Wrote in weeks ago, but maybe I was on the wrong discussion group - but would love to hear from anyone who had an accident and partially tore the GM tendon. It certainly interferes with a lot, and they don't like doing surgery there, but was a jogger for 25 years, yet now it hurts to walk. Thus, I'm headed to another kind of physical therapy, with deep massage and yoga, but it's hard to have much hope, after doing the same for over a year.
Thanks for any responses, -Annie
Annie,
sorry to hear about your injury, pain, and discomfort.
I don't have knowledge of GM tendon tear or it's treatment. I ruptured Achilles while running about 6 months ago and had minimally invasive surgery a few days later. Started physical therapy about a week after surgery. I expect that many folks will respond with their experiences working through tendon injury recovery.
i am glad I did the surgery--and had a competent physical therapist. I would say at this point I have not regained full strength, but range of motion and flexibility are nearly back to normal. I have returned to most activities (except running and Crossfit) including alpine skiing.
Whatever you decide, Annie, I wish you all the best for a complete recovery and speedy return to your favorite activities.
Hi Annie,
I have not had experience of this particular injury, but wish you all the best with your recovery, which I guess will take a little more time. I have had De Quervain's tendonitis in my wrist for over 18 months, and continue with physiotherapy. The healing seems to be a slow process, although it has certainly improved now.
Good luck!
Grimm.
Hi Annie, I have never seen this forum before and somehow came across your post in another thread and had to register to reply to you. I have a partial tear in my GM tendon. I have spent over a year trying to unsuccessfully fix it (doctors, physios, chiros, yoga, massages, rest, mangesium, TENS, you name it, I've tried it). I've basically had pain with every step I've taken for the last year. Every attempted return to exercises (no matter how slow) has resulted in me (likely) re-injurying myself and the stabbing pain returning. My mental health is a mess as I have not been able to exercise at all after living an active life style including running, going to the gym, etc. I'm female, 33 and have never had an injury up to this point. In the last few months, it has severely started to affect my back and I've had referred back pain. I tried cortisone injections which brought relief for 3 weeks, then back to square one. I then spent 3 months getting Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) injections, which are all the rage in Australia at the moment, didn't help. Similar to what it sounds like from your post, I kept being told "this is very unusual" and people start talking about achilles tendons and where this injury usually occurs (not very helpful in my case) To jump ahead, I am now getting surgery done on the tendon next week Friday (again, after having been told that this is very unusual and there is commonly no surgery done) as I cannot live like this anymore. I should add the cause is unknown in my case, there was no particular event that triggered it, it came on gradually over a space of three months when running and kept getting worse.
I have not been able to connect with someone that had this same injury in all my googling, searching in forums, etc so I would be very keen to talk about your experience. I am also petrified about my upcoming surgery next week but I feel like this is my last hope. If you're reading this, it would be great if you could get in touch. Cheers, Eva
Hi Eva: so sorry that I didn't see your post sooner, but probably with all the pain and PT and treatments (you name it) - plus not being able to sleep because of referred throbbing to the low back, I'm a mess too. However, one spine MD said that the partial/high grade gluteus medius tear is referring pain to my SI joint and rotating it more than it should be - which is why he thinks I have throbbing. Last year, I was also pushed to try PRP, but some ultrasonographers did not see a tear anymore - in addition to which my reading on PubMed and NIH.gov showed that the platelet ratio for optimal results was not at all clear. No one has suggested surgery, but the pain comes from any weight-bearing on that leg, and I used to be a maniacal runner myself - but the low back throbbing is constant. One MD says scar tissue can never be loosened, the one I mentioned above sent me to a physician who is also a diagnostic radiologist, who somehow thinks it can be (she found a 'moderate scar burden' ). However, when the PT pressed on the tendon tear area for several sessions to supposedly 'loosen' it up, it only referred much more intense throbbing to my low back. I have never felt this depressed in my life, but wanted to ask you how the surgery went - even though I realize there are risks with everything - yet I similarly feel caught between a rock and a hard place. Surgery can create scar tissue too, but they can debride the original knot of scar tissue, as no one did soft imaging on me when it happened, only X-rays to rule out a fracture - and this doctor knew about tendon and soft tissue issues. I kept running for a few months, since the pain didn't start immediately, which probably only aggravated it (since they say that even crossing one's legs can create more problems in a partially torn tendon, as it's so pivotal to the tripod effect of standing straight - analogous to the shoulder's rotator cuff in the shoulder. If we're "allowed" to email, that would be great, so please let me know how you're feeling and I'll be in touch as soon as I hear from you. Thanks so much for your message, and will hope you're feeling better. Talk to you soon, especially as I've heard 100 contradictions about this, and I'm exhausted as well. My best, -Annie
Eva, It's Annie again, but I meant to tell you that about 1.5 years ago, I called the Pain Management dept. at a good hospital in the US - and was asked about any trauma in the last year (the storage bin collapse) - but the Chair never even sent me for soft imaging: I had to take it upon myself to find a doctor who did an MRI and so I was overdoing too much for several months after the partial tear since I didn't know it was there. This spine physician even CCed the Pain Mgt. doctors, as he thought the epidural steroid injection a few months ago was totally inappropriate for my leg pain and the throbbing in my low back - but PM always dismissed the tendon even when I learned about it, and stayed on their 'neuropathic' route - which never helped me, except for a steroid injection in the SI joint a year ago, since it seemed to refer down to the tendon tear - but we all know that steroids are not great, and that they thin bone and tendon itself. So it's all such a double edged sword. A few weeks ago, most likely before you even wrote, I thought why not go talk to a hip tendon surgeon for a consult, because the resulting pain and lack of 'quality of life' or sleep is making me question the point of everything. My sense is that our brains cannot handle so much constant pain and then we get depressed and hopeless, which creates a totally vicious cycle. Now PM even brought up trigger points, which they injected above the tendon area in the low left back - but it did absolutely NOTHING, except to make everything hurt even worse. I do have some curvature on my L side, which regular people wouldn't see, only MDs who know what to look for - but the expression 'antalgic gait' has come up, and still PM ignored what the spine MDs were saying. However, the left loading and sacrum rotation that go along with a 25 degree curvature probably created a tendency for that bin collapse to lead to this tear - even though I've also learned that we get micro-tears with all our exercise over time, which I'm sure is accurate - but I know that this bin collapse was the 'straw that broke the camel's back.' BTW, they're also pushing yoga now, but deep down, I truly don't think that anything will work after 2 intense years of physical therapy to strenghten the surrounding musculature, as well as 15 pain management procedures (but those that never addressed the musculoskeletal issue of the tear and how it's referring to the low back). I wish you lived closeby, so that we could talk more easily, but for now I'll be thinking positive thoughts about your surgery and will hope to hear from you soon!
How does that sound? I'm a bit older than you are, so have been jogging and rowing for at least 15 more years - all of which doctors knew was aggravated by that 25 degree curvature, but none of them ever told me to use more 'forgiving' equipment. Seems like a lot of medical sloppiness to me, even though I'm a good researcher and did a lot on my own to learn more about it - and yet I'm still hearing so many inconsistencies. Whenever you're up to writing again, would very much like to hear what your surgery entailed (besides suturing the tear and debriding the scar tissue) - and then I've understood that one cannot weight bear for 6 weeks or something. OTOH, that would be a small burden if this surgery gives you some peace of mind back and of course LESS pain.
Look forward to hearing from you, that I feel like a little kid who can barely wait - hoping that it helped you and what I might look into next. Was also curious if you had throbbing pain in the low back or only pain while you walked on that leg (and not that my situation was worse, only that the tendon tear referral to my already challenged sacrum structure and rotation created so much pain, that there was no way to sleep, as even if I dozed off, it the pain disrupted it in minutes.
Hoping to hear from you as soon as possible! -Annie, :-)
Hi Annie,
thanks for your replies - it appears there are two replies and the first one isn't visible to me yet as it's 'still being moderated' (?) but I will start by writing a response to the second message, which I can see.
It sounds like you have been through so much and I truely empathise - it was a year of no progress for me and I know what it feels like. I can relate to the part where you said that our brains can only handle so much constant pain befor giving up.
My tear also was not diagnosed until I had my first MRI. My pain was also referred to my lower back on the same side where the tear is (right for me). As I had the pain in the EXACT same spot (where the tendon attaches to the hip bone) first and the back pain came later, it was pretty clear that the cause/source was the tendon.
Let me update you on my surgery: everything went well and as planned. I spoke to the surgeon afterwards and he had warned me prior to the surgery that an MRI can only tell you so much and he wouldn't know exactly know that the situation is until he got in there. What he found was one pretty obvious tear and heaps and heaps of scar tissue, which showed him how long the tear had unsuccessfully tried to heal. He removed all the scar tissue and then fully detached the tendon off the bone, then screwed it back into the bone with some titanium hooks. The full detachment was done in order to make it bleed as much as possible (apologies for guesome details) as you would be well aware of the poor blood supply around tendons and their resulting poor healing ability.
I was able to go home the same day and was immediatly able to partially weight bear. I have used crutches for a few days and believe it or not, I'm able to limp around at home without crutches already, 5 days post surgery. I will mostly stick to the crutches for a while, just to be sure. I was given some stronger pain meds just in case but have been alright with a bit of ibuprofen for the first few days - I have not taken any pain meds for the last two days. While I am sore (which makes sense after someone drilling into your bone!) and the whole area feels a bit 'raw' having had stitches obviously, this pain is nothing compared with the seeminly never-ending, soul-destroying pain I had with every step I've taken for the last year.
It's definitely too soon for me to comment on the success (or lack thereof) of the surgery for me but for the time being I'm mostly hopefull. I have my post OP appointment with the surgeon in a bit over 2 weeks from now.
I have brief moments of panic every once in a while thinking "what if this doesnt fix it and I'm out of options" but I realise thsese thoughts aren't helpful right now so I try to keep calm and give my body a chance to heal.
How are you currently managing your pain and what are your next steps you think? I'm looking forward to hearing from you - and can I just say: I'm so very glad you had written your original post. I had resigned to the fact that I am currently the onyl person in the world with this very problem when I came across it.
Cheers from Australia - Eva
Hi Eva: so glad to hear you're feeling better at this point. Are you on any Austrailian sites that I might join as well, since everything I can learn would be helpful. I even wrote to: secretary@painmanagement.org.au - to see if I could find you there. It'd be nice to communicate more directly, but we'll learn about that in the future. It's 5:30am here and of course I haven't slept yet.
Still, so glad to hear that you're feeling okay - but then your being younger might make a surgeon more open to using instrumentation, as it has to stay in place. Still, I'm glad to hear that how you feel now is ***far*** better than the constant pain over the last year. That makes me smile for you, yet I'm so confused what to do to get out of bed each day, i.e., that's how bad the weight bearing and low referred back throbbing are. Every minute of everyday. Again, if you know of any other sites, please let me know, because the more information I have, the more I feel slightly empowered you know? Knowing you now is great too! Big virtual hug, -Annie
PS. Yes, I know how bad the blood supply is to both tendons and ligaments, since with daily jogging and rowing, I've injured a few things - but never a tendon (and as we might agree, it IS the worst pain I have ever known).
Hi Annie - nice to hear from you and so sorry to hear you are having yet another sleepless night. I have been reading up in mostly running forums as I understand this is a common running injury but have not come across someone with the same problem.
One thing that didn't fix the problem for me but helped at least temporary was getting proper medical massages - I don't know if you have tried massages and what your thoughts are on the topic but it might be worth a a shot.
Can I just asked - has your doctor advised against surgery? Again, I'm not in a position yet to recommend it, will have to wait probably at least three months to comment, but I'm just curious what you have been told.
I'm also wondering what pain medication you have been prescribed and how your chronic pain is being managed. It is such a debilitating thing to suffer from.
I will definitely keep you posted on my progress (here's to hoping there's progres to report!!) - hoping you get some rest. Returning big virtual hug from the other side of the world * E
Hi Eva: just saw your last message, but no one has recommended surgery to date (maybe because it's inbetween a partial and complete tear) - and I've seen a few spine physicians already about the connection between hip and low back throbbing - which even with a spine curve, was never in pain until the tendon tear. The diagnostic radiologist (MD) did a thorough ultrasound and found 'moderate scar burden,' plus the tear still there after 2 years (since as we wrote, tendons don't heal well with such a lousy blood supply, in addition to my left loading from the mild curvature). In one part of the tendon (where it connects to the gluteus medius muscles), she called it 'markedly attenuated' - not a great connotation. But the several PTs I've seen have all said that no one would do surgery on my kind of tendon tear, but then they're able to sleep at night and don't feel pain as they walk (in the hip or back).
BTW, have you ever heard of myofascial trigger points? As I mentioned, about 5 were injected earlier in the week by the Chair of Pain Management - so although he had been wrong for so long sticking with a neuropathic track (according to one spine physician) - he said if these trigger points could be deactivated, it would happen almost immediately - but that was not at all the case (as I had even more weight-bearing pain and low back throbbing). Maybe your case is more straight-forward to some degree, w/o the 25 degrees of curvature, and in that sense not pushing your spine to rotate or to load left, which can't help the tendon tear itself (it seems). Maybe surgery healing for me wouldn't have a decent chance, since my spine structure is certainly not optimal, despite NEVER having pain in it until the hip tendon seemed to make matters worse, in terms of referring over to that area - like a double whammy, so to speak.
As you asked, no drugs ever help seem to help these issues, whether NSAIDs, mild pain meds, and/or even stronger ones - unless it's a muscle relaxer like diazepam for what feels like an impending spasm. Have you ever had one, as that kind of pain with the spine in a vice-like state is scary, since the brain seems to shut it down so that ostensibly, it cannot keep getting injured with more movement.
Anyway, will check my messages frequently - because it's nice for us to be 'connected' now, since human connections help us cope to some degree, even if they can't take the pain away or let us walk and/or jog w/o feeling so terribly undermined. Will be keeping my fingers crossed for you - i.e., that the surgery continues to heal well, and that you'll ultimately be okay.
Do you at all buy into the idea that strenghening the surrounding musculature (near the tendon tear) can help at all? Haven't seen that to be the case, but the PTs keep reiterating that notion. Never tried yoga yet, but did you get any relief from it? Massaging the area doesn't cause pain, but it's also so short-acting, right? Hope to hear from you soon, -Annie
Hi Annie - thanks for your message, it really resonates with me.
I have heard of the myofascial trigger points that you mentioned. A massage therapist I saw for a while tried to work on them but it only had limited effect. There has been a fair bit of dry needling tried on the actual tendon but you guessed it, no long term improvement.
I'm obviously not qualified to comment on your situation, so will tell you what my experience with the things you mention have been - apologies for direct language, you out of all people would appreciate how tired and over all of this I am.
Regarding strenghtening, I was told by a range of physio therapists that I needed to do that and spent 8 months doing the exercises with no effect. After I saw a sports physician who checked me out properly, he concluded that I have no muscle weakess, I am activating my glutes properly and there is no area that requires strengthening. He also said that it is often the 'default' fix to say that the area surrounding the problem needs strenghtening. Again, no reflection on your therapy, just my personal experience.
In regards to the surgery, I just did a quick head count and I have in fact seen 12 different health professionals over the last year in regards to this problem. The first 10 told me that this is "nothing that usually gets operated on". I then went to see one of the best sports physicians in the state who referred me to one of the best orthopaedic surgeons. He was the first one that said to me this can in fact be operated on and he is confident that surgery will fix it. It is way too early for me to comment on whether it has been a success and only time will tell but for the first time in a year I have genuine hope.
The only advice I would give based on my own experience is to change the physician, physio, chiro, etc if you feel you're not getting the help I need. I stuck with therapies that did nothing for me for months and months because I thought these people are professionals, I just need to stick with it and it will eventually help (and it didn't).
I eventually made appointments with experienced doctors and in my first appointment said 'have you seen this problem or something very similar before and been able to help the person' (yes or no answer!). If the answer was 'no' (or unclear) I just moved on as I was sick of wasting time and people trialing things.
Your issue sounds even that little bit more challenging with the 'doube whammy' as you call it. I hope you are being treated by someone that is experienced in the area and can give you appropriate support.
On a personal note, I am again feeling a little bit stronger today. I wish I could fast forward 4 weeks to see if the tendon is healing now but I know I have to be patient. I will send you my email address via PM so we can stay in touch outside this forum as well if you like. Cheers - Eva
Hi Eva: a bit rushed at the moment with a huge funding grant due in 24 hours, but your last suggestion sounds great, so will look forward to it. I very much hear you about my idea of the 'double whammy,' so I'm going to make an appointment with not only a physical medicine MD, but with a hip surgeon as well - to see if this can be put in better perspective.
Please keep healing, as I'm confident you'll be in good shape very soon (and have I ever been wrong yet, at least in our last few messages)? You of course know I'm trying to 'inject' some humor here. -Annie, :-)
Funding grant? Are you a researcher as well? We may have more in common than a crook tendon 
Sending email address through now, let's continue this chat via email at some stage. No rush - I'm not going anywhere for a while (literally) and have learned over this past year that nothing seems to happen quickly anyway. Talk soon and good luck with the grant - Eva
And just another quick follow up, I just found this link:
http://www.americanhipinstitute.org/gluteus-medius-tears.html
This is exactly what I got done. No mention of a hip brace for me mind you, but the procedure is exactly this.
Oh Eva: There's obviously some problem online, but as I had asked the other day - are you a member of any other tendon group (even one in Australia)? When we write again, will go into more detail about my research work, as I smiled at what we must have in common with both that and funding grants - besides our gluteus medius issue. I've never met anyone else who had one either, so that's a 'bond' in itself !!!
BTW, what also intrigued me a great deal is that your tendon tear led to pretty bad referred low back pain as well, even w/o the 25 degrees of curvature. So was curious if the surgeon found a *complete* tear during your procedure, given how much scar tissue you described him removing. Or could it be micro-tears with so much jogging on both our parts. Look forward to learning more, and hope to be in a better place myself soon - as I know you'll be better and better via the surgery. -Annie
Hi Eva! I have been diagnosed with a GM tear and am scheduled for surgery on August 22. I was told that I would be completely non weight bearing for 8 weeks. They told me this wasn't a common surgery and they had no hand outs for it. I have been upsent wondering how I am going to manage this and not having a clue about pain after and how I'm going to get around. You stated that you were able to be weight bearing and were doing pretty good. You have given me hope!!! I have been in pain for a year doing pt, Pilates, ice and heat, and multiple shots under ultrasound and finally demanded a MRI which showed the tear. Nice to hear there may be an end to this nightmare.
Hi, I have been struggling with full thickness tears of the gluteus mediums and minimus muscle for the last three years. I have had seven surgeries with no success. The last surgery I had was a gracilis muscle flap transfer with new blood supply to the gluteus mediums and reattached to the greater trochanter. Six hour surgery, 10 days lying flat in bed, complications, and 63 days in hospital. Back to theater twice for wound complications. Blood clot in leg after the first surgery. After all that MRI showed both gluteus mediums and minimus muscles both full thickness tears again. I had a Plastic surgeon doing the muscle transfer with the orthopedic surgeon. Last surgery was a year ago. Going to physiotherapist and biogenetic once a week to help strengthen other muscles. I don't think there there any more they can do. Battle to do my daily work and driving. I must say I also had two bad falls days after the first and fourth surgeries. I hope you all have good outcome of your surgeries. I will follow your recovery.
So sorry to hear about your struggles! It just hurts so much. I have been doing Pilates to get all my muscles working together and am hoping that after I recover I won't get any more injuries from doing nothing. Tired of being in pain and unable to walk all the time.
Annie, years ago I hopped out of the car of the drivers side, and even though the car was in park it slipped to neutral catching my right foot and dragged me across the street (wide street) and because our driveway sits on an incline the car was moving quickly pulling me across then back across the street. It finally slowed enough that I could get out from under the vehicle. I had to have surgery to repair the foot but I was not having hip pain then.
After having the surgery, while my foot was in a boot i began to experience what I thought was a torn groin. It would nearly bend me over then disappear to come back again several months later. As the pain became more frequent my doctor thought it was from my back so to make a long story short the pain steadily increased until now at roughly eleven years later I am miserable , can't sleep in bed, and have excruciating pain 24/7. I see my Ortho next week to see what his response is. He is quite arrogant and didn't think there was anything wrong with my hip so it will be interesting to see what he has to say.
I wish I had an answer for you but I am trying to validate your experience and the gradual progression of it, particularly the long period of time before the onset of severe pain that requires prescription meds. As a person that has had chronic pain and surgery on every part of my body including eight back surgeries the best advice I can offer is that YOU are the only one who lives in your body so you need to find a doctor who will listen to you. The medical field is going to hell in a basket (too long to explain) so you have to keep track of your symptoms when, what, where, what makes it better/worse, how long does it last and so forth. While you may think something sounds ridiculous or silly to you write it down anyway. Keep a diary, of what I said above, who treated you, did it help, why not, what do you do to make it better. Even if it sounds stupid the best thing you can do is to keep a detailed history including any surgeries, hospitalizations and who did them, what did they do, and what medications you took. Save everything because it will be a legal diary should you need it. Actually you should get a copy of the hospitalization and separate doctors note as well. Do this for each incident you need surgery. This is a good thing to do with family members too! Actually one of the nicest things a person can give as a gift is a notebook or binder to keep their medical history in and if it for your children they will love it particularly as time goes by. This also applies to mental health experiences and to be thorough how social behaviors in school affected them.
I know this sounds tedious but it will give you a wonderful picture to your doctors and your family.
I am going to see my surgeon on Monday and I will let you know what he says so I can report new information to you. By the way, do not just go to any doctor because that's who they referred you to. The best thing you can do is listen to what other people say, and in this particular incident word of mouth is the best way to find a doctor. It should be a sports medicine doctor, orthopedic for this incident and then talk around and listen to what people say about them before you choose. I am not sure about how large a town you are in but even if you have to commute to get to the right doctor, do! It is worth a commute for a good doc and the ease of mind it provides. I guess that is all I have to say except hang in there, let your body speak to you, and find a doctor who inspires confidence in you and does not minimize you.
I wish you the best,
MSPS
Hi Sharon, I am so sorry about my tardy response - I had missed the notification of this response. How are you going and how did the surgery go? In brief - I have made a full recovery and have my life back. I am pain free, I'm running again and I am still grateful for it every single day. I am considering celebrating my birthday on the day I had the surgery from now on, just to give you an idea about the feelings associated with all of this.
I would be very keen to hear how it all went for you - I cannot believe I missed this message.
I will check my notifications carefully and am hoping to hear from you soon,
Cheers, Eva