Hypochondriac and pregnant

It’s been about a month or so, I have had strange soreness in my groin area, on and off, nothing serious. I attributed it to the extra weight I have been schlepping along: no big deal. Until last Friday. The pain was sudden and breathtaking, I could barely walk, and with a limp at that. I got scared.

I had to take Human Gross Anatomy as a part of my graduate training. It’s amazing how much information is retained after all these years. I visualized the cadaver we had to dissect, focusing on the groin area, and pinpointed the part that was most painful: inguinal ligament. Gasp! OMG, am I having an inguinal hernia? An image of an inguinal hernia (the man looked like he had three sets of genitals), branded in my brain simply because it looked so awfully painful, flashed in front of my eyes. I took a closer look at myself in front of a mirror. My thighs indeed looked weird, like overstuffed sausages. The pain felt like it was spreading through my thighs. Maybe the nerves are damaged…. What if I cannot walk anymore? What if……??!!

While I was madly writing my own medical drama, my husband did a rather sensible thing. He looked up the books and the internet for pregnancy-related pains, and suggested that perhaps it was a round ligament pain. No, it can’t be that simple! I know what a round ligament is, and it has nothing to do with thighs!

Strangely, however, as I started to reexamine myself, the pain in my thighs disappeared. And as I read more about the round ligament pain, I realized my symptoms fit the descriptions better. What have I got to lose? I tried the recommendations: rest, change positions, see if the pain subsides. And it did. I felt sheepish. But now I know walking too fast for too long triggers it.

I shall “listen to my body” (and shall not roll my eyes at this cliché).