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

hi janet

how did you find out dr brown missed a rectus tear????

soley via mri?

i am curious because i have been told that i also tore a higher part of my ext oblique and that was never tended to nor identified by mri. it's a lump above the sh lump.

went to munich, Have you contacted Dr. UM about your situation? I am just curious what she would say about it. Are you satisfied with the results so far? I am still not sure. I tried to call there today, but I had a hard time understanding because the phone line was noisy. So I sent an email about my concerns and hope to hear back later. Hope it goes better, Ben

I had the operation in Munich at the end of November on both sides. I am 100% happy with the result and now have no pain at all. I emailed Dr Muscawech a few times with concerns and she always emailed back. For 5 weeks after the operation, all I could do was walk, but after that I returned to normal activity quite quickly.

When speaking to one of the surgeons who does this procedure, they made the point that many people's recoveries don't go as well or as quickly as possible because they fail to diligently follow a physical therapy plan post-op, or they simply don't seek any help at all. I know we all don't have the time or money/insurance to go through this, but I believe the surgeon was correct.

hi there;

I am planning to see Dr. Muschaweck but I was wondering, has anyone from Canada been able to get reimbursed by their insurance for the surgery with DR Muschaweck?

I have OHIP plus greenshield insurance,

thanks

i also imagine that another major factor is the condition the patient is in when he/she goes in for surgery, as in most sugeries.

unfortunately, many people with sports hernias go a long time with the injury and by the time sugery comes around, they have developed painful imbalances and compensatory patterns. those patterns themselves can take time to reverse.

Johnny, I posted a comment over at your Sports Hernia Blog, and I'm posting now to get any info you might have on those New York doctors. Thanks for all your help!

Has anyone heard of or had any experience with Dr. David Edelman? There is an article about his approach to sports hernia in the Florida Running and Triathlon magazine January/February 2008.

He writes that the traditional surgery has a timely recovery. The synthetic mesh has too many problems and delays recovery

He's pimping a laparoscopic surgery with a "biodesigned material that communicates with the body to remodel the host tissues." The mesh is called Surgisis Biodesign"

Claims that the return to exercise routine is two to three weeks.

The running and triathlon mag does not have a link to the article, but here are a couple of other things on this.

http://lib.bioinfo.pl/auth:Edelman,DS

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=4920&print=yes

Any thoughts?

I'm now one and a half years of conservative treatment and able to perform my activities of daily living. As long as I don't do too much walking, I'm ok. But, even a trip to disney or playing laser tag with my kids causes pretty bad discomfort for a day or two. I just got to get this fixed.

BTW, for those of you with current symptoms, I've found that Klonopin works wonders for my symptoms. It's usually used as an anti-seizure medication, but it REALLY REALLY WORKS!

Any other drug did nothing to calm my problems, and I've tried basic anti-inflammatories as well as neurontin. I don't know if Klonopin will work for you, but it's worth a shot if you haven't had any relief.

Interesting - was the Klonopin prescribed for your condition, or were you taking it for another reason. It is a benzodiazepine - might not feel too pleasant when you stop taking it abruptly.

I've been following this thread for years now as I too have tried multiple conservative treatments with temporary relief to varying degrees.

I'm 47 years old - anybody else have the surgery at this age?

The Klonopin was prescribed specifically for this condition after the neurontin failed to do anything. My physical medicine and rehab guy seemed pretty confident that it would work - and it did.

I think when I first started taking it during my very acute phase of this problem, I took it for a couple weeks straight. I had immediate relief, and after a couple of weeks of the medication with no activity, I was able to go without. Now I just use it when I start getting pain after activity - and then I usually only have to take one dose.

BTW, I'm 44.

Does anyone know if Aetna will cover the surgery with Dr. Meyers?

I am thinking there's a strong chance that what I have is an old-fashioned inguinal hernia, so I will get checked out for that first ASAP.

Regarding the Klonopin, I should also add that I've had it prescribed in both .5 mg and 1 mg pills. I got basically the same relief with either prescription so even at this very low dose I've gotten remarkable pain relief. It can make you a bit drowsy (very relaxed). It's not bad, but I still won't take it before I go to work.

update.........

I have posted on here a few times. I went through appt's with my general practioner who thought I had a hernia until the ultrasound proved otherwise. He sent me to a sports med. clinic and he diagnosed me with a torn rectous abdominous muscle- grade 2. He recommended physical therapy and limiting activity which I have done neither. I continue to deal with pain from moderate to somewhat severe depending on what I'm doing. One of the more painful things for me is doing anything that requires a "situp"- i.e.- straigtening up in a chair from a leaned back position-pain is in the lower abdomen, just above the pubic region and cenrally located. Sneezing is also very painful- pain shoots down the inner thighs. Even though I continue to "gut it out" and chase down tennis balls, I find running to be nearly impossible (partly because I have bad knees as well) but just trying to do a light jog going through the parking lot of a grocery store for instance is quite painful. I don't know if my condition is as bad as it's going to get or if it could get worse without further action.

Hi MarkR,

I was wondering what the cost of the surgery was in Germany with Dr Muscawech? Do you know if OHIP or personal insurance covers this?

Also how do you feel now? Since your November surgery are you back to normal life and playing sports again?

I had surgery on my right groin last year in June/07 by Dr. Brown. I felt great up until a couple of days ago when my area of incision is painful and is affecting my entire right side of my body from my belly button to mid thigh. I'm wondering what happened. I am scheduled to see the doctor next month. Has this happened to anyone?

Thanks.

Angelo

interesting re the klonopin

people with chronic pain, whether or not accompanied by depression symptoms, have found relief via antidepressent drugs like klonopin.

it has something to do with resetting the default on the nerve receptors/endings. in chronic pain, it is often the case that these recpetors have become hyperactive/hypersensitive.

have you or anyone else visited a GOOD homeopathic doctor re chronic pain syndromes?

that is the road i am taking because my recuperation is still ongoing, and i have had several setbacks post-op that have made it difficult to do rehab exercise, for example, torn rotator cuff, virus, etc...

so i have undertaken a homeopathic approach to calm down those nerve endings and whatnot. i hope it helps, in addition to all the manual therapy i have recieved, i should be back in action some day, even if it is a lot longer than i would have hoped.

i must admit it is discouraging when i hear of people recovering so quickly when i am still hanging in there. but this injury is complex in nature and everyone needs to recoup in his/her own way and via individually-designed rehab protocols.

i think a lot of that protocol depends on the surgeion.

dr muschaweck, for example, says that there is no rehab protocol needed whatsoever. i think she is greatly mistaken on that one.

Hi Mark;

I had surgery with Dr. Brown in May 2007 and he went back in in September 2007 to take out scar tissue. I had a re-occurence in December 2007.

I am scheduled to get a re-do by Dr. Meyers in April 2008.

Dr, Meyers told me that he has re-done alot of Dr. Brown's surgeries as he only focuses on the external oblique repair and does not focus on the rectus component which needs to be sutured not resolved with mesh.

I started having pain in my groin back in August '08. It hurt to sneeze and cough. I read up on the symptoms and concluded I had a sports hernia. I went to my doctor and he had no idea what I was talking about. He diagnosed me with a possible inguinal hernia and sent me to a surgeon.

After a CT scan, it revealed nothing. Several visits later, I went ahead with a laparoscopy to look for an inguinal hernia. This was a wasted surgery and it did not reveal anything. I went to see an orthopedist and he immediately diagnosed me with athletic pubalgia. I am undergoing physical therapy, but I'm not optimistic based upon what I am reading. If your doctor diagnoses you with an inguinal hernia, go see a specialist or a very qualified orthopedist.

One of the most intriguing things on this whole subject, to me, is the occurence of surgeons tweaking or repairing the work of other surgeons. Meyers repairing Cattey and Brown, Muschaweck repairing Meyers, Brown repairing Muschaweck, and on and on......

I guess it points to the fact that this is still largely an immature process with much more research and work to be done.

does anyone out there have worse pain when sitting for long periods of time??

PLEASE help.

thanks.