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Anyone Have Experience with Hamstring Injuries

David_Bricker

PSR Fire Marshall
NAXJA Member
On Saturday, Jan 18th, my wife Jody decided to try out for the Winter Olympics in a new demonstration sport she's calling the ice splits. She was getting out of the car to meet friends for lunch, and her foot slipped on the ice hidden beneath the snow. She did the splits; one leg in, one leg out of the car. She heard a "pop" and down she went. She was unable to move, but somehow managed to get back in the car and call me. Off to the ER we go!



Turns out she severed all three tendons that attach the three hamstring muscles at the hip. The muscles retracted about 1 3/8”. I’ve never seen her in such pain. On a pain scale of 0-10, she was at a 14 when she moved. Monday, she was finally able to get some real meds, as the ER would not provide or prescribe anything other than ibuprofen. Once she had the med, she was able to get some sleep, and let the muscles relax a little bit.


She is now doing better than this past weekend, where she couldn't move at all without excruciating pain and lots of assistance. At this point, she still needs assistance in getting in and out of bed, repositioning, etc. She can't yet sit down, though she is able to stand and walk with assistance. We've met with an orthopedic surgeon, and will be making a decision by this coming Monday on whether to have surgery.


IF anyone has had experience with Class 3 hamstring avulsion, and will to share stories of pros/cons for surgery, we’d be interested to hear.



David Bricker / SYR
 
I did mine in Karate combat. I was borderline for surgery but in hindsight I think that I may have had a better outcome if I had surgery. I didn't see a specialist, only my local doctor.

The injury took ten weeks to heal naturally with ice packs and pain killers. Ten weeks to walk without pain but it was a weak point for a long time afterwards perhaps five to seven years. But that was probably because I was forever injuring that leg.

I eventually gave up karate as I would always fight protecting that leg and every opponent always targetted it. There's only so much time you can take off work for the same pointless injury so karate had to end.

I found it difficult to pedal a bike up hill for years afterwards despite walking and running mostly being OK.
I guess I was too proud to get proper help at the time and I just tried to carry on as best I could. If I ever have the same injury again, I will see a specialist for sure and take their advice.
 
I can't help with advice regarding the hamstring, but for future reference (hopefully never needed, but could be of use to someone) you can achieve better pain relief with a combination of Ibuprofen and Acetaminophen.

Some 25 or so years ago, before everyone was up on doctor shopping for Vicodin (I was a college student at the time) the pill pushers, in their infinite wisdom, tried to set me up with Vicodin to manage migraine headaches. Thankfully I wised up to that one PDQ and abandoned the docs advice on that front. I have since found that the a couple of Ibuprofen and one Acetaminophen does a fine job of knocking my headaches down. FWIW, it was my dentist who turned me on to that cocktail.

You can do a search for the combining of those two drugs and you will probably find they are known to work well together. The docs just won't prescibe them too you. I suspect because they are in the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies. That's the cynic in me.

Best of luck to Jody.

On the plus side, slipping on ice in Hawaii should be a less likely prospect.
 
I ruptured my Achilles due to a medication I was on while I was in China. I ended up having it operated on when I got back from China. It is a long rehab time. I was not allowed to put my foot on the floor for 4 months after surgery. At seven months, I was in the doctor's office doing an evaluation and ruptured it again. I was forced to take a medical settlement from Workman's Comp and took 6 months off from work and let it recuperate. It is fine now and as strong as ever but it was a long road.

Follow your doctor's orders and give it time to heal ALL the way, otherwise you may end up worse than before.
 
Never had a hamstring injury, but did suffer a biceps avulsion some years ago. Opted to have the surgery. Never regretted it. Full function restored and a cool scar to remember it by.
 
Never had a hamstring injury, but did suffer a biceps avulsion some years ago. Opted to have the surgery. Never regretted it. Full function restored and a cool scar to remember it by.

I am over the cool scar thing. I have had 16 ortho surgeries.
 
I'm A month out from getting a couple of 12" long scars. I'm getting a total knee replacement on both knees at the same time.:party:
 
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