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Re: inguinal hernia and recovery [mck414] [ In reply to ]
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I had surgery for right inguinal hernia, sports hernia, and lipoma removed at the end of July 2015...5 months ago. Dr. Nannery in Canton/Norwood, MA. Recovery went ok, competed in a sprint tri about 7 weeks later but still felt like I was pushing it. Couldn't run at all until maybe week 5.

Generally I'm 25mpw with one 25mi bike ride and a swim session every other week. Enough to run 5k's and do sprints and occasional Olympic.

During recovery I had some setbacks - about 10 weeks in I had to revisit the doc because I overdid it one weekend. He told me to back off but the repair was still solid. Then two weeks ago out of nowhere - well I say out of nowhere because I was feeling good and ran a few consecutive days of 4mi trail runs, not anything crazy to me - I felt extreme tightness on both sides, up by the inside hip flexors. I ran 3mi one morning and by lunch my groin on the opposite side (left) was killing me. 6/10 on the pain scale, hurt to walk.

I thought it was just tight hip flexors, I took a day off, got a little better, but doing hip flexor lunge-stretches seems to make things worse, not stretch them to make them better. I can really feel something bad in that left hip flexor area when I do a trunk turn towards my right side.

When I had the left side hernia, I felt a true "pop" one morning putting on my socks and my right nut ached for days. This time around, my balls don't ache, I have no pain when coughing, but it feels like I've got a strain or tear in the left ab/groin/hip-flexor. While running I'm ok - I feel a twinge or two down there, but no sustained pain - I can generally continue to run and it goes away.

Anyone else feel super tight on the opposite side of their repair?
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Re: inguinal hernia and recovery [brian_j_smith] [ In reply to ]
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Hi all,
I was diagnosed with a hiatal hernia 4 weeks ago due to which I’m not able to eat or drink anything. The terrible feeling of heartburn and throat heaviness had made me so embarrassed and uncomfortable. My doctor in Shouldice hospital advised me to reduce my weight by following proper diet and exercise. He also advised me to avoid alcohol, chocolates and products which contain caffeine. I’m trying my best to follow up the hernia diet, but am fed up with this vomiting and chest pain, none of the heartburn drugs worked for me. I heard that a hiatal hernia does not need any specific treatment but I wonder how could I manage this disease. Is surgery a wise option? Has anyone had an experience with hiatal hernia surgery? If so, Kindly share your experience. Thank you.
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Re: inguinal hernia and recovery [brian_j_smith] [ In reply to ]
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I am an active 57 yr. old male and I just had an 'open' navel hernia repair surgery with mesh and thought I would share my training recovery. My surgery was unremarkable. The procedure took about 30 min. and I was released from the hospital within 2 hours of surgery. I rested the day of the surgery with minimal pain or discomfort. Mostly it was an excuse to binge watch bad TV and eat ice cream.

Day 1 walked 2 miles; Day 2 walked 2 miles (little minor pain); Days 3-6 I walked 4-4.5 miles each day at ~4 min per mile (1 hr/day as fast as I could walk). Very minor soreness after some walks. I used ice packs on and off while awake the first 4 days along with advil, tylenol and Vicadin at night. I never had any trouble walking, getting in or out of bed or getting dressed.

Day 6 and day 7 I started on the stationary bike; day 8-10 I was back on the road and had logged 67 miles by the 10th day post op. Stationary was good because I could stop any time (didnt need to) and it required minimal core. 1st day back on the road (day 10 post-op) I was careful and did feel a little tightness in my stomach so I took it very easy and just did 5 miles). One more indoor spin and I was good to go on the road - no more odd feeling in my stomach.

I logged 101 miles Days 13-19 post op; and another 101 miles 20-26. Id say from a cycling standpoint I was back to normal in 3 weeks post op. From the day of the operation through the first 30 days I only took 4 days off training. In the very beginning my Watts were low as I was taking it easy - Id say 110-125 avg Watts the first 10 days post op. After that I was back up to 140-160 avg Watts per 60-90 min workout. Day 25 I did a 42 mile ride and noticed my stomach muscles were a little weak and upper abdominals were a little sore after.

Overall the surgery was an order of magnitude less disruptive than a normal injury cycle of say a back or knee injury except that it being a core injury it was harder to get above 75% max HR for the first 10 days. I experienced no pain, bleeding or swelling from the site of the surgery as a result of any of my exercise and I believe it helped recovery. My doctor was surprised at how quickly I returned to activity but I made sure to clear each activity and the agreed schedule of activity Before surgery. At my 1 week post-op check up I again got clearance from my Dr. for all of this. I was prepared to stop any activity upon feeling any pain or weird feeling at the site of my incision (I never did).

I am now one month post-op and have not yet returned to sit-ups or lifting mostly because I dont like sit-ups or lifting :P so its an excuse at this point. Prior to surgery I imagined I would be lying in bed for weeks on end without any exercise. In my case I was active every single day post-op save for one rest day each week. I hope this helps anyone worrying about upcoming surgery - for me it was just not a very big deal. I average about 3,000 miles cycling per year and I swim, run and lift between riding. I average 6-7 hours per week of exercise (at 80%+ max HR) year round because it keeps me sane (mostly). For some this will seem a lot for Triathletes this will seem light duty. I made sure to workout a lot in the months before surgery and I think that helped.
Last edited by: donow: May 16, 18 17:36
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Re: inguinal hernia and recovery [The GMAN] [ In reply to ]
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The GMAN wrote:
I'm 7 weeks post-op. Went back to training last week, so about 5 1/2 weeks post-op. Everything feels fine. I'm out of shape since I haven't been able to workout since July but there are no ill effects from the surgery. My recovery was not as easy as some. I was completely worthless the first five days. There was no way I could walk a marathon less than two weeks post-op.

I could've started training earlier but what's the point with Christmas and all that. I figured I would just heal up and commence training after Christmas.

I also had a little setback about 2 1/2 weeks after surgery when I got a staff infection indirectly related to the surgery. That really sucked.

Bob - you are years after-the-fact now. How is it? I started noticing an occasional lump back in Apr and my GP said probable right inquinal hernia. I'm seeing a surgeon next week for confirmation. I get sporadic discomfort on the bike but not if I wear a hernia belt. No pain running or swimming. At IM Norway I put the belt on over my kit in T1 and had no issue. If I need surgery, I'm hoping to postpone until November.
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Re: inguinal hernia and recovery [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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Paul, no issues with the hernia. It's been all good nearly four year later.

The swollen sack thing did turn into an issue for me. It never went away on its own. I had to have another surgery to fix that. Google hydrocelectomy if you want to know more. So that sucked. I had that done about 16 months after the hernia surgery.

If you do need surgery, see if you have the option to have it done laparoscopically. The recovery is not as bad but my understanding is that it has a higher recurrence rate than open surgery.

Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One
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Re: inguinal hernia and recovery [The GMAN] [ In reply to ]
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I saw the surgeon today and he's saying pretty much the same as my doctor...e.g, I'm describing a hernia but he can't see it or feel it, and thus says no surgery indicated. So, it's another 2 month punt for another follow-up. I have IM Ireland and Kona (legacy) next year so hope to have this resolved by spring 2019 before I start an IM block.

Re hydrocelectomy - yeah, I hope I don't get that!
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Re: inguinal hernia and recovery [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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Mine started out like that too. I went once and pretty much described a hernia but the doc wasn't able to find it. Went back maybe a year later and he was able to find it but it was small. He told me to comeback in a couple of years when it worsens. I think I was back in less than a year.

Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One
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Re: inguinal hernia and recovery [donow] [ In reply to ]
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This thread is a great resource. I will add my own experience and edit as needed until I am back to normal training.

I am 61 and developed a right inguinal hernia around April 2018. It slowly progressed over the year but my GP and surgeon both cleared me to continue racing. I did an Ironman on 1 Jul and a 70.3 on 2 Sep. In Oct my surgeon cleared me for IM Florida but we scheduled the surgery for a few days later on 8 Nov. In IM Florida (Haines City) I felt it on the downhill portions of the run and was holding my side in for the last 7 miles. It was definitely time for the surgery.

8 Nov: I went in for laparoscopic repair at 9am and the doc told me he would look at the left side and do it too if necessary. I had an open repair of a left inguinal hernia in 1967, but apparently it was still in good shape. However, I was not allowed to leave the hospital until after 4:30 pm when I was able to finally start peeing. I did not have any post surgery nausea. I walked a slow half mile the next day and one mile today. I am not going to push this as I don't want any setbacks at my age. I did not have any problems or pain taking a dump, nor did I experience any swelling or discoloration of the boys. Cue the hallelujah chorus! I am icing my gut which looks like a small pot belly from the gas they pump into you. My ankles are a little swollen so I am elevating them when sitting down.

18 Nov (10 days post op): I feel 95% recovered although I don't think I would want to try sit-ups at the moment. Bandages are off, but I still have the steri-strips over the incisions and am supposed to leave them on until they fall off. The stomach bloating is almost entirely gone. I'm getting in and out of bed without limitations and can roll over on either side with no pain. I'm walking a brisk 3 miles per day. I feel that I could start back running but I won't see my surgeon for another 8 days and want his clearance. I have a full plate for 2019 and can't afford a set back from being too aggressive.

26 Nov (18 days post op): I walked 24 miles last week and had my first post-op appt with the surgeon today He told me my hernia was the "real deal" and I had a "bleeder" at my upper incision which is the only location with minor residual soreness. I feel ready to go, but he told me to walk one more week, then I can start back slowly but with no intensity until I am 6 weeks post-op. I don't need to meet with the surgeon again but he gave me his card...presumably in case I screw things up by coming back too fast. As much as it pains me, I will continue the walking for one last week.

27 Dec (7 wks post op): Final Post - I am off all exercise restrictions. The past three weeks I ran 10-15-20 miles. Biking is up to 115 mpw. I only started swimming last week and will do just 5000 yards this week. I did one bike workout this week with 6 x 15 secs all out and felt nothing other than being out of shape.

Looking at my USAT scores for 2018, I peaked early in the year and slowly slid backwards throughout the year as the hernia progressively worsened. But getting the surgery done in the off-season at least allowed me to complete all of my planned races for the past year. And listening to the doc and not trying to come back too fast was a good decision. Now I'm looking forward to 2019 without any limitations. If anyone has a hernia and is reading this thread, then I hope I've provided some reason to be optimistic. Good luck!
Last edited by: HuffNPuff: Dec 27, 18 7:52
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Re: inguinal hernia and recovery [rph60] [ In reply to ]
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Doc

I’m in Atlanta and would love to talk to you before I consider going under the knife... you can email at ashman2002@yahoo where you can leave me a number I can call u at... I wanna train but not be stupid
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