What does a hernia feel like?

[BigV]

Originally Posted by grant

--snip--an umbilical hernia that I have to get repaired.--snip--

Me too. Well, in the past tense, like a couple of years ago. There was pain for me, but very clearly on or off, not just "ooh, that hurts", but nothing, then "OUCH". I could easily see the bulge, about the size of an apricot, at my bellybutton when it was hurting, and I could push it back in and the pain would go away. I think the pain was less from the insides being messed with but more about the hole being stretched by my big fat guts poking out. I guess if I wore my pants like Steve Erkle I could have let my belt buckle take care of it indefinitely, but that was not an option.

The procedure was done in the doctor's office outpatient style. I got instructions not to eat or drink past midnight and then in the morning I got a ride to the doctor (no driving afterward), and I laid down and got the local application of novocaine or whatever. Then he made the incision, and stuffed a wad of polypropolyne mesh/gauze the size of the end of my thumb into the area and sewed it to the surrounding tissue.

Previously, the recommended treatment was to stitch the hole together threading flesh to flesh. Well, it turns out that the thread would many times pull through the needle hole and the problem would be back--a hole. This new strategy actually fills the hole with the mesh and then anchors the mesh to many more points than the old version. You get the idea.

A word of caution. The procedure itself was pain-less. Thanks to the miracle of modern pharmaceuticals, I walked in and I walked out. I was tender afterward and got a prescription for the pain and instructions that for the next two weeks I was to lift nothing heavier than a fork. The pain meds from the pharmacy came with instructions to take one every four hours. Well, I was tired when I got home so I went to bed.

I fell asleep on my back, very comfortable, and woke some time later and really had to pee. I rolled onto my side and carefully levered myself up with my arms, not my stomach, and stood up. So far so good. I got to about the end of the bed before I started to gray out from the pain. I collapsed to the floor. It hurt so bad, I thought I was gonna die, and I was afraid I wouldn't. Oh, my God. I needed help, and my daughter was in the house and I tried to call for her, but anything above a whisper was tooooo much for my belly. I got her attention by pounding on the floor and calling the best I could. Bless her heart, she helped me crawl to the bathroom.

I had slept about six hours, well past the remedication point in my condition. I can see now that I was just as injured in bed at home as I was 7 hours earlier in the doctor's office. But then I had all those really wonderful chemicals perking through my bloodstream, and my belly, though hurting, was unable to get the message through to my brain. Truly, a miracle.

So the moral of the story is Take Your Medicine. Have someone wake you if necessary. Time your trips to the toilet so they happen when you can stand and walk. Trust them (and me) on that part about the fork.