HERNIA

[MikeS]

Hey bros, Im 50yo and have never had an operation or illness that required hospitalization. No longer invincible, lol, I have a hernia in the lower abdomen. I just noticed it (thought at first it was a swollen gland) about 1mo ago...went to Dr last wk and he said I need surgery. No pain or soreness whatsoever. Im wondering if I should try to go the summer before. He suggested 4wks but I didnt ask if I could postpone yet.
Im obsessed with being peak strength, have never had a layoff of more than one wk in 30yrs, and thats rare...so Im half freaking out. He said full recovery is 6wks...but thats the Dr being cautious...I told him I would not adhere, would take off 10days. He laughed a little and said he understood...it would increase my chance of reinjury to about 10% from less than 1%.
Please someone share your actual experiences with this...thanks in advance for your help.

 

[pesty4077]

Hey bros, Im 50yo and have never had an operation or illness that required hospitalization. No longer invincible, lol, I have a hernia in the lower abdomen. I just noticed it (thought at first it was a swollen gland) about 1mo ago...went to Dr last wk and he said I need surgery. No pain or soreness whatsoever. Im wondering if I should try to go the summer before. He suggested 4wks but I didnt ask if I could postpone yet.
Im obsessed with being peak strength, have never had a layoff of more than one wk in 30yrs, and thats rare...so Im half freaking out. He said full recovery is 6wks...but thats the Dr being cautious...I told him I would not adhere, would take off 10days. He laughed a little and said he understood...it would increase my chance of reinjury to about 10% from less than 1%.
Please someone share your actual experiences with this...thanks in advance for your help.

You might want to ask Dusty about this, he just went through it.

 

[Big A]

Check the thread in the admin forum about it when myself and Lats got ours fixed within a few weeks aaprt a couple of years ago. NOT a pleasant experience and bullshit 6 weeks recovery. Takes 4 months to be back 100%.

 

[maldorf]

Check the thread in the admin forum about it when myself and Lats got ours fixed within a few weeks aaprt a couple of years ago. NOT a pleasant experience and bullshit 6 weeks recovery. Takes 4 months to be back 100%.

Ditto on that. I had 3 at once patched and it too me about 4-5 months to get back to where I was before. I cant remember how I got back to lifting, but it took a long while and you have to go back gradual.

 

[Trenman]

Just curious, did you get a hernia even though you had a hernia belt on? I swear I got one, though doc says I didn't, and I was wearing a belt, but one of those stupid Velcro kind that you can seem to get tight enough. Its moved upward as I was lifting and I felt what seemed like a wet wash rag tearing, but no really pain. Doc swears there is no hernia that he could find, just said it may be a muscle tear, but after two years, I still feel something there on my lower side. Anyway, just a warning about poor-assed belts! And a double warning for all those guys I see in the gym who don't even wear one at all.

 

[maldorf]

here is a link to one thread

http://www.professionalmuscle.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35016&highlight=hernia

 

[maldorf]

Just curious, did you get a hernia even though you had a hernia belt on? I swear I got one, though doc says I didn't, and I was wearing a belt, but one of those stupid Velcro kind that you can seem to get tight enough. Its moved upward as I was lifting and I felt what seemed like a wet wash rag tearing, but no really pain. Doc swears there is no hernia that he could find, just said it may be a muscle tear, but after two years, I still feel something there on my lower side. Anyway, just a warning about poor-assed belts! And a double warning for all those guys I see in the gym who don't even wear one at all.

I always wore a Inzer Powerlifting belt and still got them.

 

[JETHRO TULL]

I had one repaired Mike and I absolutely wouldn't rush that recovery.

I don't mean to tick you off....but...once you have that operated on...you will want to let it heal. Yeah, you'll lose a little condition..but nothing to worry about if you don't pig out.

Your body probably could stand a break anyway. You'll give those joints and tendons a break and come back refreshed.

Our building principal just had one repaired....waited 10weeks....and was moving some iron with the Hutterites at their colony and fucked himself up again. He's miserable right now. I went in his office today and gave him some chicken. I asked how he is doing and he's pissed off at himself.

That's the gospel truth. That was what he said today.

Be smart, my friend and best of luck.

 

[crazy_j]

I just had double hernia surgery. I had what they called a ventral hernia. It turned out to be 2 hernias that were bilateral. They were right above my belly button. The doc was able to fix both of them with one patch through one port. I had one incision about an inch and a half long that started just above my belly button and went right into my belly button. The hernias were each about the size of a nickle. It looked real bad when I would diet down, you could see this big huge lump in the center of my stomach right through my shirt. I had them for 8 years. They never hurt or gave me any kind of problem except for looking nasty when I laid flat. The doc said he was real surprised that I didnt have surgery to fix them a long time ago because my bowels could have got strangled going through the holes and cause big time problems. I didnt know what to expect with the surgery because I have never had any kind of surgery before. It wasnt bad. They admitted me to the hospital and took me to a room and I laid on the gernie and they hooked up all these cords to me to see my vital signs and they gave me an IV. The guy that knocks you out came in and asked me a few questions and checked my throat to make sure there was a clear passage for an air tube. The nurse came in and put the stuff in my IV knocked me out within a few mins. After that I dont remember much except being taken to another room and being transfered to a table and having my arms tied down just like if I was getting lethal injection. Next thing I remember is waking up all fixed with a big bandage on my stomach. Now I had problems with the incision healing. It would not close and it leaked fluid constantly. It looked like shoe laces how the lace goes through the hole and then to the next but there is a space between them, my stomach looked like that. Where the sutures were it was closed but the in between wasnt. I had a series of open holes all along the incision. The doc tried everything to keep it closed and make it heal. I went to the docs 2 times a week for a month and he finally decided to take me back to the operating room and cut the old incison out and restitch me on the outside instead of on the inside like before because my body rejected those sutures and didnt disolve them either. So I ended up with 7 stitches down my stomach and a very visible scar now, but that is fine and I am completely healed as far as that goes but I was told not to workout for another month. No problem there because I have surgery on my shoulder in 2 weeks to repair two torn tendons, so I am out of the gym for another 9-12 months to heal up fully from everything.

 

[LATS]

BIG A IS ON THE MONEY MY FRIEND.. i had and believe that A had the same thing, was a umbilical hernia.. which is a much more painful injury.. in the lower abs it might.. might.. be a less painful experience.. but if you arent a lifter then 6 weeks for a "full" recovery might be possible.. but, for me and A it was 3-4 months before i even wanted to attempt a weight session..

 

[kid1dakota]

I'm kind of in the same boat as mine doesn't hurt all the time,it just looks crappy especially when I flex abs.I've been putting off this for over 7 years.Now hearing about the length of recovery It will be another seven,lol.

 

[maldorf]

I'm kind of in the same boat as mine doesn't hurt all the time,it just looks crappy especially when I flex abs.I've been putting off this for over 7 years.Now hearing about the length of recovery It will be another seven,lol.

If you do not get it fixed now it will just grow larger and larger over the years until it becomes so gross that you cant stand it anymore and fix it. Worse yet, you might get the strangulated peritoneum, which will lead to peritonitis. That can actually kill. Get it fixed now. I had an umbilical hernia for about 17 years and it just kept getting larger. Do it when its small and the recovery time will be shorter.

 

[kid1dakota]

Yeah thats what I keep hearing,the thaught of the down time sucks you know.Thanks for the advice bro.

 

[Trainwreck80]

I had an inguinal hernia 6 years ago. For some it's not that bad, for me it was the most painful thing I've ever experienced and I've had surgery on that region of my body before. I didn't get back in the gym for over a month and even then I was barely doing anything. You won't be lifting in 10 days bud. Let it heal right. Mine still hurts from time to time.

Good luck!

 

[MikeS]

Ive done quite a few searches here...and also read the posts here in this thread. Thanks alot brothers...not exactly what I wanted to hear. Im a hardheaded asshole lol so I was looking to be lifting in 10days relatively hard. I see now that it wont happen...Ive read the pain will tell you how far you can go. Im sort of resigned to 3-4mo before I can hit it hard...I may wait until end of summer...mine is very new and I will ask my surgeons advice on this.
Thanks all you guys and good to hear from friends BigA, Jethro, LATS and their experiences...any more advice is welcome.

 

[Dens228]

I had hernia surgery and was back lifting light in two weeks and slowly built up from there. The doc had told me 10 weeks. When I went to get the staples out he asked if I had been working out and I said yes. He replied this was where he gets his revenge as he put in more staples than normal because he knew I wouldn't listen. It wasn't working out that was tough, it was the first couple of shits that hurt like hell!

Of course I was only 22 when I went through it.

 

[BigTex]

Hey bros, Im 50yo and have never had an operation or illness that required hospitalization. No longer invincible, lol, I have a hernia in the lower abdomen. I just noticed it (thought at first it was a swollen gland) about 1mo ago...went to Dr last wk and he said I need surgery. No pain or soreness whatsoever. Im wondering if I should try to go the summer before. He suggested 4wks but I didnt ask if I could postpone yet.
Im obsessed with being peak strength, have never had a layoff of more than one wk in 30yrs, and thats rare...so Im half freaking out. He said full recovery is 6wks...but thats the Dr being cautious...I told him I would not adhere, would take off 10days. He laughed a little and said he understood...it would increase my chance of reinjury to about 10% from less than 1%.
Please someone share your actual experiences with this...thanks in advance for your help.

I have had two of them, both umbilical. The first one I had the surgery done on Saturday and was at least in the gym doing very light biceps on Monday. I started doing light upper body the 2nd week, light legs the 2nd week. I was already lifting at almost 100% by the 4th week (against doctors orders). But he did tell me that I had recovered much quicker than normal and released me on the 5th week. Trust me, the pain and discomfort of the stitches will tell you what you can and can not do. Exactly 6 months after my 1st hernia surgery I was competing in a world championship and even pulled a deadlift record.

The 2nd one was in conjunction of gallbladder surgery. This was much more complicated but I was back training again after 2 weeks and released after 1 month. The gallbladder surgery involved 4 holes plus the hernia, plus I had a pretty bad case of pancreatitis. I was in the hospital for 4 days and lucky to get out of that with 4 small holes.

 

[MikeS]

tex, thats good to hear. I did read you post in another thread. Im getting here thats its different for some people than others...and bottom line, your body will tell you how far you can go. I will be on HTR test and IGF1, both legal, hopefully that will aid my recovery.
Im taking all the advice into consideration, thanks everyone.