Hamstring injuries

[BlueTip]

Anyone have experience with hamstring injuries? Hurt mine running a couple of days ago. It's swollen and actually bruised today. Bruising started just above the knee on the back of my leg and has moved even below the knee.

 

Plan on seeing the doctor tomorrow. Hurts to walk...our pretty much do anything. What kind of recovery time should I expect?

 

My son played most of the high school baseball season this year with a pulled hamstring. The stopping and starting were the worst but once he got up to speed he could manage it.

 

Trying to play through it certainly extended the healing/recovery period to 8-9 weeks where it probably would have been maybe 3 weeks if he laid off all activity.

 

One thing that helped him was kinesiology tape. I don't know if it works for everyone but it worked for him. Once you're healed you might want to try the tape for support, even if it's mostly mental.

[spindoc]

Anyone have experience with hamstring injuries? Hurt mine running a couple of days ago. It's swollen and actually bruised today. Bruising started just above the knee on the back of my leg and has moved even below the knee.

 

Plan on seeing the doctor tomorrow. Hurts to walk...our pretty much do anything. What kind of recovery time should I expect?

Long. Several weeks if you have bruising. The tear will have to heal. Heat wrap will help. I tore one in college stealing second and would have sworn someone shot me in the back of the leg. But I had the benefit of the training room too.

[halfback20]

Good lord. The hospital called for a "pre registration" and told me the MRI was going to cost me $1,000 out of pocket based on estimates from my insurance company.

 

I tried calling back shortly after getting off the phone to ask these questions, but apparently they don't take calls late they just make them. Anyone know if they will give me grief for canceling the MRI? Or if the ortho doctor will see me without an MRI? $1K is too much money for them to look at it and tell me it's torn...

[spindoc]

Good lord. The hospital called for a "pre registration" and told me the MRI was going to cost me $1,000 out of pocket based on estimates from my insurance company.

 

I tried calling back shortly after getting off the phone to ask these questions, but apparently they don't take calls late they just make them. Anyone know if they will give me grief for canceling the MRI? Or if the ortho doctor will see me without an MRI? $1K is too much money for them to look at it and tell me it's torn...

A good ortho guy won't need an MRI to tell you you have a torn hammy. However, if it needs surgery they won't do it without it. It's also highly unlikely you will need surgery. It's also advisable to "shop" around for MRI deals. There are usually scads of imaging centers who may be way under a grand. Good luck HB.

 

Curious, proximal to your bruise, can you feel a tender knot in your hammy?

[halfback20]

A good ortho guy won't need an MRI to tell you you have a torn hammy. However, if it needs surgery they won't do it without it. It's also highly unlikely you will need surgery. It's also advisable to "shop" around for MRI deals. There are usually scads of imaging centers who may be way under a grand. Good luck HB.

 

Curious, proximal to your bruise, can you feel a tender knot in your hammy?

 

The MRI is scheduled. Do you think the hospital will charge me to cancel it in the morning? Seems like I've heard of that before. I can't afford $1000 right now, to be honest.

 

I'm planning on calling the ortho tomorrow to ask if I can come without the MRI. Surely mine won't need surgery....

 

Re: the bruise...it's bruised in two different places. It's bruised at the bottom of my hamstring and even below the knee. It's also bruised at the top of my hamstring. The worse of the bruises is at the bottom but I do feel a knot...maybe...it is swollen near the top.

[halfback20]

Ortho said I could wait to see then and let them determine if I need a mri so I cancelled it. Thank God. Hope i don't need one.

[JokersWild24]

Like Spin said, shop around for MRI's, but don't expect someone to cut on you without one.

 

Regardless, don't rush it back, even if you feel good on it for a bit. Bruising like you are describing does not sound good at all.

[halfback20]

Like Spin said, shop around for MRI's, but don't expect someone to cut on you without one.

 

Regardless, don't rush it back, even if you feel good on it for a bit. Bruising like you are describing does not sound good at all.

 

Feels better today but that's probably bc I didn't do anything yesterday. Two days after I hurt it I did way to much on it because it felt better and the next day it was bad.

 

I hope they don't need to do surgery...seems like it's rare with hamstring.

[spindoc]

I'd lay off of it as long as you can. It'll heal unless you have a bad tear. You wouldn't feel much better today if it was a bad one. The knot is a bundle of muscle fiber from the tear. The smaller the knot, the smaller the tear. If you have 2 bruises, you have 2 tears. When the fibers rupture, they bleed, you get a bruise. You're gonna miss the start of training camp, probably on the PUP list, but you'll be good week 1.

[halfback20]

I'd lay off of it as long as you can. It'll heal unless you have a bad tear. You wouldn't feel much better today if it was a bad one. The knot is a bundle of muscle fiber from the tear. The smaller the knot' date=' the smaller the tear. If you have 2 bruises, you have 2 tears. When the fibers rupture, they bleed, you get a bruise. You're gonna miss the start of training camp, probably on the PUP list, but you'll be good week 1.[/quote']

 

Well crap. So bruise means tear basically?

[JCVD]

Well crap. So bruise means tear basically?

 

Yes

[spindoc]

Well crap. So bruise means tear basically?

Yes, but every "sprain" is also a tear to some degree. My guess is you'll be fine in fairly short order. However, now that you're an old goat, you gotta stretch better.:lol2:

[00Rocket28]

Rub some dirt on it

[halfback20]

Doctor said it's ruptured but not sure if it's partial or full. Gotta do an mri after all. Says if it's bad enough he might need to do surgery, which I thought was pretty rare.

[doomer]

Well crap. So bruise means tear basically?

 

Actually the muscles get mini-tears and regenerate from vigorous use. That is how the muscle builds, so don't panic yet. If it is overextended or over-used, a pull can be either a complete tear (doubtful), tears in the sheath or stretching tears. Hopefully the last. Having played soccer for many years, I can attest to sprinting and reaching for a ball only to have my hamstring advise me otherwise. Have also experienced, in the worst pull, significant bruising. Maybe I was lucky, but I rested, ice, compression and elevation (RICE) as much as possible at first. After the first few days, deep massage or ultrasound will help break up the clotting and aid in recovery.

 

My pulls/tears all recovered 100% in this way.

 

As far as prevention, that is a harder one for me. All of mine were well into the game, so not a result of not being warmed up and appropriately stretched....maybe more dehydration?

 

Anyway, good luck!