Inguinal hernia repair

I just made a first appointment for an inguinal hernia repair. What am I in for?

Had my second one a couple of months ago. Pretty much back to normal now.

Make sure you do lots of walking after the operation. Just don't overdo it. As my surgeon said "If it hurts, don't do it."

I had dissolving stitches each time, so no having to go back in for removal.

I found the stiches felt like they were pulling a bit, but other than that no problems.

Small scar, about 5 inches.

If you have any questions don't hesitate to give me a shout.

Back in the early 70’s an inguinal hernia repair meant hospital check in the night before surgery. 3 nights in the hospital total. An enema and getting shaved from the waist to your knees. After being discharged, I was off work for a month. For 4-6 months post surgery I had a weight lifting restriction. Honestly, I can’t remember what the restriction limit was.

The surgeon damaged either the nerve or the muscle that moved my left testicle up and down. To that he said, “Yeah that can happen.” This was at a Kaiser Hospital.

I suspect this is an outpatient procedure now. Let us know how it turns out for you.

I've had two hernia repair surgeries. One around 1990 and the other about 2018. Same side. Both were day surgeries. I had a female surgeon. Lots of genital exposure during pre-surgery exam and post-surgery exam. After one of the repairs, I saw the surgeon with my wife and the doc exmined me. To my surprise I was totally erect! But I did not react at all. Doc examined and said all was good. Wife was totally embarrassed for me and didn't say a thing although her eyes were huge focusing on my erection. So much black and blue of my balls and penis and lots of swelling. I was not shaved for either surgery and I had a general anesthesa for both. Took about a week to recover from each. Mild discomfort.

I had that done twice, once per side, with many years in between. The latest was in 2015 or thereabouts and was a much better experience with laparoscopic technique which left almost no sign on my body and only required a few days in hospital, maybe not even necessary. I was shaved on my genitalia only the first time long ago, but that was not necessary for the recent operation.

I wish you all the best. Have a speedy and complete recovery!

I have had one done relatively recently, posted a complete write-up which you can find on zity.

Wish you the best recovery!

I had an inguinal hernia repair in February 1980 when I was 22 years old. Back then I got sliced open with a 5-inch incision, I spent four days in the hospital, I got a staph infection, and I technically had a 6-week recovery, but I was pretty much back to normal within 10 days. A male nurse shaved me from my navel to my thighs, front and back. Today, it is minimally invasive surgery with two small incisions, you go home the same day or the next day, and in a week you should be back to all normal activities, except maybe heavy lifting.

I’m disappointed that they did not give me an enema as someone else mentioned receiving in the early 1970s. For many years as a teenager, I snuck into my parents’ bathroom and used my mom’s enema equipment to self-administer many enemas. I did everything wrong like using straight hot water at 120 degrees and I hanging the bag from the shower head five feet off the ground, but still, I very much enjoyed myself. Today, I have lots of my own equipment and have given enemas to my wife and she has given them to me.

Good luck and have a quick and easy recovery!

I had an iningual hernia repaired around 2004. Back then my surgeon preferred doing it as an open incision instead of laparoscopically. Was a day surgery. Went home maybe an hour or two after surgery. The incision had self dissolving stiches internally and was closed with super glue. Remember it being painful for a few days after. Today they are pretty much all done laparoscopically with minimal puncture points for the instruments. Good luck!

This same surgeon removed my gallbladder laparoscopically this spring. She was recommended to me by medical people. I was hiking 3 days post-op.

She said they normally don't do surgery on hernias unless they're causing problems but my father had one and by the time it started causing trouble he was too old for the surgery and had to wear a truss. I'd like to avoid that outcome and get it taken care of now.

I had my done 3 years ago now. Mine was done robotically by my surgeon

Got home once pain killers wore off very sore 1 st couple of days

Slept in a recliner do to it was very uncomfortable to move certain ways

By day 3 felt better started walking

My Dr said to walk as much as I could tolerate lol

Mistake I was doing 5 miles by the time I had my follow up appointment 2.5 weeks later

Felt “ pulling sensation for quite awhile doing some activities

Not pain but weird pulling sensation

Now 3 years later pretty much anything I want to do

and hopefully don’t break myself again exercising

I had bilateral inguinal hernia repair done about two years ago and it was horrible. Still hurts/burns from time to time. Roll over in the middle of the night? Feels like a hot poker to the groin.

If I had to do it all over again, I'd just deal with the hernias.

Hope you have a better experience than I did!

I’ve had 2 repairs..first one general anesthetic…second one very different. The surgeon asked if i’d let him do it with just local injections. After assuring me no pain, i agreed. And he was right. Very quick and everything worked out fine.

I had bilateral hernia several years ago. A male shaved my public area with an electric razor. The surgery was done on a Thursday and was outpatient. I had two large incisions above my pubic bone. On Friday my scrotum was massively engorged with swelling. It was the size of a large papaya hanging down. If I sat on the toiled it dropped into the water. It started turning color as if bruised. I called the doctors office and was told not to worry bout it and the doctor would see me the following Tuesday at my followup appointment. Swelling was to be expected.

During the weekend it continued to swell slightly but got much darker from the bruising. I was very concerned. My scrotum was not sore at all, just massive. It was still painful where the incision was.

On Tuesday the doctor office had several male patients waiting that seemed to be uncomfortable. Im guessing they had surgery also. I overheard a receptioist telling another girl in the office that she walked in and that she had never seen one so big. Im guessing that she saw someones swollen scrotum.

The doctor did the exam and said everythin was fine. The swelling would go down in a week or so. Eventually it did go down, but left me with a hydrocele that did ot go away. I ended up going to a urologist for that.

For a year after I would sometimes feeel tugging where the mesh was attache to my pelvic bone if moved a certain way.

My inguinal hernia started in around 2015 when I began feeling a cutting pain on my right side. My gastroenterologist said, "that's strange, you pain is on your right side, but your hernia is on your left side".

I had 2 open hernia repair, the last 2015. Both under local, and easy. First shave was in pre-op area both sides and genitals. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Second, prep was in OR: only incisional area was shaved--disappointed. I had long lasting (marcaine) local so I had minimal pain starting the next day. I was back to work in 3 days, desk work, slowly walking

I did take Vicodin for the pain. The side effect was constipation...bad. I had cramps; it was time to 'go' but the poo was stuck. I was afraid to 'push' hard for fear of busting a stitch. Finally a friend went to drug store and got an enema bag. I'm not an enema fetish. It was really humiliating to have a friend help. She was really squeamish about the whole thing. I had to buy dinner 4 times.

Photo album. I do wear an external catheter as shown.

https://en.zity.biz/index.php?mx=gallery;ox=showalbum;ax=6062

I did take Vicodin for the pain. The side effect was constipation...bad. I had cramps; it was time to 'go' but the poo was stuck. I was afraid to 'push' hard for fear of busting a stitch.

Yeah, that was horrible. Didn't want to strain too hard and undo the surgery.

I had bi-lateral hernia repair about 10 years ago. It was done with a laparoscope. Very little pain or soreness. The biggest problem was constipation from taking the pain meds. I used enemas from my 2 quart enema bag to deal with the constipation. I also had bruising in my penis and scrotum. It went away in a few weeks.

I have surgery for hernia on March 19. I am reading all this stories. I am not doing good . Oh boy this should be something not to read about again .

Stevie7808,

If you are having it laproscopically it is not bad at all. I had bi-lateral hernia repair about 15 years ago. I was out of the hospital the same day. They would not let me go home until i peed. It was about 5:00 p.m. and I hadn't peed yet. I was able to pee just a little and they send me home. I really wish now I would have let them catheterize me. The worst part of it was the constipation caused by the pain pills. But if you are like me and like enemas, just take some enemas and it solves the problem. I was off work for one week.

I had right-side inguinal hernia repair about a dozen years ago. I had spinal anesthesia, and they injected local anesthesia at the surgical site. The repair was done with a small incision and a mesh. It worked very well. They shaved half of my pubic hair in the operating room, and I have very vague memories of what was happening in the OR. After the surgery, they wouldn't let me go home until I had full use of my legs again and could pee without any problems. I was at the hospital a total of about five hours. Before discharge, I got an Rx for oxycontin, which they told me to get filled no matter what. They warned me that the pain could be severe after the local anesthesia wore off. They were right! The pain set in about 10 hours after surgery and was overwhelming. The pain killer worked wonders. The pain disappeared after about another 24 hours. The oxycontin gave me some constipation, which I relieved with glycerin suppositories.

Buttshotlover, Thank you for the advice. I have been complaining to my doctor about my bowel incontinence, and my bladder problems .Hopefully I could get them to do a enema and a catheter before surgery .. My fetish. Afterwards I know I will have pain .I can't do anything about it.

I put off having a hernia repair for two reasons - first, having very low platelets I fear bleeding and slow healing - like I experienced after open-heart surgery; second, I can't pee when anything is done to me, and then urinary track infections I get so easily when cathetered. If I ever get anything done again, I am going to be very open in making sure my medical team knows and understands my problems and have plans in place to deal with them.