Hernia Surgery

[PennyLanePHINS]

Hello, I have a bilateral inguinal hernia, which I found out about 7 years ago. Hasn't bothered me much so haven't had surgery, though it does feel a tiny bit bigger on one side. No pain or anything. I just wonder if surgery is inevitable.

Just curious if anyone has ever had the surgery or knows anyone who has, or has a hernia but has been fine without surgery. The most common is by putting mesh, but of course just worried about possible complications if I do get it done.

Any info would be great, thanks!

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

i dont know shit about this but i do want to say good luck to you and i hope you dont require surgery.

 

[Danny Boy]

The biggest danger of an untreated hernia is an incarceration, where the loop of bowel gets stuck outside of the inguinal canal and the blood supply gets choked off. The segment of bowel can die, which can lead to perforation, sepsis, death, etc. So yeah, I would get it checked out, though the risk is less than 1% I think. The hernia sack also tends to get larger over time.

 

[jeevey]

I don't know about hernias, but the mesh treatment is common for women with pelvic organ displacement. It has a pretty low success rate-- essentially, disturbing the facia in surgery creates more problems than the mesh solves, as it is integral to tissue support. Additionally, the mesh itself can cause serious side effects. It's not uncommon for women to be able to feel it all the time, and sometimes the mesh migrates under the skin to a different part of the body and causes serious pain. Do your research on success rates and so on but f you are asymptomatic I wouldn't worry about it; I imagine you would develop symptoms if a loop of your bowel began to die off.

 

[LemonMelon]

I got an inguinal hernia when I was 9 from riding a bike. No pain and it never got worse so I just left it alone and never got around to fixing it. I'm not especially athletic, but if I were to start regularly playing a sport that could make it worse, I'd probably get it repaired to be on the safe side.

Success rate for the surgery is up to 99.7%, but I'm scared as fuck of general anesthesia; just look at what it did to Bono.

Statistics also show that there is a 0.3% chance of infertility involved in inguinal hernia surgery, so that's another concern.

 

[PennyLanePHINS]

I don't know about hernias, but the mesh treatment is common for women with pelvic organ displacement. It has a pretty low success rate-- essentially, disturbing the facia in surgery creates more problems than the mesh solves, as it is integral to tissue support. Additionally, the mesh itself can cause serious side effects. It's not uncommon for women to be able to feel it all the time, and sometimes the mesh migrates under the skin to a different part of the body and causes serious pain. Do your research on success rates and so on but f you are asymptomatic I wouldn't worry about it; I imagine you would develop symptoms if a loop of your bowel began to die off.

Oh yeah I heard about that, they use the same mesh which has had success on hernias to treat that, but its a different condition and often does not work the same. That's a whole other thing...I don't understand why they wouldn't come up with a better solution. Its as if they thought "Hey this usually works on this one condition, let's try it on this other one!"

As for hernias it seems mesh generally works, but like with any surgery there could be complications if the body doesn't accept it. I try not to read the horror stories online, because usually people who have success just go on and forget about it so they aren't busy posting their positive experience. Like, I know The Rock (actor/wrestler) had three in 2013 where he posted they put mesh in, and he is obviously fine right now. I just don't get why there aren't more alternatives (there are some...a place in Florida that uses something where it sows up with muscle, and some place in Toronto that uses the body around as well.)

I'm not in pain, knock on wood, though I did feel kinda sore which freaked me out a bit (I don't right now, I feel fine) which is why it came roaring back in my mind.

Anesthesia can be freaky, though apparently they sometimes can use local for this one if its open surgery. Laparoscopic needs general, but it also has a quicker heal time and apparently less pain. Though it all depends on how experienced the surgeon is, whatever they're better at and more experienced with is what you'd want to have a more successful surgery when it comes to any condition.

 

[nbelcik]

Anesthesia can be freaky, though apparently they sometimes can use local for this one if its open surgery. Laparoscopic needs general, but it also has a quicker heal time and apparently less pain. Though it all depends on how experienced the surgeon is, whatever they're better at and more experienced with is what you'd want to have a more successful surgery when it comes to any condition.

I just got done a few hours ago with a surgery (to fix complications from an earlier laparoscopic surgery) that was supposed to be laparoscopic, but they ended up having to make a larger incision. I can say with absolute certainty that laparoscopic surgery hurts less. I've been in pain a lot since the surgery a few hours ago and it's worse than the pain I remember from the laparoscopic surgery I underwent a few weeks ago (although last time I was hooked up to a device that allowed to press a button and receive pain medication every 10 minutes). Also, anesthesia is pretty gnarly but I love it. I love being able to rest after surgery and relax and I like how the lingering effects of anesthesia make me relaxed.



Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[deep]

I got a hernia about 10 years ago. It was on my right side. Just came through about the size of a golf ball. It hurt like heck. I would put my hand in my pocket and push it in to be able to walk.
I had the titanium mesh put in with the laparoscopic surgery. it went just fine. I was up and walking that afternoon. Now I forget I ever had the problem or surgery and I would have to look real hard to find the two 1/2 inch scars.

 

[PennyLanePHINS]

Thank you for sharing, good to know all this. Ended up feeling fine a few days after posting this in Jan. May have set it off again though after trying a little soccer one day last week, so I occasionally feel that dull ache.

So its probably inevitable, just still trying to debate this.

 

[anitram]

My father in law just had the same sort of hernia repaired - he bounced back incredibly quickly and within 48 hours was walking a couple of miles. He only had good things to say about the process and recovery.

 

[PennyLanePHINS]

Was it with the mesh? I'm sure I could handle the pain after, even if I'll complain a lot - though I don't know my threshold since I've never had any type of surgery (only have had stitches once a long time ago) and everyone is different.

I'm mainly just worried about the foreign mesh they use not being "accepted" by the body, which can happen, with any type of surgery really where they have to insert something foreign like mesh or steel/rod, and could cause chronic pain. I'd guess that is hopefully on the rare side. I mean I know a couple people who know people who've had it done and are fine now, but still a bit scary since you never know how it might go for yourself.