I’ve been dealing with pain in my hip area, hamstrings and glutes for 21 months now. Recent MRIs of lumbar and hip confirmed tears in right hamstring and gluteus medius (not full thickness). MRI from a year ago showed those as well, but radiologist, hip surgeon and back surgeon all missed it. PT, cortisone shots, pain meds and acupuncture didn’t help. Second hip ortho doc recommends two surgeries 8 weeks apart - first hamstring then glutes. I’m told that my first attempts at running wouldn’t be for at least 7-8 months. Knowing how tough the recovery from those surgeries is, makes me very scared. Has anyone had those surgeries and how did the recovery process go? Did the surgery lead to full recovery and being able to compete again at a high level?
What I haven’t tried is PRP. Any thoughts on that for those type of injuries?
In addition to the tears, my opposite foot (left) went numb two months ago. Also, back doc confirmed weakness in my upper leg, which he said he isn’t able to explain anatomically. He doesn’t think it’s coming from the back. I’ll start a new thread in that regards, but thought I would mention it in case it’s related to my right hamstring/glute tears.
I’ve been dealing with pain in my hip area, hamstrings and glutes for 21 months now. Recent MRIs of lumbar and hip confirmed tears in right hamstring and gluteus medius (not full thickness). MRI from a year ago showed those as well, but radiologist, hip surgeon and back surgeon all missed it. PT, cortisone shots, pain meds and acupuncture didn’t help. Second hip ortho doc recommends two surgeries 8 weeks apart - first hamstring then glutes. I’m told that my first attempts at running wouldn’t be for at least 7-8 months. Knowing how tough the recovery from those surgeries is, makes me very scared. Has anyone had those surgeries and how did the recovery process go? Did the surgery lead to full recovery and being able to compete again at a high level?
What I haven’t tried is PRP. Any thoughts on that for those type of injuries?
In addition to the tears, my opposite foot (left) went numb two months ago. Also, back doc confirmed weakness in my upper leg, which he said he isn’t able to explain anatomically. He doesn’t think it’s coming from the back. I’ll start a new thread in that regards, but thought I would mention it in case it’s related to my right hamstring/glute tears.
I have a client who had a partial tear in her hamstring attachment in her hip. She was facing a surgery or PT. When with PT and lots of band work to strengthen the muscles around the tear. She finished PT a week ago and has been pain free for over a month now.
The returning to a high level of racing part is TBD for me, but I’m currently six weeks post-op after having my proximal hamstring tendons repaired (and a bone spur shaved down). What I can say is that no matter what I tried-high load hamstring strengthening, ART, acupuncture, PT, rest from anything land-based, and a round of PRP, I was not able to train and compete well with the degenerative tearing in there (at one point, there was some mild glute med tendinopathy in there, too, but that cleared up). The hamstring/butt pain either directly limited me, or led to compensatory injuries from constantly favoring my other side (including a femoral stress fracture). I could get things feeling better, but not sustainably enough to be able to train enough to race well, and really, it got to the point that forcing the matter wasn’t fun. I’m a PT myself, so I do believe in conservative treatment whenever possible, but that ship sailed. My intent is to get back to full-strength racing, which I’ve been told should be possible with time by my surgeon and PT.
The surgical recovery itself has been pretty painful and tough physically, but compared to the amount of time I spent trying every other option and never really having much success, it’s been easy to accept. I just wish that I’d been a little bit more proactive earlier about getting another opinion (I was told a lot that my MRI didn’t look bad enough, when in reality, all the hamstring tendons were partially torn). Anyways, that’s just my experience! The surgical recovery period (4-6 months overall for just the hammy) seemed like a daunting no-go for me years ago, and it did make sense to try other approaches, but tendons are tough to heal. Happy to share more as this recovery progresses!
That is great news. How many months of PT did it take? And did she stop running for the entire period? I did 4 months continuously before moving in other directions. However, back then the focus was more on the hip area and the back as there was no diagnosis by the docs. When I started the 2nd round of PT, clamshell and sideways leg lifts made the area on the side of my legs flare up like crazy. Could that have been related to the hamstring and/or glute tear?
Wishing you a speedy and full recovery!! I’m totally with you. It’s extremely daunting knowing that you will be out of commission for so many months to come. For how long where you on crutches? When did they start you with PT?
Also, what was the longest stretch you didn’t run prior to surgery? And did you ever stop cycling? Did PRP help temporarily or not at all?
It took her about 3 months to get pain free from stuff like clamshells, legs lifts and planks and other band exercise. She has not resumed training with me but she is riding her MTB fairly hard currently.
I’m so sorry.
I’d do the pt stuff someone else mentioned, and try PRP before surgery. PRP is unlikely to make it worse, could help, and is less invasive. Insurance might not cover it but compared to the cost of surgery it would be worth it to me, not sure what your financial situation is.
I had a partial hamstring tendon tear at the glute insertion and healed it via not running and PT.
good luck. Please keep us updated.
Wishing you a speedy and full recovery!! I’m totally with you. It’s extremely daunting knowing that you will be out of commission for so many months to come. For how long where you on crutches? When did they start you with PT?
Also, what was the longest stretch you didn’t run prior to surgery? And did you ever stop cycling? Did PRP help temporarily or not at all?
Thanks! After missing much of my 2019 season with the hamstring and stress fracture, and then having races cancelled in 2020, I wanted nothing to do with taking a prolonged break for surgery and did plow through some races this season, but everything just progressively worsened. My symptoms were on/off starting back in 2016, then got pretty bad throughout 2018, although I was still able to race a lot, and race well. I tried PRP in early 2019, and had a few months of things feeling better, but that also might have been the ~1-2 month break from riding, ~4 month break from running, and PT focus I took in there. My L/R balance was still off, and I ended up with the stress fracture as soon as I started to approach “normal” volumes that summer. I took a lot of breaks from running over the next couple of years-multiple 1-4 month streaks of not running. The stress fracture forced me to do nothing but swim with a buoy for ~8 weeks, and I was optimistic that the time off of using my legs might help the hamstring, but when I started to run again a couple of months after that, it actually felt worse. This has been a pattern throughout-hamstring felt worse after not running, would get a little better when attempting to return to it, then just deteriorate again once over ~20mi/week or with any quality, leading to more time off or some other compensatory injury, rinse, repeat. I have been able to cycle consistently throughout the past ~1.5 years, but couldn’t approach indoor powers outdoors, because being in a TT position just didn’t work.
So, that brought me to surgery-I went back to the doctor who did the PRP and thought he might suggest trying that again (since he’d had good results with other patients), but the chronicity was the deciding factor. It should be six weeks on crutches (I actually have a follow-up tomorrow), essentially doing nothing but upper body strength work, and PT. They started me on PT the day after surgery, although it was ~3-4 weeks before I really was doing anything that involved much movement. I just started “riding” (like, 5-10min super easy) a couple of days ago, and should be able to pull in the pool next week. The worst part has really been the tenderness with sitting. It’s definitely a haul of a recovery process (I had a hip scope years ago that was a cakewalk in comparison), but hopefully after all of the ups and downs and only partially temporarily successful measures of the past few years, it’ll be worth it down the line!
So I struggled with a hamstring issue that started in October, 2020. I didn’t run for months. I saw a specialist that December and started shockwave therapy. Around January, I started PT. I was able to start running in April and decided to keep my plans to race Nationals in August. However, I think I did too much too soon, and after a couple of consecutive weeks of racing, I started having hip issues as well. I still raced Nationals, but literally felt like I was running on a dislocated hip. And, I couldn’t jog across an intersection after the race because it was too painful. I shut everything down after that and saw a different specialist, who actually did some imaging. Turns out I had a proximal hamstring tear and hip labrum tear. I got a cortizone hip injection in September and started PT again. Now I’m doing a lot more strength work to load up the hamstring. I’m out of PT and doing it on my own now. So far so good. I still have to manage everything, as the hip could flair up again. But, I’m running somewhat consistently again (30-40 minute runs, with a few 60-70 min runs here and there). This go round, however, I’m taking it much slower. I’m using the offseason to build up…nothing fast. My goal is to avoid surgery at all costs.
I’m so glad the combo of cortisone shot and PT/strenghtening did the trick for you. I sure hope you stay injury free. Yes, surgery is definitely the last resort.
In the meantime I had a nerve conduction test done as my left leg/foot started showing numbness in October. The diagnosis is distal peroneal mono neuropathy. And the neurologist doesn’t believe it’s connected to the back. Instead he wants me to see a podiatrist. Two years into this, I’m still trying to figure out the origin of the pain. Also, I’m not sure if the tears in my hamstrings and glutes are that severe to require surgery. I’ve shut down all running, cycling, swimming (even water running) and the pain is as bad as before.
Thanks again for your detailed report. How is your recovery coming along? What are you able or allowed to do by now?
Thank you very much for the advice. I looked into PRP/stem cell therapy. Hefty price tag - $12,500. I was also told that the treatment may or may not work and that surgery might still be needed after all. In the meantime, I had an EMG on my leg due to the numbness, which showed peroneal neuropathy. Even though the neurologist doesn’t think so, could it be that the back is the origin of all the secondary pain?
Thank you! I’m leaning towards giving PT another chance as I would like to avoid surgery at all cost. However, I saw a functional medicine guy who gave me just 4 simple exercises to do twice per day. He also advised that I should stop any running, cycling, swimming, which I did. And still things flared up even more… 
He is puzzled about that himself. Any further recommendations?
I’ll chime in as a case where surgery was an unqualified success. I had a traumatic hamstring injury…I tore my left hamstring off the pelvis trying to get up on a wakeboard in July of 2018 (ouch!). I was 49 years old at the time of the injury. It was a full-thickness tear, but luckily there was only about 1cm of retraction. I was fortunate that I was able to get imaging done within about 10 days (I injured myself on the first full day of a week up in Tahoe, and we were not cancelling the trip, not even for a potential torn hamstring), and was able to get a surgery date within about three weeks. They inserted three eye screws into my pelvis and sutured the hamstring into place.
I was off work, on the couch, and in a locked knee brace for a month. I started a very conservative PT regimen in September (about 6 weeks post-op) that lasted until December. I was finally cleared to run in late December. I was able to return to swimming, running, and cycling. If not for a torn meniscus that was unrelated to the hamstring injury, I’d still be running today. As it is, I’m a full-time cyclist riding longer and stronger than I ever did pre-injury with zero hamstring issues.
Maybe it’s the fact that my hamstring issue was traumatic, and not chronic, that led to such a positive outcome. Who knows. But I can’t see how it could have turned out any better than it did.
But I recognize that I was very lucky: I had great medical insurance that covered everything from imaging to PT; I was able to take all the time I needed off work to recover; and I didn’t have any surgical complications.
Hopefully you can resolve your issue without surgery, but if you do need surgery, it can work.
Good luck!
Thanks for sharing your success story. Wow! That’s amazing! Very happy for you being able to ride stronger than ever! And how did the running go prior to your meniscus tear? Were you able to run stronger/faster than before the surgery?
Fortunately (or maybe not), I only have a partial tear. But it makes the surgery decision more complicated.
Your peroneal nerve is part of the L5 distribution from your lumbar spine. It’s actually quite common for the low back to be a primary and secondary cause of symptoms. This should be completely ruled out before any invasive or expensive procedures.
was able to return to swimming, running, and cycling. If not for a torn meniscus that was unrelated to the hamstring injury, I’d still be running today. As it is, I’m a full-time cyclist riding longer and stronger than I ever did pre-injury with zero hamstring issues.
How did the running go prior to your meniscus tear? Were you able to run stronger/faster than before the surgery?
How is your recovery coming along? What are you able to do by now? Also, where exactly was your hamstring tear? And what percentage?
I had a partial hamstring tendon tear at the glute insertion and healed it via not running and PT.
How severe was your partial hamstring tendon tear? Both of my tears on the left and right leg are at approx. 50%.
Dr. Tigerchik wrote:
I had a partial hamstring tendon tear at the glute insertion and healed it via not running and PT.
How severe was your partial hamstring tendon tear? Both of my tears on the left and right leg are at approx. 50%.
I don’t remember. What I do remember from the radiology report - and I can get a copy of it if the info would be useful to you, really, not a problem - was that I think there are a couple different tendons, and one was at least halfway torn? But I think I remember the orthopod looking at the radiology report and saying he would not have necessarily agreed with that reading because there was too much inflammation to tell.
The good news is that it healed. It will sometimes ache a tiny bit if I do too much (like I rode 43.5 miles the other day and it was a little tiny bit achy - I hadn’t ridden in awhile so that was just a foolish thing to do) but mostly it’s fine