Anyone heard of this?

[Crankin]

I have never believed that I really have Fibromyalgia. After a year and worsening symptoms of groin, leg, pain etc. I am getting desperate. It's obvious that it's related to riding and now I have it doing other sports. But mostly, riding. I have stayed away from the web and medical stuff, because it made me crazy last fall, but I just typed in groin pain and sports medicine and came up with this; I also read a few more articles on the same thing.
This describes exactly what I have. I am totally freaked out, but I am calling Brigham and Woman's cardiovascular center tomorrow.






http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/b...teriopathy.htm

[Crankin]

OK, I'll try again...
external iliac arteriopathy.
Anyone know anything about this, particularly the treatment options?

[redrhodie]

{{{{{crankin}}}}} I haven't heard of it, but I don't think you should freak out. Staying calm is your best bet.

If this is not what you have, you will have made yourself worry for no reason. If it is what you have, you will finally know the answer to your pain, and can decide what to do next. It sounds like the athletes who had surgery were satisfied with the results. That's a good thing.

[Cataboo]

I have never believed that I really have Fibromyalgia. After a year and worsening symptoms of groin, leg, pain etc. I am getting desperate. It's obvious that it's related to riding and now I have it doing other sports. But mostly, riding. I have stayed away from the web and medical stuff, because it made me crazy last fall, but I just typed in groin pain and sports medicine and came up with this; I also read a few more articles on the same thing.
This describes exactly what I have. I am totally freaked out, but I am calling Brigham and Woman's cardiovascular center tomorrow.

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/b...teriopathy.htm

I had a friend with fibromyalgia (male) who didn't take medication for his fibro, he took a bunch of different supplements - the one that he thought really made a difference was taurine... and lots of exercise helped.

[Grog]

*Big hug*

Good luck in seeking a better diagnosis and some medical attention, I hope you find a good doctor out there.

[Crankin]

Yep, I already have an appointment with the head of endovascular surgery at the Brigham. Thank G-d I live in a place that has the cream of the crop medical facilities. It helped that I have been there before, so it was easy to make an appointment.
Exercise is making this worse; but in very specific ways. I don't feel "sick" like I did last fall. In retrospect, my symptoms are very related to the cycling season. I was fine last January until the end of March... When I tried to explain what happens when I ride, i was dismissed by everyone. The other things I have had, besides the weakness and deteriorating performance, such as groin and stomach pain are directly related to this syndrome and are often misdiagnosed with all the diseases that everyone thought I had... in addition to being crazy! Sure, I was crazy, because no one believed me and then I got even more upset when I was told to "just ride 5 miles!" When I called to make the appointment and I asked for someone who had worked with endurance athletes, the receptionist didn't flinch and knew exactly what I was talking about. If nothing else, I will be reassured. My concern now is that I am having pain at rest, not just during high level cardio.
I guess my main concerns are: 1) I am allergic to IV contrast dye, which will make diagnosis difficult, although the first test does not involve dye, and 2) I am petrified of surgery.. not the surgery, but the anesthesia. I have weird allergic reactions to lots of things and I've only been put under once. I know 2 people who died from allergic reactions to anesthesia.
I am not afraid of medical stuff, per se, but these two things sort of weigh on my mind.
If I really do have Fibromyalgia, I wouldn't mind trying supplements, but there's a lot of crap out there on the Internet about this, and in my mind they're all schemes. I've been doing acupuncture for about a year; it did help my anxiety last fall/winter, but I am not sure it's helped the pain. I did PT for 6 months and it helped a bit, but it didn't make anything go away.

[Cataboo]

I could look around for references - but my friend had decided to start taking taurine after reading a scientific paper saying that it boosted circulation in smokers. I know his muscles had a tendancy to lock/tighten up, if he didn't exercise often to keep them flexible. So while exercise was painful, it was less painful than the alternative - because he was prone to tearing muscles without it. He did have crohn's disease as well, and pretty tightly regulated his diet to stuff that didn't make the crohn's flare up. They did eventually diagnose him with lymphoma, and after treatment for that the fibromyalgia symptoms eased up a bit.

The problem with fibromyalgia is that it's sort of this hodgepodge of symptoms that doctors are throwing together as one disease - and I think that probably it's several diseases that they don't really understand that they're lumping together. So I couldn't really say what helped his fibro is necessarily going to help your fibro, and it's been a while since I've looked into it.

So definitely take any info that you find on the internet with a grain of salt, I wouldn't buy anyone whose trying to sell magic make you better fibro pills, but if specific supplements make sense to you and working for you after taking them - add them. His supplements tended to be ones that boosted circulation. He didn't take sleeping pills or muscle relaxants like a lot of fibro patients do.

There is a supplement that's supposed to be a natural muscle relaxant that helped with the pain - valerian. You can get it as a pill or a tea. My sister is a teeth grinder, and she says that drinking a cup of the tea nightly seems to stop her from clenching her teeth & grinding it.

Good luck with your appointments. Feel free to disregard anything I said that seems nutty.

[Triskeliongirl]

Let us know how you make out at your doctors visit. I have no clue if this is what you have, but I can tell you that athletic injuries are often misdiagnosed by folks without experience dealing with athletes. I feel strange using that word, athlete, since to me an athlete is a pro like Alberto Contador or Michael Phelps. But, compared to the sendentary average american we are actually quite athletic.

I even had a couple physical therapists refuse to work on me, insisting I had fibromyalgia when it turned out it was the effects of trying to cycle with a 3 cm LLD which had really tightened up my SI joint. The good thing was they emphasized I wasn't normal and needed to be evaluated by an orthopod which was the first step in getting the problem resolved. He prescribed a very specific PT for my problem, along with getting fitted for a custom crank set and shoe inserts, which has made all the difference in the world.