hernia

[jillbugs4110]

Has anyone gotten a hernia from surgery? Was the repair surgery easy?

[midlifemom]

And, if I may add on to jillbuggs question, how do you know you have a hernia?

[jillbugs4110]

The Dr told me it is popping out right above my abdomen

[midlifemom]

Thanks jillbuggs.

[JudeD59]

Not from rectal cancer surgery, but I got an incisional hernia from my hysterectomy and had it repaired, then got another one from a bowel resection surgery and had it repaired. First one was repaired with cadaver skin, second with pigskin, neither were easy recoveries, but I think it depends on how large the hernia is. Mine were both quite large and I had to be cut from hipbone to hipbone, basically. I also had drains that were left in for about 6-8 weeks to get rid of fluid build up. Not all surgeons do that, but mine felt strongly about it. The drains weren't painful unless the tubing caught on something, but were mostly just gross and an annoyance because I had to empty them several times a day. But like I said, you might not even have drains because it depends on the surgeon and his feelings on whether they are necessary or not.

Because they are cutting ab muscles, I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach a bunch of times for the first few days, but the recovery wasn't as hard as my hysterectomy or the bowel resection. The danger with not getting it taken care of while it's small is that it could strangulate, plus the larger it is, the larger the incision to repair it and the larger the patch they have to sew in. And mine did get to the point where it bothered me so I did the surgeries.

I know people who had mesh repairs have had problems with them and some people had problems with the alloderm (cadaver skin) so my surgeon used pigskin the second time, but I haven't had issues with either one.

If you have any other questions, I'll be happy to answer them if I can.

Judy

[CM35]

I have had multiple incisional hernias (6) that developed along my midline incision scar (which extends from my breast bone to my c-section scar.). I looked pregnant, which wasn't really a look I was going for. The hernias were easily palpable, I could feel the holes in my abdominal wall just by pressing on my abdomen, along my scar. I had mine repaired, but only because I was having surgery anyway (HIPEC.) Being stage IV, my oncologist wasn't excited about an elective surgery. Because, of course, chemo would have to be interrupted. My surgeon opened my original incision all the way up again, and sutured it back up nice and tight, reinforcing the areas where the hernias were. I can feel the sutures along my scar now, rather than holes. He did not use mesh; with my history of peritoneal carcinomatosis, the risks of mesh outweighed any potential benefit. If my cancer were to recur, and if the mesh was to be involved, basically that would not be a good situation.

As for pain and recovery, it's hard for me to say from my situation, because it was done in the same surgery as my HIPEC procedure. HIPEC is kind of a beast to recover from, so it's hard to say what the source of my discomfort was. I am 7 weeks out and still have abdominal wall pain. Nothing serious or debilitating but still annoying!

[KWT]

Shit Jill, did you hit the weights to soon or what?

[mstults]

I look 9 mos pregnant.

[Valorie]

Jill - I had an incisional hernia from the colon resection surgery. I found out about it from my CT scan in Dec and had it repaired in Feb. I have to be honest - the recovery from the hernia surgery has been much harder than the colon resection. I had a large piece of mesh put in and it tends to bite and remind me when I get over-ambitious physically. I've never been good at just "taking it easy".


It is doable though.

Val

[NZJay]

Hi. I had an open (groin to sternum) hernia mesh repair in late February. Honestly, it's a tough recovery. Knocked me out of life for 3 weeks. Lingering pain and discomfort is still present now. But I feel and look much better than before.