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

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johnny

13 years ago 04/04/2007 10:50am CDT
re: Greg simmons

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hi greg, sounds like ap. sorry to break the news to you, but it is better going into your doc with an idea than without one. if you are near philly, go to see meyers. if you are near nyc, then there are a few docs in the area that can help diagnose it (west orange, nj orthopedic group), i think.
the pains sound like the pains from the nerves affected by ap. but i am no doctor, just saying from experience that your symptoms sound the same as ap.
get it looked at asap but trust only the experts to do surgery, don't let any doc school themselves on the injury with your body. regular hernia guys usually cannot fix sports hernias, you need an ap surgeon.
hope it helps.
Greg Simmons

13 years ago 04/04/2007 10:56am CDT
re: Greg simmons

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Guys, I do not have pain really when I walk or run. The pain is only coming right now from sitting down, getting up, or leaning really far over foward. Does anyone here get a sharp pain in the testes or penis doing this, in the process of sitting down or getting up? Ive looked all over the net and do not find many people complaining about the symptoms I have.
Greg Simmons

13 years ago 04/04/2007 1:59pm CDT
re: Greg Simmons

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thanks Johny, this sucks. For anyone that got surgery in germany do they put you under or do you stay awake, I read somewhere you stay awake during it. If so can you feel anything? Thanks
Greg Simmons

13 years ago 04/04/2007 3:08pm CDT
re: Greg Simmons

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sorry for all the questions guys, but im just so confused on what to do. I have college starting soon and alot of other things, what kind of insurance would cover the surgery in Germany? I just do not know where to start, I gotta find a doc to diagonis sports hernia first too. Where should I start? Thanks
Osaru

registered

13 years ago 04/05/2007 1:52am CDT
re: Greg Simmons

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greg-

i'd say start with a sports medicine doctor in your area. if you aren't satisfied make an appointment with either meyers in philly or dr. muschaweck in munich.

i went to dr. muschaweck just over a month ago. i paid out of pocket - she runs a private clinic and does not accept insurance. if you have insurance and are worried about the cost (muschaweck charges appx. US$6000 per side) i would go see meyers. they seem to be the two big players in sports hernia surgery, you will be in good hands either way.

i still have slight discomfort on my left side but it is definitely better than before and i'm hoping a few more weeks of rest will bring full recovery. dr. muschaweck is extremely professional and her walls are lined with pics of famous sports athletes who she has treated. she puts you under, but not with anaesthesia (she uses local anaesthesia). it's like you are semi-conscious but can't really feel anything.

best of luck.
Greg Simmons

13 years ago 04/05/2007 9:45am CDT
re: osaru

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wow so the doc in germany accepts no kind of insurance? I thought I read somewhere she doees. Your certain about this?

Greg Simmons

13 years ago 04/05/2007 1:37pm CDT
re: Greg Simmons

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guys I also have the symptoms of a inguinal hernia, I do not read much in sports hernia about people bending over and getting sharp pain in groin, but with inguinal hernia I read it everywhere. I think I have a sports hernia in the left side and a inguinal hernia on the right.
johnny

13 years ago 04/06/2007 9:32am CDT
re: Greg Simmons

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greg
sounds like you have ap. pain when bending is common, as is with twisting. it is the action of the oblique muscles that is irritating the nerves which is why it hurts. from what i can tell, it is common for the ext oblique apernosis being torn off of the ingunial ligament. do you have pain that radiates along the path of the ligament?
does it hurt more when twisting, especially when reaching overhead or while bending? if so, you can see what i mean.

dr m does not accept insurance, she is in europe and they have socialized medicine. you would have to submit your own personal claim to your insurance, and it is up to you to take it from there. dr m is there to fix your hole(s) in your tissues, if your insurance will ok her surgery and offfer to pay for it,then lucky you.
good luck
johnny
Greg Simmons

13 years ago 04/06/2007 10:15am CDT
re: johnny

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Thanks johny, the pain has almost gone away in the last few days, I can sit down and get up without pain...even touch my toes without pain. I still feel something could trigger the pain though, but im in fear if I go running the pain will come right back. My mom keeps telling me I just pulled something and I worry to much when I told her I need to go to Germany to get surgery. Is it possible I just pulled a muscle or something that could give me pain when I bend over and sit down? I know something is wrong with my left side but I can run many miles before it bothers me, so its not too much of a pain. The right side is new and im hoping I just pulled a muscle or something. Is that even possible though? I cannot find anything that has symptoms of pain in groin/penis when bending over. I mean this could just be a normal injury to my right side maybe?
johnny

13 years ago 04/07/2007 10:05am CDT
re: Greg Simmons

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you need to go to a sports medicine doc first to check out all options such as ap, osteitis pubis, strains, obturator nerve entrapment, etc..
if no luck then maybe hit up a urologist but that is the route i went first and because i trusted and listened to a ur, i prolonged my time before correct diagnosis and thus it is taking me longer to recoup post-op.
don't worry and come to conclusions too early or the worry and anxiety about the pain can make it feel worse, not to mention your mom will freak out much worse than she is letting you think she is.

there are many nerves in that area of the body, do some research on the pelvic nerves and lumbosacral nerves and the places they innervate, and that can help you to understand what could be going on and why the pain radiates to certain parts of your anatomy and whatnot. the more you understand before going into the doc the better the outcome will be for you.
johnny
greg simmons

13 years ago 04/07/2007 11:05am CDT
re: johnny

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thanks johny, im getting better for sure. I have no pain at all in the last day or so now. I have not started running again because im scared, im gonna rest up for a few weeks and start very slowly. The problem is I have no health insurance right now, so im a little confused on what to do.
greg simmons

13 years ago 04/07/2007 1:40pm CDT
re: greg simmons

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well stupidly I was confident enough to do about 20 crunches/situps and noticed while I was doing it a slightly weird popping noise around my hip joint. Anyways I was doing my usual "bend over and touch the ground" test about 10 mins later and got a slight pain in my penis again. Its gotta be some type of nerve pain thats making the penis pain. So couldnt this nerve be coming from just about any muscle thats injured?

mfreyhol

13 years ago 04/08/2007 1:36am CDT
re: RunDaddy

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Hey RunDaddy,

I'm also active duty military (Air Force) and I'm on Tricare Prime. I've seen 11 military doctors out here and I've even been told on multiple occations that Sports Hernias don't exhist.

Can you give me any details about how this worked for you? Did the military pay for you to travel and stay, or just for the surgury? Was there any out of pocket expense? Did the surgury work? How was your recovery?

Any details you can give me would be wonderful. I almost wet myself when I saw your posting saying Tricare covered it. I'm suddenly optomistic.

Thanks for your time,

Mike Freyholtz

RunDaddy wrote:

Ultimate player wrote:

RunDaddy,
How were you able to get the surgery for the day after your exam? I'm considering meeting with Dr. Meyers after suffering for a year with what I am certain is AP. It would be nice to be able to get things taken care of as quickly as possible. If I could get him to examine me one day and perform surgery the next that would be fantastic. how did you pull that off?
Also, did your insurance cover everything? Mine appears to include Dr. Meyers but I don't know yet about the hospital stay, drugs, therapy, etc.
Thanks in advance for your help

Call his assistant Marcia and set up the two day appointment. He offers that option to all out of towners.

My insurance covered everything, but I'm active duty military (Tricare Prime). The hard part for me was getting the referral out. Actually, it wasn't that bad as the docs at Walter Reed said they can't help AP and had actually already sent a couple of Special Forces guys to Meyers.

The only drugs you'll get is one bottle of percocet. The hospital stay is what really costs. I think it cost about $22K. Of course, no one can tell you what it's going to cost because the pricing system in Health Care is completely bonkers.
Veteran athlete

13 years ago 04/08/2007 2:03am CDT
re: Greg simmons

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Guys - I had the surgery and I went to Dr. Meyers the first time and he didn\'t fix the problem. PLEASE call Dr. Cattey in Milwaukee. He is the only one that can fix this problem.
mfreyhol

13 years ago 04/08/2007 2:08am CDT
re: Veteran athlete

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Veteran Athlete,

Can you elaborate on what Dr Cattey did differently for you? From what I've read, some people go to Meyers to fix what Cattey did and some go to Cattey to fix what Meyers did.

I know there are different types of sports hernias... basically different types of damage to different muscles throughout the entire groin/abdomen region. Do you think that perhaps Dr Cattey in more successful at some types and Dr Meyers is more successful at others? What type did you have? What were your symptoms?

Thanks for the input... any information is good information.

Mike
mfreyhol

13 years ago 04/08/2007 2:15am CDT
re: Veteran athlete

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By the way, has anyone experienced testicle pain? Like so bad that underwear is out of the question? That's been my primary symptom along with groin and abdominal pain. It's bilateral too. Frickin miserable. It gets better when I rest for a couple weeks, but two days after a 2 mile bike ride with my 6 year old and I'm in agony again. It's sore just to sit.

Anyway, I'd just like to say that I wish I'd found this blog 8 months ago... you're all a lot of help. Thanks!!!
RunDaddy

registered

13 years ago 04/08/2007 8:51am CDT
re: mfreyhol

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[quote]mfreyhol wrote:

Hey RunDaddy,

I'm also active duty military (Air Force) and I'm on Tricare Prime. I've seen 11 military doctors out here and I've even been told on multiple occations that Sports Hernias don't exhist.

Can you give me any details about how this worked for you? Did the military pay for you to travel and stay, or just for the surgury? Was there any out of pocket expense? Did the surgury work? How was your recovery?

Any details you can give me would be wonderful. I almost wet myself when I saw your posting saying Tricare covered it. I'm suddenly optomistic.

Thanks for your time,

Mike Freyholtz
[quote]

Mike,
I had my primary care Doc submit a consult for me to see a surgeon at Dewitt Army Hospital. I went to Dewitt having fully researched this problem and knowing all about Dr. Meyers. The surgeon at Dewitt was very open to my self-diagnosis. He ordered an MRI and when I saw him 2 weeks later h agreed to refer me out of the system. At that point I thought I was cleared to see Meyers so i made an appointment. The next week I found out that I had to see another surgeon at Walter Reed first. Luckily, I got in pretty quickly with Major Matt Wakefield, one of the general surgery Docs at WR who handles most hernia. He had actually heard of Meyers and when he checked his clinic's records he realized that they had already referred 2 special forces guys out to Meyers in the past. Wakefield basically told me that the whole spors hernia diagnosis is highly controversial, but if I wanted to see Meyers and risk surgery he would write the referral.
Once the referral is written it takes TriCare a couple days to pick it up. Make sure the referral species consult AND treatment. Once the TriCare folks told me the referral was in the system and approved (I believe all outside referrals go back to your prmary care referral manager for review and approval), I was fully covered for 5 visits to Meyers and all treatment.
TriCare covered all the bills (and it was over $30K). My command funded the TDY because I simply asked them if they would. They didn't have to. You might have to pay that on your own. The hospital that gives you the referral might also fund the TDY.

I would say that so far the surgery has worked. I'm 8 weeks out and I'm running and swimming again. The first week or so after the surgery sucks. But after 2 weeks I was able to start the rehab. I get sore after workouts, but this is normal. I'm also able to do some limited AB work already (although it bothers me after 10 sit ups or so). Time will ultimately tell if this works in the long term. But I can say I'm very happy with it so far.
mfreyhol

13 years ago 04/09/2007 12:29am CDT
re: RunDaddy

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RunDaddy,

I'm sure you said in an earlier post somewhere, but
where exactly was your pain before the surgery?

What do you do in the military? I just received a
note from Dr Meyers saying his daughter is a Captain
in the Air Force (I am too).

Thanks again for all the help in this. If you don't
mind I may have more questions for you along the way.
Take care and I hope you had a great Easter!

Mike
johnny

13 years ago 04/09/2007 8:30am CDT
re: mfreyhol

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there are 17 different (or 18?) different forms of ap according to meyers.
dr muschaweck feels that the ap injury is aquired via both genetics (collegen weakness/disorder) and via the typical overload of the muscles that you all know about. she says that 40% of us are totally ready to get it, just some of us get it through certain activities or movements. it just seems that athetes are easier to diagnose since athletes get hurt during their sports and thus docs attribute an injury to the pains. imagine all those people out there who are not athletes yet get the small "hernia(s)" while raking leaves, etc, and never get properly diagnosed.
having ap for a while can also lead to muscle imbalances and thus painful syndromes of muscle imbalances. such cases can be problems with the sacroiliac joints, rectus tightness, etc. Dr UM also feels that there are nearly never adductor tears with this injury, only adductor pain due to the nerves that are invovled; i'll bet this is debatable via dr meyers and others.
bottome line is, different folks experience different symptoms since we are all wired slightly differently. but overall, the pain around the pubic bone, adductor, and inguinal ligament seem to be the most common complaints. some people get it and only have pain after activity, then some get it full blown right away and can barely move (as in my case).
greg, i too had pain in the genitals, as numerous others have. just so you know. i have also heard of testicular pain being caused by trigger points in the pyramidalis muscles, which are located at the pubic bone, so maybe get that checked out by an experienced pt that does trigger point work or even better, a really good sports med doc.
but then keep in mind that i am no doctor, so all my input is simply from experience with the injury and research online and via communication with doctors.

hope it helps
johnny
RunDaddy

registered

13 years ago 04/09/2007 9:01am CDT
re: mfreyhol

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mfreyhol wrote:

RunDaddy,

I'm sure you said in an earlier post somewhere, but
where exactly was your pain before the surgery?

What do you do in the military? I just received a
note from Dr Meyers saying his daughter is a Captain
in the Air Force (I am too).

Thanks again for all the help in this. If you don't
mind I may have more questions for you along the way.
Take care and I hope you had a great Easter!

Mike

Mike,
My pain was in the very lower left abdomen. I had no pain in my adductor. When I would start a run it would feel like my left side was 'pulling' away from my pubic bone. After workouts it would really bother me to roll over in bed, get in and out of a car, etc.. It would also hurt when I swam - doing flip turns, reaching with m right hand, etc... It just became intolerable by mid December.

Meyers does have a daughter in the AF. He also has a son who is a Marine Corps JAG.

Feel free to ask me an questions. I'll drop you an e-mail later. I'm out in San Francuisco right now for work. Had to travel on Eatser - yuck.

RD