Just got back from radiology and they saw everything clearly in the ultrasound. Seems that it is still pretty small and it is fat tissue coming through the gap, not intestine. So that’s good. But the doc still recommends surgery. Guess I better schedule the surgery soon, before the second wave hits and hospitals delay non-essential procedures. But I’m not looking forward to it. Sigh…
The biggest frustration for me is that I have taken advantage of the lockdown to exercise every day, and I have lost 15 pounds. I now weigh as little as I did 20 years ago. Hurray! But the doc tells me that I won’t be able to do any sport for several months after the surgery. Good thing I haven’t bought any new clothes…
And I just informed my boss. He has had two hernia surgeries, the second being recividist. He said the second time around, he was too uncomfortable to even want to do sport for several months. And he said that even now (4 years later) he is not comfortable putting any strain on his abdomen.
First, my apologies to @Orville_mogul for participating as a wannabe, but I can recount the following stories.
First, I have already had mesh umbilical hernia surgery and the result was some permanent stiffness in the surgical area with a reluctance to lift forward (as in sit-ups), but no real problems.
Second, I checked with a close friend who had double inguinal repair and he reports no physical problems, but an ongoing mental reluctance to lift anything heavy, even two years later. He told me not to be surprised if I remained frightened of hoisting heavy things. The “twinges” and worrisome feelings have been with me for a few years and I worked around this by installing everything from overhead hoists in my garage to a jib crane in my pickup to avoid lifting. My friend laughed and told me “You’ll still be using that stuff, even after the surgery”
Just a little update on my hernia surgery recovery:
The follow-up surgeon’s visit went well, but he did say that I obviously have a seroma in my groin area due to the surgery. Basically, this is a fluid buildup which can occur with some surgical procedures. Sometimes surgeons will put in a temporary drain before finishing the procedure to reduce the chances of this happening, but he didn’t do that in my case since he thought it would be okay without it. I’ve got another visit scheduled with him six weeks from now. If the swelling hasn’t reduced or has gotten worse, they will have to drain it (shudder).
I’ve also push mowed my yard a couple of times without incident and have pretty much resumed normal activities. I’m restricted to lifting no more than ten pounds for the next couple of weeks just for safety’s sake, but after that there are no restrictions. I’ll probably still be a little gun-shy with picking up heavier stuff, but hopefully I’ll get over that once I’m confident that my giblets are staying where they should.
When I went for the ultrasound on Monday, the doctor had me lie on my back and strain hard. As intended, that squeezed my giblets through the hole in my muscle. I could have sworn I heard it go BLOOP… And then he made me do it two more times. That was a really icky sensation. Really icky.
Oh, you were hearing it all right. My wife could hear it whenever I had to push everything back inside. Not unlike squishing a plastic bag full of chicken wings.
inguinal … size of baseball … operation conducted in 80’s, while being awake (local anes.) … two hours later, out the door. advice … no strenuous activity or lifting for a month after operation … or, you might end up giving birth to another hernia.
Hernia? I win the prize, unfortunately. 24 centimeters wide, 17 centimeters tall, 10 centimeters deep with small bowel inside. Gets sore with bending over. Veterans Administration surgeons will not repair it unless the bowel gets strangulated-they say it will just come back. Had a smaller strangulated hernia repaired with mesh in 2008, and I don’t know if this is a recurrence of that one or a different one.
A pox on the Gyn surgeon that did an abdominal hysterectomy in 2003 instead of a vaginal surgery. They lied to me afterwards, saying it was too hard to do it vaginally. I knew that was not true, but what can you do after the fact? A week after that surgery, I had many pulmonary emboli, then had an abdominal wall hemorrhage that required reopening that incision, and putting in a drain. (and 7 units of blood transfusion)
I’m not the OP of this thread, but I figured that I would pop in for a quick update on my hernia surgery recovery status:
Went in to see my surgeon about 10 days ago because, while I still felt more-or-less okay, it still looked like my hernia was still protruding in the same area. He scheduled an ultrasound exam and the technician couldn’t seem to find a fluid buildup in the surgical site, so he sent the results back to the surgeon.
The surgeon called the next day to say that he believes that the repair is intact, but that fatty tissue had migrated outside of the repair area, so I basically have fat occupying the space where the hernia used to be. Lovely.
The surgery to correct the problem shouldn’t be too serious, and it looks like it can be done as an outpatient with local anesthesia. Once the sutures heal up, I’ll be good to go. That’s the good news. The bad news is that I may end up having to pay over and above my already-paid spend-down to cover the anesthesia and other related expenses since this might be considered a non-essential surgery. While I generally feel okay, I still have some discomfort sitting down and getting up, plus there is some difficulty voiding my bladder completely sometimes. (Sorry…)
I’m waiting to hear back from my hospital’s cost estimators and I’ll try to coordinate with the surgeon to see if this can be considered a necessary follow-up surgery to complete the hernia repair. The fact that he said that he “believes” the surgery was a success doesn’t give me 100% confidence, so this would hopefully provide confirmation one way or the other if I’m “fixed” or not.
I figure I should give an update as well. I had the surgery over a month ago. It was super easy and the hospital and team were fantastic. Pain was only moderate, and I was walking around (carefully) a couple hours after the surgery. I had a small scare like Guy when I couldn’t pee for the life of me. Then finally it came after about 10 hours. It was toward the end of the shift of the surgical team, and reckon I avoided the catheter (thanks Guy for the warning!) by a matter of minutes.
Went home the next day, and only had minor discomfort for the next few days. Swelling went down and the scars healed nicely.
All’s well that ends well, except… My achey balls. My left testicle to be precise. I didn’t really notice it at first because of the general achiness in my abdomen, but once that was gone, I definitely noticed the testicle pain. Any movement or pressure was really uncomfortable, and felt like I was getting kicked in the crotch. To get around I had to hitch up my underwear and amble like a cowboy.
My surgeon told me that this happens sometimes (in fact, he did mention it among the 500 other possible risks from the surgery during my first consultation). He figured it may be residual blood around the hernia which can take a while to be reabsorbed, and it was putting pressure on some nerves in the area. But he couldn’t rule out namage to the nerve during the surgery. He says there isn’t much to do now but wait and hope that it resolves itself. Or not
Fingers crossed, but in the last few days I think I have seen a small improvement. Let’s see. Wish me luck!
I had an inguinal hernia as an infant. It’s a condition uncommon among girls, but I had two risk factors, being a twin and being premature. I have no memory of this time in my life, but my mother’s narrative has convinced me that it was the most painful experience I’ve ever had. One day, she left my twin and me in the care of an elderly baby sitter–a woman my mother didn’t know from Eve. When she returned at the end of the day, she immediately heard me screaming my little baby head off. The babysitter said, “He just won’t stop crying. He has been crying like that all day.”
My mother was concerned on multiple levels.
My mother checked me out and saw that I had a huge bulge coming out of my groin. So while the babysitter might have been a little demented, it probably did look like I had a penis–a very big one. Not only were my intestines spilling out, but they had also gotten themselves wrapped around one of my ovaries. I had to go in for surgery immediately. I don’t know if it left any damage, but I know it has always been something my mother has worried about.
Haven’t had the surgery yet, but it should happen on the 20th of this month.
I’ve got a strong suspicion that my hernia repair wasn’t successful. Swelling in the area has returned to pre-op levels and it feels pretty much the same as it did before the procedure. I truly hope I’m wrong about this.
Sounds like you’re not doing too badly, Orville. The testicular pain is definitely a bummer. I had similar pain during an especially powerful kidney stone attack a few years ago and it almost sent me into shock.
Oh God, I’m sorry that you went through that at so young an age, Monstro. Definitely a memory you wouldn’t want to have lurking around upstairs I’m sure.
I tell you, quality control has always been a little shoddy on the human body if we’re being honest here…
I think I have one, too. So far I’m working through it and feel like I will have to unless it turns into an emergency situation.
I have a HDHP with HSA and the HSA is pretty low. Will take me a good 4- 5 months save up the deductible.
While working a physical job and working out regularly. Also have school and a side business.
Based on other experiences it seems like a long recovery time, which means I’d probably have to plan for a significant reduction in income for quite some time after building up HSA and reserves.
I had a hiatal hernia through the last few months of pregnancy which healed on its own after I gave birth. The pain wasn’t too intense, but it was non-stop. I think I would have preferred intermittent intense pain instead of the constant dull ache that I never got a break from.
Upthread in August, I mentioned the surgeon had decided I needed two separate, open hernia surgeries to fix mine. He declared a minimum 6 week recovery between procedures. The first was 8 weeks ago, the second was 2 weeks ago. I think the first went well, as I feel none of the bulges or pains from before. The second is still in the painful swollen stage, but it’s probably OK too. Based on last time, the swelling doesn’t really start going down until the 4th or 5th week, so we’ll see. Everything seems to be progressing exactly like last time, and I’m felling pretty good (no pain meds, not even ibuprofen).
The only unusual thing that happened was a lot of trouble “returning” from the second anesthesia. I’ve had 10 or so “put completely under” surgeries so far in my life, and never had a problem. But this time was days of confusion, large swaths of (still) missing memories, and frighteningly realistic hallucinations. The memory problems aren’t the kind where you later can recall with a few reminders, they’re completely gone, and the gaps are large. There are entire meals, lengthy discussions, and Netflix movies that happened 3-4 days after the surgery, and I have no memory of them. This is really disturbing, and I’m hoping this is my last time “going under”. It was only a few days ago we (wife and I) felt I was sufficiently recovered to drive.
