I search other posts but did not find an answer. From what I have read here and on the internet, I could have an incisional hernia. I notice a small bulge in the mirror directly over my stoma scar (had the take-down in early 06). I ride street BMX which is strenuous on the body and noticed a problem one day after riding. What I want to know is if my feelings are typical of this type of hernia. It feels like food is passing through what seems like just below my skin. Its a very odd feeling that is new to me. Also, every now and then, I will get a tightening feeling where the small bulge is. It will come and go in roughly 10 seconds. Another concern is how can I tell if the hernia is strangulated or not? I would imagine I would be in a lot of pain as I have had blockages before. I appreciate your help in advanced.

It could be a hernia for sure. It could also be scar tissue that formed or moved or whatever.

I thought I had an incisional hernia near my stoma scar, and had my general surgeon try and find it for repair via lapro while I was already under for adhesion removal. He did not find any hernias. My colorectal surgeon did remove an adhesion from that area though, and I have not had pain since.

It was kind of like you described it too - like I could feel food sometimes. If it's an adhesion there it could cause that tight feeling when food is passing through and pulls on it (if that makes sense).

Have you had any issue with intestinal blockages?

As for strangulation, you should be able to tell by the pain. It is rare for strangulation to happen. My docs always say about hernias:

1. "You should be able to apply gentle pressure and push it back in"
2. "If you notice it's really hard and won't go back in, you need to get it checked out immediately"

You should get it checked out next time you're in for something - just to see if the doc thinks it is a hernia.

I will also say that, if you need hernia repair there, it is no walk in the park. The way my surgeon described it - it sounded very painful to fix.

Steve

Thanks for the quick response. Could you explain what an adhesion is (i.e. symptoms, treatment, etc). I have an appointment with my GI doc March 28th so I will bring these topics up when I see him. Another symptom I had yesterday was I had eaten an apple for breakfast and a couple of hours later, I could feel the chunks passing through and at one point was painful. For the rest of the day, I had gas and bloating in that area.

As for blockages, I had a previous one in between stage one and two of the j-pouch formation. I had eaten a bunch of peanuts and woke up with extreme pain and nothing coming out of the stoma. So far, I have had nothing of this sort.

An adhesion is scar tissue that attaches (adheres) to other tissue. They can be harmless, but in some cases can wrap themselves around muscles, intestines, etc.

My surgeon says they kind of spider-web out from the incision spots. Meaning, you never really know where they will go.

Here is a thread where I have pictures posted of a couple removed during my surgery last Sept.

http://j-pouch.org/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9151071921/m/8851...851046942#8851046942

As you can see from the pics, it becomes apparent why the food has trouble moving through the small intestines where the adhesions are.

Symptoms include: partial or full blockages, pain, bloating (if they attach to the bowel), muscular pain (if they are pulling on the muscles), pulling sensation.

My doc did a lapro adhesion removal surgery last September to try and eliminate the blockages I was having. Most docs are afraid to do the surgery and say "the adhesions will just grow back." Personally, I'm glad I did something about them. So far, so good.

Also, I have read mixed things about their ability to grow. I have heard they only form within the few weeks of healing after incision. Others say they can continue to grow over time - sometimes affecting you years later.

Thanks a lot for your help. These are definitely things I will discuss at my appointment. With your description of the symptoms, I am beginning to consider it to be an adhesion. I was diagnosed with pouchitis in January and I was having symptoms of a partial obstruction but they sort of ruled that out with a sigmoidoscopy.

They ruled out the what? The pouchitis? Or the obstruction? I don't know how they could rule out an obstruction with a sig scope.

The ruled out an obstruction because they found pouchitis so they just dismissed it. Also, I responded well to the Flagyl so we never really followed up on an obstruction. But like I said before, I have that weird food-passing feeling every now and then along with gas bloating.

SeanC,
I had my takedown in November of 2007 and shortly after noticed my stomach looked really deformed & my belly buton stretched out. I had a large hernia around my belly button on my incision. I had lapo & they found two more hernia's. They put mesh in and made twelve incisions all around my abdoman. i was off work 4 weeks and now on light duty. I'm still sore & take 4 percosets to get me through a whole day. This was 5 hernia's repaired during my 3 normal surgeries for j-pouch. All & all I am doing really well & love being bag free! All this stuff takes quite alot of adjustment & time but it gets better in time! So if you have a hernia it is prety common among us with so many surgeries! Danny