hernia repair experience

Thought I'd say something about my hernia operation Tuesday. It was to repair an incisional hernia that had emerged slowly over the past few years from my main prostatectomy scar, in my navel.

I checked in at 8:00 AM, got into into the gown, put a little sticker near the hernia that said "Surgical Site" (a nicer way of saying "Cut HERE"), and got an IV going. Just before the OR nurse came to get me, an antibiotic was added to my IV. When she arrived, she also injected something (maybe Versed) which relaxed me as we wheeled back to the OR. I remember the oxygen mask, and then the next thing I know I was sipping some cold juice and eating crackers in recovery. The whole procedure took about 30 minutes from the time I was wheeled back until the surgeon spoke to my wife.
He put in a piece of mesh and sutured my navel back into its original shape.

While in recovery, the nurse gave me a few small doses of fentanyl right into the IV, which gave me immediate pain relief, and gave me a percocet tab to swallow just before leaving. By 11:30 we were on our way home.

The next 48 hours were a little uncomfortable but manageable with sporadic doses of percocet. It has been hard to sleep, even with pillows under my knees, but it's getting better. Today I felt a lot better than yesterday. I was able to remove the dressing from the incision and take a shower today. Even with the sutures, I can tell the area is going to look a lot better than it did. The old prostatectomy scar looks better all along its length (not very long--I had a Da Vinci).

The sutures are self-dissolving.

So that's my experience so far. I'm going back to work in a week, after a followup.

I regret not having taken care of this sooner.

Best wishes to anyone with this procedure coming up.

Glad you got through it ok, and you are on the mend. Interesting story, wasn't sure how they fixed things like that. Good healing to you.

David in SC

I lived with my half a golf ball size buldge for a good 5 years. One big ol bump it into something and it Hurt Real Bad for a week motivated me to get it taken care of.

JB - you'll have to ask the surgeon, but odds are you can do it anytime.

Laxacharlie, my surgeon told me I didn't have to fix it, but eventually it might cause serious problems. Definitely no rush.
Surgery is the only fix as far as I know, although you can wear some kind of device (there was a Saturday Night Live skit with Dan Ackroyd about this) to hold it in. Surgery has a fairly high failure rate, my doctor warned me. The trick is to do the surgery so that the repair is not under tension. That was his goal.

Yes, I am limited in exercise for a while. I am able to move around the house pretty well now, 3 days later, but I am now having to remind myself not to lift. I look forward to riding my bike and hiking again, as well as being able to do some of the more strenuous things around the house, like mowing the lawn. I imagine I will get advice from the surgeon about those things when I meet with him, but I'm guessing the timeline will be to take it pretty easy for several weeks, then gradually get back into normal activities.

I was exercising pretty vigorously before surgery and it didn't seem to exacerbate the problem, aside from a little soreness. Not sure if that applies universally, though.

I had the procedure done under general, but from browsing the web it looks like it is also often done under a combination of light sedation and local anesthetic.

The doc who did my repair is a general surgeon who does a lot of hernia repairs. I would not have considered my urologist for this since it has nothing to do with my genitourinary system. Plus, I have a sneaky suspicion that my urologist saw that this was coming, and said nothing. Hmmm...

He told me to take a couple of weeks off work. It depends on how strenuous your job is (my is not physically strenuous). I could be back at work now, except that I still need to take a pain pill during the day. Also, my bowel is still soundly asleep from the anesthesia. I'm taking a laxative today to see if I can get things moving. I wouldn't want to be at work for that... :)

laxacharlie

Mine was about the size of a peach and did not hurt at all .... but when I would sit down it felt like I had a tennis ball stuck in my stomach.  It didn't hurt, just felt funny. 

Surgery and recovery went fine no problems (had it done about two months ago).

It looks anf feels great.

Surgeon didn't want me to do much of anything strenuous for 4 weeks .... and didn't want me lifting more than 10 pounds for 6 weeks.  I'm currently lifting up to 20 pounds.

A follow up question on hernia repair to those who have experienced an incisional (ventral) hernia post RALP. I do have what appears to be a small hernia on my navel incision. Did you have open or laparoscopic? I assume that most used the "tension free" method with mesh. As is typcal of any medical procedure, there seem to be many options, with no clear choice. Also, has anyone on this form had incisional bumps or swelling which were not hernias? I am off to see some docs this week, and am hoping not to have another surgery so soon after my RALP, which was done on 4/12. Thanks!

Laxacharlie,

It is open. It is only going under the skin and fatty layers. Laparascopic is only good for when you go down inside the gut.

Hi, Goodlife
Thanks for your response. However there seem to be many hernia specialists (including some at Mayo) who do offer laparoscopic surgery for hernia repair, and there is some disagreement (surprise surprise) as to the "best" method. It gets confusing at times.