Complete Hernia experience, start to finish

I thought to write down my total experience with dealing with an inguinal hernia from discovery to recovery. Everything written here is a true account to my best memory. Hopefully this helps someone or is enough detail to be of use in some way.

Part 1: Discovery & Diagnosis

I first noticed a small bulge in the classic supra-pubic area on my right side, about the size of a grape cut in half. It would bulge when I coughed or laughed, but was otherwise not bothersome. Over the next few months I continued my normal activities, lifting weights, physically working and the bulge worsened and was causing pain by the end of a strenuous day. I began to suspect it was a hernia and called for an appointment with my general practitioner. My doctor was booked solid so the receptionist scheduled me with one of the physician assistants on the team. I was able to secure an appointment the next day, which I showed up coming straight from work. I was checked in quickly and sat in the mostly empty waiting room for no more than a few minutes. The medical assistant leads me back to the exam room after a short wait. The exam room has two doors, a traditional entrance door where we entered, and a sliding "barn style" door opposite leading to the medical proffesional's office spaces. There is a an exam table, sink, supply closet, and two chairs along the north wall. The MA is quite short, plump, and very gregarious. She has me sit in one of the chairs on the side of the room, takes my vitals and briefly discusses reason for visit, duration of issue, etc. She doesnt wear gloves, and her hands are warm as she takes my pulse. She walks over to the supply closet, grabs a gown, instructs me to undress from the waist down, put on the gown open in front, and wait on the exam table for the PA. I wait for the MA to exit out of the sliding door and begin disrobing. I can hear conversations and laughter coming from the office space as i remove my pants & briefs and lay them on the chair I was sitting on. I don the gown as instructed and hop up on the exam table to wait. At this point I'm quite nervous and embarrassed and I don't know why, hernias are among the most commonly diagnosed disorders. It's relatively cold, especially in just a t-shirt and the gown and I can hear the paper crinkling underneath me as I shift around. I'm wishing I grabbed my phone to distract myself but at this point I don't dare hop down and get it. Eventually there is a knock and the PA and asks to come in, and I'm pleasantly surprised its a young, mid-thirties attractive woman who opens the sliding door. She's no more than 5'4" with dark brunette hair and matching eyes. She introduces herself as she signs in to the computer, we discuss symptoms, pain, duration, and location. She asks if she can examine me and if I would prefer a chaperone. I reply “No, it doesn't matter to me.” at which point she shrugs and starts washing her hands and getting gloves on. She walks over to the exam table, pulls the bed extension out and lays me back on the exam table. After lifting my gown to below my navel, I'm completely exposed. I can't help but think how anyone could open the sliding door and see me splayed out in the bright light. She asks me to point to where the bulge is, which I do. She begins feeling around, both at the location of the bulge and up through my scrotum to feel the inguinal canal. This goes on for some time, with her asking me to cough or bear down at various intervals. Eventually she indicates that she can't seem to find anything wrong or any defect. I tell her again that the bulge reduces when I lay down and is visible when I stand. She has me climb down off the table and stand. I don't make an effort to cover up while I do this, what's the point. She grabs the sliding stool and rolls over to sit directly in front of me. I hold my gown behind me while she repeats the exam and this time when i cough, you can clearly see the protrusion through my pelvic wall. She spends some time in front of me with her left hand on my right hip/butt and her right hand pushed deep into my inguinal canal while I cough. After a few minutes of this, she scoots back while I continue to stand exposed and confirms it probably is a hernia but can't tell if it's direct or indirect and followup is needed. She lets me know I can get dressed and exits again through the sliding door. After a couple minutes the same medical assistant returns with the follow up refferal for an ultrasound and general surgery consult.

Part 2: ultrasound and surgery consult

I was able to get in for the ultrasound 3 days later, which was nice, but meant it was at the local hospital versus an imaging center. I parked, underwent a fairly lengthy registration process and found my way to the imaging waiting room. This time I had to wait for quite a while before being called back. The ultrasound technician was a slim woman in her mid 50s with highlighted hair and was quite chatty as she led me back to the room. She kept apologizing as the hospital was undergoing renovations and the rooms were getting re-arranged. We walked through a number of twists and turns and empty hallways before coming to the ultrasound room. In contrast to a traditional ultrasound room, this was a plain jane exam room with an ultrasound machine in the corner. The lights did not dim, instead there was a corner lamp which was on while the overhead lights were off. At least it was warm. The technician ushered me in, apologized again for the location, and grabbed a hospital gown out of a nearby cabinet. It was standing room only here, so we shuffled around each other while this was happening. No chit-chat once we were in the room, she turned on the ultrasound machine and gave me instruction to undress before exiting. I quickly removed my jeans and underwear and put the gown on with the opening to my back as instructed before hopping up to lay down on the exam table to stare at the ceiling. She returned shortly, washed her hands, and slipped on a set of gloves before coming to stand next to me. She took the right side of my gown and rolled it, so my right hip and pubic area were exposed, but the gown was tucked in between my legs ensuring my genitals were covered. She took a seat and began the procedure, explaining what she was doing. after 5 minutes of scanning, she announced she was having trouble finding the defect and instructed me to bear down while she was scanning. This effort was still unsuccessful, so I asked if I could stand which I knew would reproduce a bulge. She agreed so I sat up and scooted off the table to stand before her. In this position, the drape of the gown was just in the way so i brought it around the front of me to hold on my left side, exposing myself completely to her. I'm glad it was warm because things were "hanging" nicely, and not more than a foot away from her. She gave no notice and continued on with the procedure, having me bear down a number of times which was successful in producing the bulge and getting good images. When she finished up, she wiped off what she could of the gel and gave me an extra towel to complete the job. She left the room to let me get dressed which I did quickly and then I followed her out to the waiting room and went on my way.

My consult for surgery had already been scheduled for the next day at the adjunct office of the main city hospital. The waiting room was empty, and the receptionist checked me in quickly. I didn't have to wait long before a young medical assistant came to fetch me and lead back to the exam room. No vitals this time, just a quick review of why I was there before she left to grab the surgeon. The doctor arrived fairly soon, knocked and let himself in. He was an early 40s, clean shaven, tall man, dressed nicely. We discussed the ultrasound findings, which indicated a herniation of mesenteric fat with no apparent involvement of bowel. At this point he indicated he needed to do a quick physical evaluation, so he had me stand before him while he sat on the rolling stool while putting on gloves. I dropped my pants and briefs below my knees in one motion and stood to face him, exposed. He did a thorough and rough scrotal exam and proceeded to check both left and right sides for signs of hernia. His large fingers were extremely deep into my inguinal canal, causing me to wince a few times in discomfort. Finally, he had me stand in profile and cough during the inguinal check to visualize the severity of the hernia protrusion. Finished, he instructed me to pull my pants back up, which I did, and we discussed findings. His recommendation was a laproscopic hernia repair with mesh, whenever I was ready, but cautioned at my age there was a much higher risk of chronic pain associated with the mesh. We concluded the visit, and I left the office to think about choices and timing. Based on his recommendation and research, I settled on looking for a non-mesh repair surgeon to mitigate the risk of chronic pain.

Thanks for posting. I have a large, I mean LARGE ha, inguinal hernia about the size of a small grapefruit now. Started in 2016. From what I read, large ones are less likely to strangulate. With my very low blood platelets I avoid surgery. Last and only major surgery was open-heart for mammary gaft bypass. It was tricky with bleeding… but all okay. So far, with this large hernia I very little affects.

Part 3: Hernia Surgery Consult 2

After a couple months I had decided on a hernia repair center that specialized on non-mesh corrections and did the operation out-patient with a local stay of one week. I had already sent over all of my medical records so all that was left to do was to show up the day before surgery for the pre-surgery consultation. My wife came with me, and we checked in with the receptionist and waited for quite sometime to be called back. A male nurse called us back and took us to the exam room, which was very basic, just a couple chairs, a supply cabinet, a scale, and a rolling stool. He did a quick set of vitals, took my weight, and we discussed the surgery briefly, with him encouraging me by relating his own experience with getting the surgery himself. He left shortly thereafter to fetch the surgeon, and we waited 5-10 minutes in the two chairs on one side of the room. He knocked and entered, wearing black scrubs and quickly introduced himself. He was taller than me, appeared to be of Spanish or Cuban decent and was very pleasant if directly to the point. We spent 5 minutes going over in detail the entire surgical process and how the repair would be made. He then told me he needed to do an evaluation of the hernia himself. He told me to stand and drop my pants so he could see what was going on. My wife remained seated next to me looking on as I stood and undid the buttons of my jeans and then lowered them, and my boxer-briefs down to my knees. He quickly snapped on some gloves then rolled over on the stool to begin the examination. He began by gently palpating the actual hernia bulge and then using his right index finger to probe deep into my right inguinal canal through my scrotum. He had me cough numerous times, then shifted things to my left side and repeated the process. After this brief exam he withdrew his finger then indicated which area i would need to shave the night before surgery. I pulled up my clothing and sat back down next to my wife. We finished the consult by discussing recovery timing and recommendations and then asked if I had any questions whatsoever. We completed the consult and after a handshake were shown back to the lobby to finish up the paperwork.

Part 4: Surgery

The day of the surgery we showed up late morning to the surgery center. I was wearing jogging pants, supportive athletic boxers and slip-on shoes as requested. I had shaved everything mid-thigh to waist the night before. We checked in and were told things were running a bit behind but orderly, so the time in the waiting room was quite long. Eventually a medical assistant called me back, I said a quick goodbye then followed her back to the prep room. The surgery prep room was small, with one side taken by supply cabinets and a counter with sink. A phlebotomy chair occupied the center. The medical assitant instructed me to undress completely (even socks and jewelry) and put on a gown she handed me, then left the room to allow me to get to work. I did as instructed, placing my clothing in the garment bin she'd left and then putting on the gown with the opening in the back. I sat in the chair and covered my lap and legs with some warm blankets she had left. After a short wait a knock came, and a short, slim, attractive brunette entered and introduced herself as the anesthesiologist. She was very energetic and put me as ease, explaining how everything on my chart looked fantastic and that there was nothing to worry about and she would take great care of me. She went to the cabinet, pulled out an IV kit and had me lay my right arm on the chair. She expertly started an IV, hung a bag of saline TKO, taped everything in place, and then exited while letting me know it would only be a few more minutes. Shortly thereafter, the medical assistant returned, and instructed me to come with her to the operating room and that they were almost ready to begin. I followed her through the hall, rolling my IV stand alongside me with my bare rear exposed out the back of the gown. A short distance down the hall we entered the OR, which was large, tiled on the floor and walls, well-lit and very cold. There were multiple people in the OR prepping, including the surgeon, the anesthesiologist, and two nurses. One was the male nurse I had met previously, and the other a woman I had not met before. The two nurses bid me to come over and hop up on the table and then helped me swing my legs up and lay down on my back all in one motion. The lights above me were very bright and there was soft music playing as all the everyone worked. The anesthesiologist came over to me and told me she was going to start to push something to relax me while they prepped. The two nurses returned, I could hear them chattily talking and laughing, and the female half told me they were going to begin prepping the site. They began by strapping my legs and arms to the table which they explained was to keep me 100% still during the operation. I felt her lift my gown up to my chest, exposing me to the room. At this point I could not see down very well as I was laying supine and relatively restrained. I was starting to feel VERY relaxed, which was a good thing because the room was extremely cold, and I was laid out in all my shaved glory. I felt extremely vulnerable strapped to the table and essentially naked while strangers mingled around. I heard her tell me that I did a great job shaving, then felt a cold wetness as she began wiping my whole pubic area with what I assume was betadine. The surgeon came, asked if I was ready and then asked if there was any music I'd like to hear during, which I must have mumbled something that I can't remember. The anesthesiologist began pushing the twilight sedation and placed a mask over my face, and I faded away.

The next thing I recall was waking up in the recovery room, seated in a recovery chair, with my gown still on and blankets laid on my lap. The same medical assistant I walked with earlier entered through one of the doors which was connected to the OR as I caught a glimpse of the team cleaning and changing over the OR. She said she was going to help me get dressed as I was not good to stand on my own just yet. She had my garment bin and grabbed my boxer-briefs, lifting one of my feet off the chair at a time to go through the holes. She repeated the process with my pants. She stood up, removed the blankets from my lap and then my gown and told me she was going to help me stand and pull up my clothing. I realized I was basically naked again aside from the heavily bandaged site on my right suprapubic area. She leaned down into me with her head on my shoulder and helped to stabilize as I stood shakily. After a few seconds to ensure I was stable, she bent down and lifted up my underwear, taking a moment to ensure things were situated okay, then repeated the process with my pants. Satisfied, she helped me sit back down and then put on my T-shirt. A short while later, I was back to my normal self, and she wheeled me out to the lobby where I met back up with my wife and we left.

Thanks for posting. I have an open hernia repair scheduled right after New Years and am a little anxious about the surgery