I actually have a hernia right now, and am getting it fixed next week so it was good to read this thread to know what it will be like. I noticed mine about 4 months ago (about the time I started working out again) - I laugh a lot and noticed on certain hard laughs I’d feel a shooting pain feeling in my abdomen below the waste line, to the left. It wasn’t exactly what I would call pain, but sort of like a muscle contracting too much. I just “noticed” it, and that’s about it. When a friend warned me it might be a hernia and told me they could be serious I saw a doctor. He felt it by just putting his fingers on it and had me flex my abs to detect it. I asked if I could just live with it and he said it will never heal on its own and I’ll be forced to wear a girldle the rest of my life, and that he sees eldery patients that have basketball-sized protrusions from their waste because they never got their hernia fixed. He sent me to a surgeon who had me remove my underwear; he then took his index and middle fingers and jammed them up on the left side of my scrotum, all the way to where you feel a hard wall of flesh. I then coughed and could actually feel it push into the scrotum myself, something I hadn’t even realized was happening.
I hear hernia surgeries are pretty common and a lot of surgeons do a couple a day. I will be put to sleep for 45 minutes, they will make an incision, add a patch that will cover the area and my body will form collagen around the mesh, sealing the hole. I should be home that night, and the surgeon said it’s really how you feel that determines recovery - he had a drywaller go back to work 2 days later (pretty heavy stuff). He told me in the old days they would actually sew the surrounding tissue over the hole, but that wasn’t ideal because those tissues aren’t supposed to be touching and it could re-tear easily. I think I read about 10% or more of those hernias would reoccur, but with the new patch method only 1% need additional work. My surgeon said he’s only had to remove one patch ever due to a pateint getting an infection from another area of his body. Complications include nicking important nerves which can cause pain or lead to the loss of feeling in the leg or scrotum on that side of the body.
I hope it goes well, I’m a little nervous since I’ve never had surgery, and I hear abdominal surgeries are not very much fun
The Dr. has you turn your head and cough so that he doesn’t get a moisture full of bacteria in his face. Coughing increases the intra abdominal pressure to aid any hernia to protude and make itself visable.
You had pain in both legs? Usually only one leg is involved, the one innervated by the impinged nerve, and usually back pain accompanies that. I’ve always seen this referred to as “radicular” pain and not “referred” pain. Although the lesion is usually unilateral, a centrally placed protrusion may affect nerve roots bilaterally. An extensive disc herniation produces low back pain radiating down the posterior thigh and calf and occasionally into the foot. Tenderness is often acute at one of the lower lumbar spines and, frequently, along the course of the nerve. IANAMD, so one may feel free to pop on in.
This was a few years ago, and I certainly felt pain in both legs, but I can’t swear that I felt it in both legs at the same time. The pain usually began in the hip after sitting for an extended period (e.g. in a car) and extended down to the back of the thigh and sometimes to the calf. My back muscles were stiff (which I was told was “guarding” ) but there was no real back pain.
I obviously can’t remember anything about the hernia (left side) I was born with, although my parents tell me I went straight to standing up, never crawled around before it was corrected. They said it looked like I was in some pain until I stood up. (Aside: I’m a little clumsy - I tell people it’s because I never learned how to crawl, missing an important developmental step in the whole process.)
I vaguely remember that the second one was found during a pre-sports sign-up physical (it was spring, so it had to be baseball. But I may have been playing football with it that previous winter.) I don’t remember the thing (right side this time) being painful. I do remember that I was supposed to stay off my feet for a few days after the surgery (around 1970), and definitely wasn’t to exert myself for about a week. I don’t know if that was for the hernia repair or to keep the stitches from popping open (had 11 of 'em then.)
This lapriscopic surgery sounds like the best. I’ve got two scars that I’ll carry around for the rest of my life. They’ve made good conversation pieces, though, under certain conditions.
I have a small umbilical hernia. It looks freaky when I’m lying on my back, and it is somewhat uncomfortable, but my doc doesn’t want to do surgery until I’m through having children. Basically, pregnancy weakened the muscle in my abdomen near my navel and I have a small lump where the hernia is.
I’d just like to thank everybody for the info here. I feel better now, even though I still have to wait before I see the surgeon. I assume it’s low priority, so there’ll be more waiting to actually get it done. Oh, well.
