Inguinal hernia surgery options following RALP

When my husband had his robotic surgery in May of 2017 a nurse came out and told me they had found 2 hernias and were going to repair them while they were in there. Although he didn't know any different, he was up and doing all of the recommended walking as soon as we got home the next day. He is in great shape and normal height and weight. Maybe he would have felt even better if he hadn't had the repair. Who knows. His main complaint was the catheter. Good luck.

Question - are you sure its a hernia?

I have what my GP thought was a hernia (before RALP, its go.tten worse since ADT when my stomach grew). Sent me to a surgeon who said it was just a weakness in the abdominal wall. Symptom sure looks like a hernia. When i lie down, and then try to lift my torso, sort of like a sit up, i get a "dome" sort of like in the movie "Alien" protruding out of my stomach. It recedes when i relax my stomach muscles.
I also asked my gastroenterolgist about it. He said same thing. Not a hernia, its a weakening of the tissue that connects the two sides of your abs. There is a name for it..... DIASTASIS RECTI. I did my own research, its very common in pregnant women, but men get it too.

It can be repaired surgically but its a tough surgery, and you are prone to recurrence. Anyway, i digress, make sure its a hernia and not just weakness of connective tissue.

Kauaiboy = Check out my post in December:

https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=35&m=4229353#gsc.tab=0

I am 5+ weeks out and doing well. I overdid something yesterday and my lower stomach feels like I did 100 sit ups so getting past that today. It is amazing how soft one gets when laying off workouts for a month. I walked almost every day which was no problem but in the last few weeks, when I try something new involving that part of my body, I have aches the next day. I did a bunch of arm curls with 20 lb dumbbells and my biceps were sore the next day. Just takes time and no benefit to going too fast.

My inguinal hernia just started causing me problems one day on a long walk that I have done many days. Then it happened a few days again later on a walk. There was obvious swelling in the area that went away when I laid down. Saw the doctor and he agreed that I had a hernia. Saw the urologist for 2 year checkup and he agreed I had a hernia. Saw the surgeon who had a CT done on me and he agreed that I had an inguinal hernia even though the CT did not show anything.

You really want to see a general surgeon for a hernia repair. Many general surgeons are doing hernia repairs weekly and a few specialize. They are best qualified to evaluate a hernia also as they see lots of hernia patients and fix them. Mesh repairs are pretty common and solve some problems with the older surgery methods.

The glue falls off the port holes in about two weeks so that is when you can take a bath. Showers are fine from the beginning. The instructions are to take it real easy for 2 weeks and you should be reasonably clear at 6 weeks but to avoid any real heavy lifting. I am not sure I would be able to play 18 holes of golf at 6 weeks but then that is 120+ strokes which would wear most guys out I think 2 months would be a better target but everyone is different just like RALP recovery. At 3 months like your previous surgeries would be no problem as far as I can tell.

As Stephen noted, the recliner chair is the best invention for surgery recovery. Just took mine back downstairs last week.

I'll get to the inguinal hernia part of this but I have mostly lost faith in the medical care in my geographical area. When I had my initial biopsy for PCa, the PA who ordered it never contacted me with the results and after numerous calls were not returned I logged in to the patient portal and found the results which I had to use Dr. Google to decipher for me. While I like the urologist I was eventually assigned, I wasn't going to deal with this facility and went to Cleveland for RALP.

about a month after I returned, I was was having some serious discomfort down there in the groin. I self-diagnosed that it was a spermatocele and went in to urology for a look. The PA that saw me immediately ran the tape tape that said RALP = inguinal hernia and sent me for an ultrasound. The ultrasound tech was probing the inguinal area and I tried to explain that the pain, and THE OBVIOUS SWELLING, was due south of there but he said that the oder was to screen only for an inguinal hernia. The reading came back that I "might" have an inguinal hernia and I was referred to a surgeon. The surgeon, who had done an umbilical hernia on me a dozen years ago, looks at the ultrasound, probed around, and said he couldn't feel anything that needed a repair. I pointed to the swelling and the area of discomfort and he he said he felt that but didn't know what it was and referred me back to urology. I finally saw the urologist who confirmed a spermatocele and said they could excise it but it might come back. At that point I was willing to just leave things as they were and it eventually subsided and became a non-issue.

Fiddle - Check my thread link above. I read all the information about hernia surgery after RALP also, searched the internet, etc mainly with negative recommendations. However, the middle aged surgeon I used said he had done many successfully with robot assisted laparoscopic methods. He said it takes longer but he works through them and the recovery is less traumatic. Because I had both RALP and ART, he was not as sure and left the choice to me but preferred to go robotic and switch to open surgery if necessary. I woke up with three port holes and was happy. He said it was more complicated but just worked through it, took 1.5 hours vs. less than an hour typically.

I am not suggesting you bail out at this late time but be aware that surgeons do what they do and have experience with. Most do not push the envelope and keep repeating the same arguments. I did further check out robotic vs open further for RALP patients and you can find studies that it works fine with good results. They are just not as common as the "can't be done" posts.