Two weeks ago, during the final squat of my 210lb x 5 x 3 work set, I almost collapsed under the weight of the final squat after hearing a ripping sound and feeling a sudden pain in my left abdomen just under my rib cage. It took a bit of willpower to stagger forward and rack the bar.
These work sets took all of my willpower to do. Of note is that I tensed my abs harder than I ever did before during those squats. The painful area is at the same site where I had kidney surgery to remove my non-functional kidney at 1 month old.
A funny thing about this injury is that I saw someone else get injured in his abdomen a few days before me after attempting to do his first set of squats ever at 225#--without doing any warm-ups. I myself did warm up and had worked up to 210# over a couple of months.
A ER doctor (I went to the ER after coming down with a fever within 12 hours of the injury--but it turned out to be unrelated) diagnosed me as having a possible hernia in that area. However, this doctor told me that there is no way to know for sure what is going on inside.
Question: Has anyone had a similar injury? It didn't turn up when searching. This injury is getting better and I would like to resume my training. Is there anything to do differently in the future to prevent this injury from recurring (such as using a belt, which I have not been using)?
It's probably a rib or a costal cartilage. It will heal. Lighthouse was a great band. "One Fine Morning."