Sunday, October 31, 2010

Sports hernia? Strain?

It's been awhile, I've got some other stuff to post, from visiting WI and other runs around here...but wanted to get this out there in case there's any advice...

Started having some lower abdominal pain after Denver Marathon 2 weeks ago. Felt like an acceptable level of "good" pain -- sore muscles -- didn't think much of it. I guess some low-level of pain was there on and off since then, but I kept running. Didn't really hurt while running, wouldn't have thought much of it...Until I did some track work last Wednesday. That actually didn't hurt either, but later that night, or the next day, it occurred to me that it hurts in one specific spot, at the bottom of my lower ab on my right side, just inside the point part of the pelvic bone. (You could argue that I previously had a slightly cranky hip and other imbalances that contributed to it, but unless you had a time machine, that wouldn't be useful advice -- and if you DID have a time machine, then we should be doing other fun things with it).

If I sneeze, it hurts. If I cough, it kinda hurts. It's not unbearable though. I stopped running as of last Wednesday (OK, I do a test jog for 5-10 seconds every once in awhile just to verify "It doesn't really hurt while running") Missed BBMM, something I was very much looking forward to all month. Mainly doing a situp or a leg raise feels like a "bad thing" which I shouldn't do. But, it also doesn't feel like a massageable, "good" pain like after a hard ab workout...and it's not going away by itself. There is no bulge or lower pelvic pain as in a classic inguinal hernia.

Any experience or suggestions here? Probably will see a doctor soon -- first time outside of urgent care in years! Gawd, I don't want a long, drawn-out process. If that's what it is, the first "conservative treatment" is basically months of doing nothing, and that hardly ever works, so you get surgery anyway. But if you just did activities that whole time, you probably won't make it much worse, until you can't take it anymore and get surgery anyway. Ugh. Not looking for a pity party, I'm in denial and hoping it's "something else." Each morning I wake up and really hope that it went away overnight, it's still "only" 2 weeks (or less than a week since it got worse) so there's still time for it to improve with rest. Any other magic answers?

EDIT: PT friend says abdominal strain, should get better in 2-3 weeks, OK to be active but below pain threshold. She was right about my knee so fingers crossed!

5 comments:

  1. Yes ... I have a good amount of experience here actually. Screwed myself up in early 2008 with one. It took about six months to "subside" and I still deal with it. It is almost like a sore Achilles now ... I just run with it. Contact me via regular mail (georgezack at that gee mail thingie) and we can exchange contact info and we can talk about it on the phone.

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  2. Thanks much! I will also poke around the archives of your Blog. Found this gem:
    http://georgezack.blogspot.com/2008/04/pushy-with-pt.html

    ...which pretty much sums *exactly* how I would feel if this is a long-term, chronic thing (still holding out hope for a short-term strain that gets better)...Either way, I can sympathize with your frustration back then.

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  3. Mike - I'm having the exact same thing right now. Been experiencing it since August. If you find magic answers, share 'em!

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  4. No magic answers here as far as I know boys.

    Lots to wade through here, but in what might be the longest Letsrun thread ever ... http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=559820

    Lots of crap in there but a good amount to glean about this injury that is hard to deal with, diagnose, etc.

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  5. Thanks JP, sorry to hear, but encouraging to see that you and GZ are still rockin' it and getting plenty of quality miles and races! Feeling a little better today, still not running until Thursday.

    I caught bits and pieces of letsrun.com thread before, but hadn't noticed it was *160 pages*, damn! And, still, so much ignorance in the medical community, it seems...

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