i’m hoping to hear from those of you with personal experience with this as well as those with sports medicine background. as you’ll read below, i have been to see a doc about this but have not really been diagnosed (i’m a poor grad student with sh!tty insurance and a not-very-helpful student health care center). my worst fear is that i have a sports hernia (core muscles tearing away from the pelvic bone) and from what i’ve read online this is hard to diagnose and even harder to treat.
here’s my sob story:
about a week after my first 10K of the season (march) i developed a dull ache on the front of my right hip - specifically where my thigh meets my abdomen. it also wraps around the inner part of my leg (e.g. adductors). i stopped running but it hurt when i walked over 1/4 mile and even when i swam. i stopped doing anything for 10 days or so and it was getting better. so of course i tried running on it again - 2 miles at an easy pace resulted in severe pain and i could hardly walk the rest of the day. that was stupid!
i went to see someone at the student health care center. he literally took less than 5 minutes to talk with/examine me, diagnosed me with “a tight right hip”, and sent me off to a massage therapist/yogaist. the massage therapist said all my related hip muscles were tight (glutes, adductors, hip flexors, hamstrings, etc.) and working with her once a week and stretching 30 min a day has definitely helped (alongside a much reduced workout schedule), but it’s not gone completely…
i’ve been trying to run again. in the past month i’ve gradually worked up to running 1.5 miles at a time every other day. the “ache” is still there a few hours after the runs only on my right side and when it’s present i can also feel swelling/tightness over my pubic bone, in my inguinal area, and in my groin. it’s not painful per se but something is definitely not right.
i’m hoping this is just tendonitis stuff. from what i’ve read, most sports hernias are quite painful, no? other information that may/may not be relevant:
- i’m a female in my mid-20s
- i’ve had a history of knee pain (mostly left side) both IT band and PF related
- i had my appendix out a few years ago (i think abdominal surgery is a risk factor for abdominal wall tearing)
any help/advice/opinions would be much appreciated!!