Hernia - part 2?

Hi Jennifer,
Unfortunately I have had 5 repairs in all...not really the surgeon's fault for the most part either...the first was a peristomal (around my stoma) and I insisted that he at least try to do it from the outside-in...too close to the stoma and it pulled open which then required open surgery and they had to move the stoma...obiously some of us are more fragile than others so mine kept reopening (plus a few others in the neighbourhood)...in the end I found a really good surgeon who did them through laporoscopy, anchored the mesh down and repaired them that way...so far, so good...but that doesn't mean that I do not have other tiny ones that are opening up...the big thing is that for about 1 year you really have to be careful to not do dumb stuff like heavy lifting, gardening, pushing/pulling etc...the first couple of times I gave myself 6-8 weeks before being stupid...then 6 months...for the last one, I waited a year...And it worked (knock, knock on wood)...
I used to be able to do just about anything with my body (no, that is not what I mean!) and it would be fine...Then one day it just seemed to become fragile...and every time that I over did it, I popped a hernia...so now I know, I have to keep my muscles strong, my abs tight, wear a belt if I am doing any silly stuff and avoid pushing or lifting furniture around...and that is still not a garantee...
Sorry that I do not have a miracle cure but it takes time and patience...
Sharon

Im not sure how much more careful I can be? The repair was done with mesh (tacked in 10 places in a big circle on my stomach) he said I could do cartwheels after surgery and I wouldn't mess it up yet here I am (I didn't do cartwheels by the way) So, this will be the third time they've tried to fix this hernia. I just don't know what to do... who to see... do I go back to the lapro doc when I will prob need open surgery? He only does lapro. I hate to be at the mercy of whomever he decides to refer me to. UGH I am so freaked out about docs, etc... prob PTSD.

I am so sorry Jennifer,
My surgeon said exactly the same thing...after x weeks/months I can climb mountains, jump up and down on trampolines etc...but first he gave me deep yoga breathing exercises to do at 4 weeks to start to reinforce things...I split and popped on the 3rd breath (no joke...I felt it go!)...
So, I understand how you feel...It just is, as my dad would say...sometimes it works and sometimes it takes longer to make it work...but no matter what, it needs fixing...you can't afford to let it get worse because if we heal with difficulty then making it worse makes it even harder to heal...Like I said, being careful is important...but you cannot act as if you are made of crystal either...
Talk to your surgeon and ask all of the questions...
Sharon

I was thinking the same thing about my hernia coming back. My GI had me lay on the examination table and raise my feet and legs up about 4-6" off the table and we looked at the hernia spot to see if it was bulging out, it wasn't so he said it was fine.

It's just the blankety bankety curse word curse word pain adhesion pain.

Why don't you try this yourself. You might want to try it laying on the floor since your bed probably isn't hard enough of a surface.

see that's the thing. the spot is really hard but it only bulges at certain times. I had a lot of pain after surgery and the surgeon acted like it was just surgical pain and would go away. heh, ya, pain is still there. prob because I have a hernia still LOL I know letting it go doesn't sound like the right thing to do... I may just drag my feet a little?

I just had my hernia repaired via open surgery. The research I did shows that laproscopic hernia repair has a higher incidence of recurrence than an open repair. However, that depends upon the size of your hernia.

I had a small incisional hernia at my ostomy site that I just had repaired about a month ago.

The scar actually looks better than my old ostomy scar. . .not sure if he did some extra work to do that or not.

my hernia mesh is about the entire right side of my stomach so Im afraid to hear how much they will need to open me up...