is from RA, or adductor tears so I don't think I need my pelvic floor opened up....and to be honest I think Meyers would send me away if thats the case.

Hi Tiff,

Glad to hear you are doing so well. I saw a PT tonight for the first time since surgery. She looked at the protocol and helped me figure out some of the exercises (particularly how to improve my technique on some of them), but didn't know what crossovers, figure 8s or shuttle exercises were. She told me I was doing fine on my own (i've been following the protocol pretty closely, including all the stretches and pool work) and encouraged me to keep doing the pelvic tilts and stretching at this stage even though they are listed under the 7-10 days section. She also recommended firing the transversus (??) muscle often by breathing in deep, exhaling and keeping the stomach contracted after the exhale (suck the belly button into your spine-type-movement). She recommended doing this all the time -- while walking to and from work, while doing upper-body exercises (she recommended pectoral/delt flys in both directions and standing tricep extension and curls, not lat pulldowns) as called for in the protocol, and even just sitting at my desk at work. Theory is the RAs are still healing/weak and the transversus needs to pick up the load.

Anyway, I, too, am leaving the aforementioned undefinable exercises out of my workouts, but I feel like I'm making enough progress without them that it's probably not a big deal.

As for your other questions, I don't really feel like I'm very swollen in the abs/pubic bone, but the area is very tender. I'm definitely numb surrounding the incisions (supposedly the subcutaneous nerves are cut during surgery and take a while to grow back, but they do, so this is normal), but don't necessarily have incredible pain from a harder touch there. It hurts, but it's not making me scream. No real pinching sensation in the groin but my psoas/hip flexors feel tight all the time and that gets a bit worse with workouts (particularly the hip extension/flexion with weight) but subsides with time. I can jog and do lunges fine, along with all the prescribed stretches with pretty much no problem. Couldn't hurt for you to give Meyers a call regarding the swelling/pain in the incision area and inability to stretch.

Good luck and feel better!

Garrett,

Might still be worth checking with Meyers. He does inguinal hernia repairs - I don't think your repair is much different. I don't know why he would turn you away. I don't think he is only interested in some sports hernias. Might be worth sending him an email with the diagnosis you received. He responded to me in 5 minutes.

Your insurance doesn't accept Meyers or won't cover SH? Seems strange that the BCBS HMO would not cover a procedure that the PPO covers, so I'm guessing he's not in your network.

I feel totally confident with Dr. M. I'd have no problem going to Munich for surgery. If costwise it's close I'll probably head that way. If there's a significant difference between her and Shouldice or Meyers and they both make me feel confident I'll go one of those routes.

Hi Rick,

I'm pulling this off memory because Cigna has all my original bills and expenses for my appeal. I paid my fee up front, 8800 EU. There wasn't any further charge for the procedures themselves and all the work that was done above and beyond the straight forward repair.

I will caution you that the little things added up for me. The room, meds, transpo, food (the food at the hospital was horrible) an extra CT scan at the hospital to see how risky the mesh removal was.....it adds up.

for guys in the USA thinking about having surgery in Germany for abdominal bulges and inguinal hernias etc...to me I think it would still be a good idea to at least get the Meyers MRI done to rule out any torn tendons which his MRI will pick up...better to be safe then sorry...once thats ruled out the you know DR UM is the Doc for you...To me it would be a waste to go to DR Um and have her surgery...then come to find out you have an underlying tendon tear and have to get another surgery down the road or have things come undone because of it....just my 2 cents....My Insurance cut Meyres MRI down to $418 plus $89 for the read....even if you guys arent covered im sure a decent price could be negociated.....Good luck with your desicison...I know its never seems to be easy....always a hitch in the way

Meyers is not in my network. If I wanted to go to him all of that would be out of pocket...at least at first. I hear different numbers on the cost of his MRI but I'm guessing with plane tickets and everything that would be an additional 5k for me to go see him. If I thought I had torn muscles/tendons then I would consider going to see him.

I have seen a sports medicine dr and she did all the movement tests that i would THINK would show some kind of tear. Unlike most of you I do not have any pain in my lower abdominal area. Every once in a while I have some shooting pains when I am going up stairs...and while snowshoeing. These were very painful but only lasted a few minutes. 99% of my pain is in my nuts and my upper thigh so I am pretty sure....as is Dr. UM, that mine is a much more simple weak spot in the posterior inguinal wall squeezing the nerve and making it feel like someone is pulling my nuts out through my throat!

I consider myself very lucky not to have had to fight this for years like a lot of you and lucky that mine did not appear after some single episode but came on gradually.

I could be completely wrong, I could have a tear....BUT something has to be said about all of Dr. UM's cases...all those soccer players, I'm sure some of them had tears that she fixed, or didn't? And they were back on the field in days/weeks? I'm VERY confident in Dr. UM.

Is there something special about Dr. Meyers' machine, or the tests that he asks to be performed?

I'm thinking like you mentioned JC. I'm waiting for Dr. Meyers to review my MRI images, then we'll have a phone consulation. If he suggests his MRI based on what he sees/ doesn't see from my MRI and my history I'll probably do it to be sure. He can fix both problems at the same time, so my only added cost is the MRI, which my insurance will cover.

Can someone explain to me how muchawecks procedure with cutting the nerve if it´s damaged work.

In this article:

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/klu/276/2004/00000026/00000001/art00014?crawler=true

They talk about what happen if you accidently damage the nerves by doing a appendectomy.

They say:

Injury to the ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerves after a McBurney's incision have been reported to cause paralysis of the conjoint tendon that may lead to the development of an indirect inguinal hernia. This study reports on the incidence of ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerve sectioning after the performance of a classic McBurney's incision as well as the distance and relationship of the ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerves to the anterior superior iliac spine and a classic McBurney's incision. The right iliac fossa and lumbar region of 33 cadavers were dissected for the uncovering of the ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerves after a correct McBurney's incision was made. Injury to the ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerves was recorded. The mean distance between the ilioinguinal nerve and the incision line was 41.89 mm and 34.63 mm between the iliohypogastric nerve and the incision line. The ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerves were found to be 6.69 mm and 12.08 mm from the anterior superior iliac spine, respectively. No ilioinguinal or iliohypogastric nerve was injured during all 33 McBurney's incisions.

To me it seems to be an bad idea to cut the nerves and make some of the muscles in the groin semi-paralysed.

I think u pretty much terrified everyone with that Rick. Good point though and great research. The food was no good at dr UMs rem? Someone told me they served a great fillet of trout. Maybe i was misinformed.??

Yea though i really dont like the thought of adductor releases or nerve branch removal. Minimal invasive technique seems and sounds most reasonable.

I actually read an american hernia doctor.. Dr. Goodyear say buyer beware while referring to Muschaweck. Which sounds like hes just tryin to scare people to get best care and of course bring himself more buisness... Stupid.. Other than buyer beware he just said no comment. But with josh hamilton mike owen and others, goin to UM, maybe this goodyear has a good point, but i think ide put him in category with cattey...

I saw hamilton playin other night, i saw him slidding into first base about 4 times while tryin to be picked off and saw him run early to second with a lead off. His first few laterall steps looked great. Goodyear seems like hes full of hot air.... For those who didnt get my pun its ok. But goodyears not gettin a hurumph outta this guy.

Does anyone know why u need an invitation to read groinpaincenter blog now? Whats up Johny? Didnt u get a rebuttle" letter? Ide like to read it!?

Tiff, Jc, hockey, righteous!! Keep workin at it!! U all inspire us. Surf i hope u see meyers and tell us whats up.

love

Sorry, i meant to say goodyr was tryin to scare people out of gettin best care.

also i notice they steered away from callin hamiltons injury SH, instead they just said ab surgery.

Also i read marian hossa was gettin shoulder surgery and would be out for four months... But at the end of season he was reported to have groin strain not shoulder problem. Maybe after seein holmstrom get two surgeries from meyer hossa decided to have SH surgery cover it up with shoulder surgery so he could have long time to recover and the blackhawks backed this play...

I know this seems far fetched about hossa, but ive noticed many athletes dont want to be listed as sports hernia victim.?? Cause it seems to mean damaged goods. Anyone know rual ibanezs status? Is he playin again? Or is he still out with groin "strain"??

Helperzzzz,

Sorry I didn´t mean to scare anyone. I am just as confused about this SH thing as anyone else.

Numerous doctors has told me to not get the operation. But they have no alternative. I am young and healthy, and I have been diagnosed with two small bulges in my groin. So what should I do? I have been to fuc###ng pain management and they have made me attend to group therapy and learning to breathe right. :=) What a joke. It is not like I have Fibromyalgia or anything like that. (which I don´t look down on!)

I have absolutley no pain at all in my body except for my f***ning groins so I say to myself "Fu##it I am going to Germany and fix this shit so I can go on with my life"

I am so tired of researching this thing. All the info talks against eachother.

Whats up with Mayoclinic who says SH doesn´t exist??

My doctor printed out that article to me...

And this mesh no mesh thing... Really tired of reading about that.

Sorry for my negativity but sometimes this is how I feel.

Rick,Thanks for sharing your research findings. Very interesting. I'm confused by it all, too. Here is the opinion of well-known physical trainer Michael Boyle. Even Boyle is against surgical treatment of sports hernia.

Michael Boyle wrote:

My feeling and the feeling of many of many therapist colleagues is that "sports hernia" surgery will be like the lateral release in the patella femoral joint, a surgery that had limited success and thankfully eventually went out of style.

Here's the link to the full article by Michael Boyle

Rick,

Following are 10 examples of people recovering from sports hernia without surgery:

SUCCESSFUL SPORTS HERNIA RECOVERY WITHOUT SURGERY

EXAMPLES 1 - 3

1. Post by SND

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2. Post by RunDoctor

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3. Post at GoalieStore

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