-
Strange new finding…
So I first came to the conclusion that I had a small inguinal hernia about ten months ago. No pain, just felt like there was a little “something” (squishy, maybe the size of an almond) in there, but I’d have to poke around with my finger to find it. When I did I felt like I could push it back up along the inguinal canal (but it didn’t feel sizable, solid or substantial enough to stay in one place).
None of that has changed, however I noticed this morning that when I bear down and Valsalva, there’s a small area near the top of the inguinal canal that feels like it “inflates” with air. When I push on it, there’s nothing underneath, as it’s not even in the exact same place as the “something.” No pain of any kind, just feels a tiny bit weird when I do it. Hadn’t heard of this, as everything I’ve seen suggests that the lump will contain hernia sac contents, not feel empty.
Does this mean anything or is it just more of the same: keep an eye on it and get it evaluated if there’s pain, it grows or becomes irreducible?
-
8 Replies
-
In my case, I have two thoughts:
1. I recall hurting my sacral region about a year ago from deadlifting with too rounded of a back so I have some residual pain in my back, unrelated to the hernia.
1b. The back injury impacted my lifting form, exacerbating some kind of preexisting weakness, causing the hernia to present itself.
2. Both the current chronic back pain and the hernia (if either a direct or “pre-hernia” condition) are stemming from one underlying issue such as lifting heavy weights with an undiagnosed leg length discrepancy.
I realize that, if this is an indirect hernia (statistically and demographically most likely), then everything is probably coincidental.
-
Haven’t figured out why hernias cause lower back pain, but they can. It may be related to disruption of core muscle stability.
Sports hernias are mostly painful and less likely bulging.
-
They found the hernia’s I had on a CT scan and that’s how I knew they were there but they were pretty much accidently found just like a lot of things are on ultrasounds and CT scans, something usually always pops up on them that you wouldn’t have known before.
I had a small indirect inguinal not even a half inch containing fat on the left and about the same size on the right that was a femoral hernia containing fat, they were nothing to worry about and they presented no pain. I could have watched and waited for years, hernias can even get huge but still cause no pain and to me it seems like up to 40% get chronic pain somewhere down the road especially with mesh.
An inguinal hernia will not cause back pain though, you might just have a slight hernia that’s there but the pain is coming from your lower back. My back pain was kind of on both sides but the right side more of my lower back was worse. A surgeon talked me into surgery that I didn’t even need, they say oh hernia surgery is nothing you will be on your feet in no time and that’s far from the truth, hernia surgery sucks, especially with mesh!
When you have lower back pain those muscles can be overworked so therefore your lower abdominal muscles have to do extra work and that can cause groin and testicular pain. Get an ultra sound or CT scan to see but definetly do research on hernia surgery and mesh to get some insight though.
Best wishes UhOh!
-
Thanks for the encouragement! Did anyone ever explain to you why an inguinal hernia presented as lower back pain? And, if you don’t mind my asking, was it direct or indirect, was the pain in your back unilateral or bilateral and from where in your back did it feel like it was originating?
Since it’s a slightly different topic, I started another thread specifically asking some “sports hernia” questions. Started wondering if that “bit of squishy ‘something'” I’m feeling is actually some loose tissue, as it feels like it turns into a tiny balloon when I Valsalva. More reasons to go get some kind of ultrasonic imaging, I suppose.
-
If it doesn’t hurt I would leave it alone, most hernias do not cause symptoms. I got surgery for hernias that didn’t even bother me, I never knew I had them until a Ct scan showed them. I then got talked into surgery that I did not even need that has caused me a lot of pain and another surgery to remove the mesh and tacks. All I had was lower back pain that was radiating into my lower abdomen and groin area because that’s how that works if your lower back hurts it can radiate around the front to the groin. Just watch and wait.
Best of luck UhOh!
-
And one follow-up question: Other than the absence of pain in the region, does this description sound like it might be the non-hernia “sports hernia” instead of a “regular” hernia? I’d dismissed the idea initially, because the only chronic discomfort I have is in my lower back, which feels like it’s coming from the left side of the sacrum (approximately). Sometimes it radiates through to the upper part of my hip, but never down to my groin or leg…
-
Thank you! The expand/contract behavior of a weakness sounds like a good descriptor of what I noticed, since the bulge comes and goes based on breathing in deep/clamping down and doesn’t seem to be filled with anything.
If the bulge does represent a weakness, are there any proactive, nonsurgical measures to take for the sake of strengthening it or preventing further deterioration?
Intuitively (based on my completely non-medical reasoning) the idea of a weakness makes sense; I felt like I may have overworked some of the other hip area muscles working out over the past few days, so I wonder if that makes other weaknesses more apparent?
Perhaps I should find out if my friend in radiology is running any research studies involving collection of abdominal CT/MR images of subjects and get a “free look” at what’s really in there…
-
Nothing to worry about.
Sometimes, peritoneal fluid can eek into the canal. Also, the bulging may be a weakness rather than a hole, in which case it may expand or contract.
Log in to reply.