Inguinal hernia laparoscopic surgery repair

[Deleted member 10043]

Try not to get one of these. Surgery went fine but the anesthesia side effects include not being able to piss normally for 12 or more hours and jacking up my throat for about 36 hours. I'm on day three. Day one and two was like somebody had slugged me with a baseball bat in the stomach several times. Today is much better. Mineral oil helped with the first bowel movement. This is a medium size hernia. Noticed a burning sensation in the groin during long walks or doing activities that require a lot of standing. Ironically, during the whole time I had this thing I was inclining 400 feet in 3/4 mile on the treadmill, walking 1.5 miles a day, 15 pushup and 30 crunches. Sex was not out of the ordinary as well. What got me to the PCP and surgeon was pissing one day and something obviously popped out in that area and a week later it popped back in while pissing again. That hurt a little and told me this wasn't just a strained groin. Recovery time is two weeks. Can't get back to working out for about four weeks. Maybe six weeks. Have not been shooting in a month. In hindsight, I probably starting developing this hernia over a very long period of time. I'm talking about maybe even three years. I'm 55 but anybody can get one of these so there are probably things we can do to avoid the danger.

EDIT: Forgot the best part. They stick a catheter in me during surgery. Got home to take a piss and it was like pissing glass. That fucking hurt like hell and continued to hurt every time I "tried" to piss. It takes like 45 minutes to empty my bladder for about the first 12 hours or so and each time is liking pissing glass because of what the catheter did inside me.

 

[siscoe308]

Ugh... Looks like hell! Get Better soon

 

[varmint slayer]

Inguinal hernia laparoscopic surgery repair

You'll be lucky to be up and moving a good bit by 2 weeks. You will be barely standing fully upright by 2 weeks lol. And light workout is a ways out. I felt pretty good the first couple days but you will stay sore for a while. Don't let the drugs fool you as far as how much pain you are having. I went back to work after 2.5 weeks and it was too soon really.

Edit: I just saw the laparoscopic part. Recovery will be a good bit faster but you will be sore for longer than you think either way. You will feel pretty good and go to lift something that should be no problem and realize that was a bad idea lol

 

[flounderv2]

I tore my inguinal ligament and it hurt like hell and recovery was miserable.

 

[Pilky01]

I hear you man! I had this surgery while in Germany back in 01. It was a lot worse than I anticipated. Freaking euros would only give me suppositories for pain. They sent a male nurse into shave me. I told him to go to hell and did it myself. The absolute worst part was I got food poisoning exactly 1 week later. It was pain at its finest when throwing up. Hang in there and be prepared to hate the act of sneezing with a passion for the rest of your life.

 

[bobke]

Had the full boat, filet you open and repair a double hernia about two years back and that a serious interruption in my life for a couple of weeks. Doc said 'you'll be a bit uncomfortable' for the first few days. Shit-it took me 10 minutes to walk all of 20 feet to the bathroom to piss every two hours. You just don't know how much you depend on your abs til you get this piece of work done. All said, all's well now and glad I had the fix-am back to full speed, no issues. Have said it often....good health is highly underrated.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

Today is Saturday. Surgery was last Wednesday. Was planning on not taking a pain pill today but after running some errands in town I was wiped out got back took a pill and a 2 hour nap. You all are right, it does take a lot of out of you. Luckily, I have had no further complications. I've been walking on the treadmill a little each day, which helps with the stiffness. Thanks for the replies. I plan to keep the thread up-to-date for those that may run into this later. The surgery and recovery is a bitch but it is obvious to me now that the hernia was holding me back and making me tired all the time. I guess I just learned to live with it and rock on. I'm glad I decided to get this done.

 

[varmint slayer]

Today is Saturday. Surgery was last Wednesday. Was planning on not taking a pain pill today but after running some errands in town I was wiped out got back took a pill and a 2 hour nap. You all are right, it does take a lot of out of you. Luckily, I have had no further complications. I've been walking on the treadmill a little each day, which helps with the stiffness. Thanks for the replies. I plan to keep the thread up-to-date for those that may run into this later. The surgery and recovery is a bitch but it is obvious to me now that the hernia was holding me back and making me tired all the time. I guess I just learned to live with it and rock on. I'm glad I decided to get this done.

Yeah just when you think you can start doing your normal routine, it lets you know that ain't happening lol. Just take it easy and don't lift anything that you shouldn't.

 

[rowrd]

I had the same type of surgery a few years back...the Doc put two choices on the table for me: laparoscopic or the old fashioned surgery with mesh. He encouraged the mesh even though it might take a bit longer to heal, but the complications would be fewer. I'm glad I took his advice. Got me up and running within four days, no complications or pain that plain Tylenol couldn't handle....and was able to take an intermediate handgun class 10 days later.

 

[hankpac]

Most important part of this recovery: don't push it. In a few weeks you are going to have a hard time remembering how bad it hurt, and think you can go back to your old work out.
The wounds will not have had time to fully mature. Start doing squats with weight, or lifting or anything that puts a strain on that area and you can rupture the entire mess all over again. Let it heal. And when you think about going back to the gym, let it heal some more. Really. Talk to your surgeon when you go back for post-op follow up, and ask about the natural history of wound healing, about how long it take to fully mature the wounds. a few weeks is not really realistic no matter what surgery you had.

 

[Jrylb73]

Inguinal hernia laparoscopic surgery repair

I had the same surgery at Ft Leonard Wood when I came back from deployment in 2011. The Dr figured it would be easier to put me completely under instead of a spinal like I had before in 94. The surgery went ok until they pulled the intubation tube and my airway collapsed. Putting me into respiratory arrest. Which I coded on the table from what I was told. When I woke up my chest felt like a horse had kicked me there. In the process of trying to get the intubation tube back in they broke part of my jaw bone so I had huge bone slivers coming out of my gums. Now I have issues with swallowing. I have had to have my throat stretched 2 times and numerous Dr visits cause food will not go down it just gets lodged in my throat. The Dr says I have damage to the smooth muscles in my throat which works the sphincter muscle allowing food to go down. So now I have to have surgery on that and on top of that I now have a hiatal hernia. FML


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[Deleted member 10043]

Jrylb73, wish you the best of luck. Sounds damn hard too deal with but hang in there.

Follow up went fine. Last Wednesday was three weeks. Doc says at 4 weeks to start working back towards my regular workout at about a 25% increase each week. So, at about 2 months I should be back to my old self. Nevertheless, the doc did give me a long talk about listening to what my body is telling me, use a little common sense, and not fuck up his work. I'm seeing a 100% improvement with just about everything that has to do with my "junk".

 

[Jig Stick]

That is not a little hernia bro. Thats a large piece of mesh. I never recommend getting inguinal hernias fixed laparoscopically. An open repair with a two layer mesh plug is a lot faster with quicker recovery time. Yeah, the laparoscopic gives you much smaller incisions, but insufflating your belly with CO2 for an hour or more causes its own problems. The sore throat from the endotracheal tube is very common and I tell all my patients to expect that. The constipation is from the narcotics. And pissing glass after a foley catheter happens every time. All the things you are describing are known effects of what you had done. It should of been explained better to you. But your repair looks good. Just take it easy for a while and let the tacks take hold. Lay off the opioids if possible and try some Naproxen and tylenol. Sometimes those actually work better for people than Percs or Vics

 

[Deleted member 10043]

Thanks Doc!

I took myself off the Percocet after 7 days (mostly 1 twice a day). I took Motrin as needed for about another week or so. For that I consider myself fortunate.

 

[MJY65]

I never recommend getting inguinal hernias fixed laparoscopically. An open repair with a two layer mesh plug is a lot faster with quicker recovery time. Yeah, the laparoscopic gives you much smaller incisions, but insufflating your belly with CO2 for an hour or more causes its own problems. The sore throat from the endotracheal tube is very common and I tell all my patients to expect that. The constipation is from the narcotics. And pissing glass after a foley catheter happens every time. All the things you are describing are known effects of what you had done. It should of been explained better to you. But your repair looks good. Just take it easy for a while and let the tacks take hold. Lay off the opioids if possible and try some Naproxen and tylenol. Sometimes those actually work better for people than Percs or Vics

My surgeon recommended direct repair also. His point was that he can make 1x 1 inch incision(direct) or 3x 1/2 inch incisions(lap) to do the same thing. Direct gives easy access and visualization. Easy recovery for me. I took the Vicodin for the first two nights to sleep, but went to alternating Tylenol and Advil after that. Actually, the most effective thing was to apply ice packs to the surgical site. My sore throat was minimal and no catheter was involved, so can't really help with that part. I offer this not to diminish your suffering, but only to give those contemplating the surgery a little different perspective (and maybe some hope).

 

[jameslee]

You guys are scaring me. I was diagnosed about a year ago. Surgeon said it's not too bad and may or may not get worse. I have some occasional discomfort, especially after standing for a while, but not so bad that I am motivated to do anything about it (at least not until my next fishing trip to Cabo, which is now just weeks away).

 

[varmint slayer]

Yeah I went with the open repair myself as my surgeon told me the same as Jig Stick. Mine wasn't huge but it wasn't small either. He said chances of failure with open is little to none vs the laparoscopic procedure. I iced the shit out of mine and took Vicodin for a few days and ate a crazy high fiber diet for a week and had no problems. No sore throat as I didn't have to go endotracheal tube or catheter. I was fairly young (28) and my recovery was about a month before I felt froggy enough to really not think about what I was going to do or how I was going to do it. I still could feel the procedure for a few months after if I over did it so don't expect to be able to go full retard for at least a few months.

 

[997/2man]

3" incision here. First day, all I could do was roll 135 and piss in a water jug. Hurt pretty bad.

Doc gave me percocet or some shit. I called him @ 7:00 a.m. next morning for a better prescription, gave me 30 dilaudid.

Then it was a warm, fuzzy week on the couch.

It was a lot like getting shanked. 3 weeks later, was laying pipe like a 20 y/o.

Good Luck.

 

[coldboremiracle]

I'll be having a second surgery to repair a hernia (again) sometime soon. I feel your pain, and will feel it again.