The unforgiving surgery...

Phinx

Had a laparoscopic hernia repair 3 weeks ago. Fun times, lots of pain, and a reinforced crotch as the ultimate gift. Anyone else had a recent encounter with a surgeon to get your hernia sorted? How did you keep yourself from going insane when seeing your bike in the corner and unused? Did you do any exercises to keep your self in shape/get back in to shape? Hard to find any since I'm not even allowed to lift more than 5 kilograms...

CraigXXL

I had an incisional hernia repair from sternum to groin following a botched operation. The mesh repair was stronger after 2 weeks than the original stitching had been after 6 months. It takes time to regain full strength so don't expect miracles but you should gave no problems cycling within a month to 6 weeks.

Phinx

Incisional? Was it your choice or did they leave you no option for a keyhole surgery? To be honest, my surgeon said that most probably i got a hernia due to a previous operation. I had my appendix removed about 3 years ago. Seems they didn't do a very good job, so i ended up being fixed big time: a hernia repair, and sorting out the aftereffects of a previous surgery done by a scalpel cowboy.

Glad to hear i can get back in to action soo. I was only starting to get fit, and now i end up doing no serious excercise, and gaining pounds with the speed of light!

bwfc4eva868

I had a open umbilical Hernia repair on the 2nd of December! Did a short ride on the bike mid January and back on the wards at work end of Jan. Don't rush a hernia, the inside needs at least 8 weeks to heal, otherwise you risk it splitting through the mesh again like mine did the 1st time. I feel fine now, get the odd twinge of pain from scar tissue and there is a slight bit of hard scar tissue still. Just take it easy. No lifting anything more than a bag of shopping for 4 weeks.

CraigXXL

I had keyhole surgery for a Gall bladder to be removed. It got screwed up and I endured 2 weeks of operations every other day as a result. The final operation was an emergency operation after they had cut an artery in an another operation a few hours before. This last lot of surgery resulted in them cutting open my stomach from sternum to groin and requiring 8 pints of blood to top me back up. The things that happened during that stay in hospital where shocking and I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.
The incisional hernia is where the stomach muscles split open again from where they had operated in my case giving me hernia as big as a football. Same as you cowboy surgeons caused all the problems from what should have been a simply operation.

bwfc4eva868

Get yourself private Health Insurance, the level of care given is so much better than the NHS care i have had in the past.
I pay £40 a month to Aviva and it covers me for everything apart from Emergency care, which you'd use the NHS for anyway.

I also work in the NHS and its frustrating, not being able to give the high standards of care we want to give.

Although not all NHS trusts are bad, Salford Royal looked after me very well and so have Bolton. East Lancs however are a disgrace.

fungus_the_muffin_man

However as I've just found out that if you get taken to Bolton A&E after being hit by a car they present you with a bill on your way out

allen.coulson

I was always warned never to have a general anaesthetic because the surgical team (well not the ladies) would bugger you when you were out.

It is important to remember advice like that.