I recently had a Hernia Surgery 2 weeks ago and found it to be a very painful experience. I went in the operating room with no fear (thinking the Vicodin would take care of me after the surgery). Sad to say, the Vicodin worked but not as effectively as I had imagined.
I went in on March 4th, 2009 at 8AM and came out by 11AM. I was feeling great thinking everything was fine 'n' dandy but as I got off the bed to change out of the hospital gown into my clothes I fell next to the bed. The anesthesia was still in my system and my left leg was numb (they forgot to mention this to me). After waiting an hour, I was able to change in to my clothes and leave the hospital. They had given me a pain pump which had a pipe going in to my skin near my abdominal area to provide numbing medicine in the incision area.
Came home got the rest I needed and later that evening I started taking my prescription pain reliever medicine, Vicodin. 10PM as I slowly walked to the bathroom like an ape with my hunched back and legs spread open I fell again. This was supposedly the anesthesia leaving my system and mixing Vicodin causing my blood pressure to drop dramatically. Lucky for me my sister is a nurse and was nearby to help and give me salt water and Gatorade to bring it back up a little. Then at 12AM, my second attempt to go to the bathroom ended up the same way with me laying beside the toilette wanting to vomit but no energy to do so and when something did come out, it was just water since I had not ate all day.
After that first day, the next four or five days were probably the most painful days of my life (thus far). Very painful to move or walk at all and sleeping was an obstacle of its own. Was only allowed to sleep on my back (couldn't turn even if I wanted to because of the pain). Vicodin would keep me constipated and drowsy and didn't feel like it was easing the pain until I stopped taking it and realized how bad the pain got without it.
After struggling the first few days, I was told by my Doctor's office I had to force myself to walk (even if it hurt) otherwise I would not heal fast. Keeping in mind that I am getting married on April 11th, 2009 I had to speed up this healing process. So I walked around the house back and forward after the few days as much as I could and the fifth day, it was time for me to remove my pain pump. I can't believe they expect a patient to do this himself at home. It was a five inch catheter (pipe/tube) that went inside me which I had to pull out on my own. As I mentioned earlier, lucky for me my sister was a nurse or I would be freaking out.
Pain felt worse after that was removed since there was no more numbing medicine being applied. After the first week had passed, I was able to walk more and became more tolerant to pain. It has been two weeks now and I'm feeling much better. I still have my sterry strips over the incision area and waiting for them to come off. They did not use any stitches to close the open area so I'm waiting to see what it will look like once these fall off (suppose to take two weeks so any day now).
So if you are ever have to get a Hernia Surgery then take my advice, WALK! Build that pain tolerance and walk as much as you can, it really does help heal faster.
Have you had a Hernia Surgery before? What was your experience like?
Just came back from my post surgery visit to the doctor's office. Turns out that my On-Q pain pump which was suppose to provide numbing medicine was possibly faulty because I wasn't suppose to be in that much pain.
ReplyDeleteI see why most people chose not to go with Kaiser Permanente for insurance =/
Malik, I just had 2 moles removed and surgery sucks.
ReplyDeleteHope you feel better soon.
Keith
Ouch that doesn't sound fun. I'm feeling much better thanks, hope you heal soon as well.
ReplyDeleteI had my inguinal hernian surgery on the 2nd of April. Timings were exactly the same as yours. Surgery went fine and as soon as i woke up, i felt the horrible pain in my lower abdomen. It was an 8 on a scale of 10. The medication took care of it. I was told i cannot leave until i pass urine. On my first attempt to pee after 2-3 hours of my surgery iwasnt able to even get out of the ned so the nurse got me a bottle. I passed 600cc of urine and she was quite surprised. It was a good sign though.
ReplyDeleteCame back home and took my rest. The pain is usually worse in the next 2 days. Going to the bathroom was a painful mission. But i kept myself moving about as much as i could and it did speed up the healing process. Its gonna be a week since i had my surgery tommorrow and i would say i have recovered pretty fast. I remember taking the prescribed painkiller only twice uptil now im still constipated though but medication takes caree of that too I walk for about 10mins every couple of hours. And every day the pain gets better and better. I have never slept on my back so this week has been very uncomfortable. Tonight i am sleeping on my left side for the first time. It doesnt hurt at all so im willing to take the risk. (surgery was on right side).
If i keep going like this i should be able to use the stairs in another week or so. So take my advice, try to stay in motion after ur surgery. Your body must get used to it and the sooner it does, the better.
Thanks for sharing your story! I just had open bilateral inguinal hernia surgery 5 days ago. I must say that I haven't (yet) experienced a lot of pain aside from the soreness and 'fullness.' I took pain medicine once, as a way of trying to sleep, but I didn't really need it. I don't think I have a high pain tolerance, but now I'm worried that I might get pain later. After surgery, I was walking around pretty normal, but spent most of my time in bed. The second day was the worst! I couldn't move and since I was trying not to strain or pull something, I had the worst lower back and stomach pain (aka, belt pain) from sleeping so still (I'm assuming). I've gotten better and have been able to move around better, and when I stand up now, I don't feel that pulling sensation anymore. I still can't sleep past 4 am because I keep waking up with that 'belt pain' but once I get up and sit down, I feel better. This may sound superficial, but I'm more worried about the scars that will be left...well, that and I want to make sure I never go through this again! I notice that the more days that pass, the better I feel and the more comfortable I am with moving around. Luckily for me, I had a lot of help at home....I couldn't imagine being alone for the recovery! I think that moving around does help speed recovery and help with pain. I guess everyone has different recovery rates, but so far, I'm glad I went through and got this done with...take care!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your recovery is going much faster than mine did. I wouldn't worry too much about the scar. It does leave one no doubt but I guess you get use to it and doesn't seem that big after a couple of months. I'm curious if you were given the pain pump?
ReplyDeleteI had my inguinal and umbilical hernia surgery yesterday at 7:00 am. I thought I would try to do it without pain medicine. I made it till 7:00 last night. I had been up and moving quite a bit, I pushed it too much on the pain scale and got nauseous, started sweating and nearly fainted. Fortunately I didn't get sick, I can't imagine throwing up so soon after surgery. Anyway piece of advice, use the pain medicine early and start moving as soon as possible. Trust me it does hurt quite a bit; but it's now 7:00 the 2nd night and there is some improvement. I think it is because I have been up standing and walking quite often. Unfortunately I have not been able to have a bowel movement yet, but I was able to urinate right after surgery. I plan to back off the pain medicine tomorrow and hopefully completely off the next day. I workout five days a week, the last three months I did lots of ab work I thought it may help in my healing. Now I am wondering if the increased muscle mass in that area might be causing more pain, don't know for sure; but if you are thinking like I was I would think twice about it. But we will see how quickly I recover if it was worth the possible pain. Also I don't know if having both surgeries at the same time was a great idea because it covers such a vertical area of my abdomen it seems really tough to get up and down; but it may have made little difference. Although both at once sounded good to get it over with. Anyway I hope to be more mobile soon. Hope this information may be helpful to some of you. At least it has helped me take my mind off the effects of surgery. Thank God for my wife I would not want to be alone. Good luck Hernia Club members lets keep on movin!!!!
ReplyDeleteI just had my hernia surgery Thursday and I still ain't have a BM yet. And my whole stomache has stitches etc i wish I never got this done I was walking and everything I hurt more today than I did in the beginning but I had my husband and my mother in law helping me get better
DeleteSo I had bilateral inguinal surgery 5 days ago. First 3 days were pretty terrible. I have been trying to walk, but it just takes it out of you. The fourth day was the best. However, still in pain. I tried to space out my pain meds today, and it left me in a lot of pain and really nauseous. I am not going to throw up like this. Coughed a few times and that was bad enough. I was going to try and go back to work tomorrow, but just tried to ride in a car to my inlaws and I realized that I
ReplyDeleteam not going anywhere soon. Having a cramp in my right flank, did anyone else feel this? How long were y'all out before going back to work?
Man I just figured out I have hernia. And now I hear about all this pain and I never had surgery so I'm super nervous. I'm afraid something will go wrong because usually something does.
ReplyDeleteI posted anonymous on Oct. 8th. It's been just past five weeks since my surgery. Took pain medicine first and then second night, switched to ibuprofen for the next two days, than stopped taking any pain medicine at all. Pain was much less on third day and not bad at all after day five. Started light weight training after two weeks and still training fairly light now. I think now that the ab and lower back training that I did helped me recover quite quickly. I had both hernias done open with mesh. I had choose open because it had less chance of complications and less likely the hernias would return. Although I did find some conflicting data on the subjects, the majority read that open was safer with the only down side being a little longer recover time and a scar. But being male I don't wear a bikini, so I don't care about a scar. I just wanted the best chance of not having these hernias return. Hope my comments on the 8th. of Oct. don't scare you from getting your surgery down. It is way worth the short amount of pain to get my body back to normal. I would do the surgery again for sure. Good luck , get it fixed and start moving quickly. Eat smart with lots of fiber and get off pain medicine as soon as possible. Hope all goes well!
ReplyDeleteI had open inguinal surgery Jan 15 2010. Yeah, the pain really sucks. I had spine surgery in 2005 and that pain is nothing compared to this surgery. It's been 4 days of painful hell for me. The meds did nothing for this kind of pain.
ReplyDeleteI am scared but scheduled for the Inguinal surgery. I am wondering about the Pain pump. Is it a device that is going to be transplanted, or something that have to carry with cloths.
ReplyDeleteI had my surgery for my hernia on Friday June 4th 2010. Its been 5 days and I still can't walk. The pain is so bad the doctor changed my pain medicine to Oxy Codine. After 4 days of intense pain I forced myself take a bowell movent. I was in so much pain I screamed. I am still waiting to be able to move without the feeling of knife being plunged in my groin.
ReplyDeleteI cannot sleep except on my back and I havent moved in days. I cannot express how painful this has been.
I feel that I was under the pretense that it was a simple and common procedure with low to moderate pain. I feel as though a knife is being stabbed into my groin. I often moan with agony.
I am 23 years old and used to be model. I am in good shape and should be able to recover.
Can anyone explain my experience? I am afraid the doctor may have not performed a proper surgery since I am such pain and after 5 days unable to stand at all.
Hi Andrew, I know exactly what your going through. I had gotten my surgery through Kaiser and they gave me a faulty pain pump which was suppose to provide numbing medicine and didn't do the job.
ReplyDeleteI have to say, it is true what the doctors tell you though. You really have to push yourself and try to move around and walk. As it is your already in pain, might as well suck it up and tolerate a little more pain and make it heal faster instead of being in pain for a longer period of time.
It's been over a year and I've been doing great. I still have not had any other pain in my life I can compare to with the post hernia surgery pain but surely tested my pain tolerance.
Make sure your eating properly, your body will need the energy to tolerate the pain. Do let me know how long it takes you to recover.
Wish you best of luck!
I had my inguinal hernia surgery today at 11am. I am in so much pain right now. I don't want to think what will be tomorrow. I've been on vicodin, but reading this post make me think that I need to start walking asap...I work out 5 times a week, does anyone knows how soon should I come back to work Out??? :)
ReplyDeleteWere you given a pain pump? It shouldn't take more than week for you to get back on your feet. I was told the more you attempt to walk, the faster your recovery will be.
ReplyDeleteAlso, my situation was slightly different than most since my pain pump itself didn't work causing more pain.
Best of luck!
I know this is an old thread, but I'm sure that it might benefit those that will be googling "inguinal hernia recovery." I had surgery done three days ago to repair a right inguinal hernia. The method used was open with a mesh. I will say that there was some pain, but very bearable. I held off with the pain meds until I had to go to sleep the first night. Then I used it sparingly. Being that it's only the third day, I think the second day was definitely harder than the first, and now the third.
ReplyDeleteI have to get left hernia surgery and after reading all this I might cancel. I'm a single mom and have baby and I HAVE to be able to hold the baby and nurse him and be a mom so....
ReplyDeleteTo the most recent Anonymous user, I honestly don't know enough about how different it is for a woman compared to a man but I know men don't have it as often as women do. I would consult with your doctor before making a decision on getting it or not. Sometimes you can have the hernia and not need the surgery at all. Wish you best of luck and remember, mine was a rare situation, doesn't happen to everyone.
ReplyDeleteA heria never gets better. I've had one for 5 years and it's get to the point that its got to be done. I've had a number of surgeries. One being a rotator cuff repair. The thing is if you don't get it fixed and your intestine are strangulated then your going to end up crapping in a bag. The sooner you get it done the better.
ReplyDeleteI suppose every situation is different, yours seems a lot more severe than what I had. I had mine for about 15 years before it started causing any sort of pain or discomfort at all.
ReplyDeleteTo everyone that reads this post and the comments... Please keep in mind these are experiences shared and not advice by a professional. Every persons condition is different, talk to your doctor regarding your situation.
I'm on my 4th hernia now,very painful,pain starts in my right testicle and goes through my right side into my lower back...trying a different doc this time
ReplyDeleteHad right side inguinal hernia surgery yesterday and after surgery and coming home I thought it wasnt so bad. However today Im in the worse pain I ever recall. As soon as I got out of bed I had the incision area pain and a pain right on my hip that circles around to lower back. Aweful. Cant even consider how a bowel movement will feel. I have taken milk of magnesia hoping to lessen that pain. I had a small hernia that wasnt protruding but thought it best to get taken care of now. All I can say is I would NEVER do this again unless absolutely necessary. I do hope others will do better than myself.
ReplyDeleteI had inguinal left side hernia surgery on Dec. 10, 2012 for a hernia that developed about 6 weeks before that. Quite large. The procedure and recovery went fine for six days, and then the pain began to build along the incision (which had been glued shut, no external stitches or clips) until it was almost unbearable. Surroundings would just disappear in a red haze. Movement of any kind was just agony. I had increased the vicodin intake (along with a laxative)and spent the next two weeks in a vicodin fog as the pain very, very slowly diminished. The doctor checked everything and spoke about "aggravating the nerves along the incision..." The vicodin script was for 3-4 days at a time, roughly four per day, and I had to call and whine to the dr's office to get refills. Quite demeaning. Fortunately, I had kept my truss and wearing that helped to immobilize the incision. Slept upright in a lounge chair. I cut the vicodin in half on the 3rd and stopped completely yesterday. The site is still very sensitive and I try very hard to not sneeze. I'm 70, and have had back and shoulder surgery before but nothing before as painful as this for this long a time. In previous cases I had stopped pain meds in just a few days. One problem for me is that I can't take ibuprofen.
ReplyDeleteAdvice: start the vicodin hours before the numbness wears off. Be extremely careful about movement for at least a month. Take a laxative daily for the whole month, if not longer, until there is no pressure on the incision site. From what I've read, it seems that about 60% of patients have real pain problems with this surgery.
Response to post from Dec 21st... I hope you are feeling better by now. Sad that you had to have it right before the holidays but I would have to agree with you in having to do it again. I would only put myself in the same situation if it was absolutely necessary otherwise I would just deal with it (couple of Doctors I saw said the same thing).
ReplyDeleteResponse to the post this morning, sounds like an awfully painful experience, I can relate although I was told the faster you move and force yourself to walk, the faster you will heal. I agree with the advice you provided with vicodin and perhaps the laxatives as well but would highly encourage others to try to move around as much as possible and not wait for a month. Be very careful but walking is the best way to healing faster. Hope you are well now.
ReplyDeleteAdd'l advice: I forgot to add that regular use of ice packs helped quite a bit for immediate albeit short term pain relief.
ReplyDeleteI have been operated with the Dwarfs method for 4 days now.. Pain was intense for 2 days to the point of teeth chattering. Made the mistake of overdosing on Oxicodone. I had taken a trip to hell with mild physcosis. Not good to stitches in an emergency. I was able to.get over that jump but the back pain is worse than the inguinal hernia repair. Feels like a hot knife stab in the front and then it comes out the back. It's slowing my walking progress and I have to ice my back before I walk to full the pain. Never would I have though gt my back would be the problem. I can deal with the surgery but my back it's a different type of intense pain. I just hope it doesn't last much longer. My wife thinks it's because I have no muscle strength to keep the weight off my back when standing erect.
ReplyDeleteI had open inguinal hernia on march 28 2013. The surgery went fine only to wake up with some pain and numbness on my stomach because the doctor tried to do my surgery laparoscopic but due to scar tissue from previous C-sections he had to preform open surgery. In other words I had both procedures. The pain was more intense than my C-sections. My first five days was horrible. Getting in and out of bed was a very painful experience. The pain medication they gave me was lortab and was not strong enough. Going to the bathroom was a hell of an ordeal. So I learned to pee standing up. For us women this is unusual but let me tell you it works because you don't stress so much the incisions. I have heal well but I still feel numbness on my stomach and my incisions. Its been two month since my surgery and had my last check up with my doctor who told me I could resume my life with caution. I try to start walking and short distance running and I been in pain on my pelvic area
ReplyDeletefor a few days. My belly looks bigger than before and I have this constant soreness in my private area. I been researching for post op information and found out a lot of thing that could happened after surgery. Something my doctor never warn me about. Now I am scare that this discomfort will never go
away and I'll be pain free. I am trying to loose some weight to see if my belly will go down because it is freaking me out to see that bulge in front of me. I tell you what if I new then what I know now I would have not chosen
surgery and would have waited until it was really necessary. So my advice
to you is if your hernias are small and you don't have much pain educated your self. Having the surgery doesn't warranty that you'll be without pain. There is some complication that could come along with the surgery and it all depends how your body heal. So educated yourself before, so you don't wander like me if you made the right decision. I am going to hold on in doing anything strenuous for another 2 month and see if the numbness on my belly and the pain and discomfort on my crotch goes away. Hope my experience help someone that is going thru what I am going thru.
I agree with lots of the comments. Day after the meds wear off tolerable pain started. Pain wasn't too bad,but I think the sooner you start moving the better. just move slowly and cautiously. First bowel movement was my biggest concern. Take a stool softener and DON'T RUSH BOWEL movement. take your time and try to relax. Haven't taken too many meds, (bed time) pain isn't too bad. A toilet extender helps quite a bit also. Its only been 3 days and so far I think its most important to not just lay around. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE, hope some of this helped.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughts
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