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

Here's the latest with me. Again, undiagnosed, so don't know exactly what I have. Decided to give it a go, and switched from running my hometown's marathon to the 1/2. Ran pain free, and did a couple minutes better than I had hoped for, on a real flat course. 2 wks later, back in Tahoe, jumped in a trail half marathon at the last minute, groins flared up on a trail mostly on singletrack with some hills, but won, admittedly not against the most elite field, but had fun running a great course.

So, at the point now, where I'm thinking and know that they really flare up primarily going uphill, which most of my training revoloves around, b/c thats basically what the terrain demands around here. Went on a long run on the Western States trail to Emigrant pass at the top of Squaw, over to Granite chief area, and back down, for like 2 1/2 hrs, and they obviously flared up pretty bad. But, am going to hold to original plan and run NYC marathon, hoping that it won't be too bad considering its mainly flat, relative to all the runs I do around here. Until I get it diagnosed officially, and it starts to deterioriate to the point where I can't do any of the above, I'm gonna hold off on even considering surgery. I did have a short abductor release therapy session post road 1/2 marathon, at a booth that was set up, and it felt pretty good though tough to really say how much benefit there was.

So, thats the latest, all of you that are dealing with this injury on a full on level, I can't imagine how tough it must be, best of luck, i'll keep chiming in periodically to see whats goin on, and let y'all know how I'm doing, not that anyone cares.

OUT

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HockeyGuy wrote:

you seem to know an awful lot about the injury, the treatments, and the better doctors who treat them.

the doctor i've been seeing told me Meyers would do exactly what he's been prescribing - a month of PT, if no results, a cortizone injection, then another month of PT. Still, if nothing, then surgery is the next option. That's pretty much the only reason I haven't gone down to see Dr. Meyer's on my own. I've been following the protocal given to my doctor by Dr Meyers. Are you familiar with that treatment?
- PT
- Cortizone shot, more PT
- Ultimately, surgery

If surgery seems to be the only thing that can actually "fix" this problem, why the hesitation to prescribe the surgery? other than the obvious risks that go along with surgery.

thanks again.

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You sound well ROC - backcountry time soon, take care of yourself so's you can enjoy it. Don't forget core strength work (not situps - cable column work; use therabands if you don't have a facility).

Dr. Meyers will, for those athletes not traveling a great distance, suggest a course of Indocine as a last gasp before surgery. With me, it was the powerful anti-inflammatory for 6 wks with a date for surgery thereafter (which I kept). Though the notion that this is a cake walk of a procedure would make all of these threads a waste. Read 'em (and their links).

"...Surgical success of repairing a sports hernia, which means returning to the level of activity pre-injury, varies from 63-95 percent..."

http://theacc.collegesports.com/sports/c-track/spec-rel/061005aad.html

Thanx waves,

Yeah, things are good. Backcountry time soon indeed. I can feel it in the air. Been well below freezing here in the mornings. Thanx again for all your insight concerning this.
I'm guessing I've done numerous things over the yrs to do some damage down there, but I guess its not as bad as it could be, considering I can still pull alot of these things off.
I'll let you know how the NYC marathon goes, I definitely want to go sub 3, with an outside look at 2:50, my recent 1/2 marathon of 1:18 recently has me looking at mid 2:40's, but I haven't exactly been doing the recommended marathon training program. And, i am fully aware that alot of things can go wrong at that distance, so we'll see what happens. I'm gonna try and contain myself in the early miles (easier said than done), go thru in 1:24-1:25, and let it go from there. I got carried away in the 1/2 with a 5:40 opening mile, and that was with slowing down bigtime when I heard the guy on the loudspeaker with the mile split yelling out 5:19, 5:20 as i was 100 meters away.

McNabb didn't look too good today against my 'Boys.

-ROC

thanks Abe. After 6 months of getting the "you're getting better" routine from just about every doctor, I figuired i was on the right path.

Problem is, I'm not getting better. Standing around doing nothing, I'm fine. Squeeze my legs together, PAIN. point my right foot down and contract, PAIN. Any sort of adduction or groin stretch, PAIN. It's ridiculous. I'm sick of this.

I just want to get better, I'm not ready to give up sports at 27 years old. So, this Dr. telling me PT and cortizone BEFORE surgery isn't necessarily the proper protocol?

I just want to make sure I have the right doctor in Dr. Meyers, this is him, correct?;

http://www.topdocsonline.com/np/Find_a_Physician/Details.asp?ID=452&PracID=33

Yep, thats him.

hey, have you found a good doctor for your condition. I believe I have the same thing. I can't do much. Hurts when I strain and if I bend over to pick something up. I've seen several doctors but they can't figure it out. I even had a doctor give me an Umbilical hernia repair but that was not the problem. I'm tired of seeing doctor that don't know my condition. If you have any info I appreciate it.

Dave

Here's my experience. Was a serious enough runner from about '95 to last year. Had already cut back running and over the winter developed a nasty cough that was bad enough to give me what I thought was a lower abdominal stitch (this had occurred in the past). It seemed to go away and I thought nothing of it when a few weeks later I was starting track work and noticed my left groin was sore whenever I made sudden forward or lateral movements (as in nailing a 200 from a standing start or breakdancing). Frigging thing lingered all the way into summer, never becoming too painful to run (I was out there about 3-4 days a week) but never healing even with whole weeks off. Finally I found this thread and realized I fit the profile of a Gilmore's sports osteistis publagic hernia sufferer, and thought back to my winter cough. A light went on and I traveled across the state today to see a hernia specialist.

The doc was good, not pushing surgery even though it's his bread and butter or even pretending he'd necessarily figure a damn thing out for certain. He normally deals with fat old folks with obvious loops of bowel protruding through their inguinal canals or outright tears in their ab muscles, or even through their navels (all of these look disgusting as hell, by the way) but has seen a few sports hernia types and has become more interested what with the attention given Donovan McNabb and all.

The long and the short of it is that a normal exam revealed no hernia, but an ultrasound allowing for real time analysis (goop on the groin with a chick weilding the "paddle" - fun, fun) showed a diffuse bilateral one. Odd thing is I've been back to running daily more recently and it's been hurting less. The doc said he could operate and repair the thing laparoscopically with no problem, but said there was no danger of the thing progressing into a typical hernia and couldn't guarantee that surgery would relieve the groin pain anyway because this pain might be originating from a tight psoas or some other misery.

I think I may try active isolated stretching, then maybe ART, but I think I'll avoid the surgery as long as I can do my rec runner thing and keep from turning into another 40 year old fatass, more of which my neighborhood does not need. I don't feel like wandering around with synthetic mesh in my person, and he did say that skinny dudes take more notice of the mesh and take longer to heal in general even though he did stress it was "minimally invasive."

As an addendum, this guy had heard of Meyers because he's McNabb's personal hernia guy now, but didn't know quite what to make of him as he hasn't published anything about his specific work with athletes.

David,

Its in the above posts, but the 2 main specialists to see concerning this are Myers from Drexel, or Cattey in Wisconsin. Both have completely different approaches to the repair attempt. If you sift thru the thread, there's a ton of info and links.

-ROC

My 9 year old son is having the same problem. He is very active in football, soccer, and wrestling. He has a 4 wheel accident in July and 2 months later he has been in pain. We've been to 2 specialist and on the 3rd visit they think he has a sports hernia. But our problem is that we live in Mt.Venon, In. and the nearest big city is Evansville and the surgeon says he doesn't know of anyone in this area that has preformed that kind of repair surgery. So I'm now waiting for him to do research while I find the nearest hospital that can perform this. He has tenderness in his groin and is unable to play sports and run. If you have any info to share I'd greatly appreciate it and I hope you get the info your looking for.

Thanks.

Can you fix this problem with out surgery? Like if you ice, and slowly increase flexibility and strength in the hip flexors and the abdominals? Or is surgery the only option to fix it?

Remember that guru I referred to in a prior post...? Well, the Phila.com (Inky/Daily News) site has just done an article on her technique and - there's news...

"...Over there would be Munich, home to the Hernia Center and its director, Dr. Ulrike Muschaweck, a woman who has revolutionized sports hernia repair. Using a procedure she developed called Minimal Repair Technique, athletes are returning to competition in 10 days to 2 weeks.

That's full competition with no limits, no restrictions and best of all, no re-tears. Her recurrence rate is an astonishing .002 percent."

If I was on my way/in therapy prior to surgery with Dr. Meyers I'd ask him what she's doing that is different from his procedure.

Could be hope on the horizon for those not responding to Meyers or Cattey revisions...

I had the procedure done by Dr. Cattey six weeks ago yesterday. He repaired both sides.

Last week I was up to 60 miles off singles for the week. I was walking 45 min a day for two weeks after the surgery. Then started running light, adding core work, drills and strides each week. It's a lot better then before the surgery for sure, still a little sore, but I'm running.

You would be surprised to know how many people they are working on now. I know one of the best runners in the US and he just had the procedure done by Dr. Cattey two weeks after I did. He ran remarkably well most of the summer while battling the injury as well as a couple other olds wounds, but by August he couldn't keep at it at the same level because the injury was just too restricting. He is on the road to recovery now.

Glad I didn't wait any longer to have things taken care of. This injury will NOT just go away.

Mark

This is interesting to me, Does anyone else have any information about her and her technique? Also has anyone been to see Dr. Chris Bradshaw who is in England/Australia? He publishes a lot of articles about groin pain. I am on of the people that have been to cattey and meyers and am not better. Also, has anyone ever had a psoas surgerical released because of pain or some type of tear? I like to see this thread come up every once in awhile because this injury is a REAL PAIN!!!

Before going to a doctor, does anyone know the difference between a groin strain/pull and a sports hernia. Is the pain a lot worse with a sports hernia?

I can wrap my head about this thing. Is its only curable with surgery? Can someone explain how it can't be rehabilitated, it would help me to understand it better. I don't really get it and I've researched it a little already.

I meant I couldn't understand it.

I had a sports hernia surgery done by Cattey in May. Five months later I am able to jog with mild discomfort. Things don't seem to be quite right so I am considering having surgery done by Meyers. Will the procedure that he does undo what Cattey did with the mesh? I guess I'm wondering if it might be better just to accept the partial success I seem to have now versus risking making things worse. Does anyone have information that can help?

This is a great thread and seems to pop up every now and then with the same result, go see Dr Meyer. I have had the symptoms as well for about 4 years now and decided against the surgery after the hernia surgery did not work. One of my symptoms is the swelling in the areas above my privates and around the top side of my testes. Is this what you all have? Somtimes I have no swelling until I have ran for over an hour and sometimes it takes only a few minutes. Let me know.