Emergency Decision – Surgery is in 2 Days!

[Monika]

Hi Alephy ,
Would you mind telling me what sort of fascia exercise do you do ?

[Monika]

Sorry I meant to say I haven’t measured my hernia.

[Monika]

Hi William,
There is a physiotherapist in Brighton,Uk he dose not advice AB exercise but stretches of groin area .You can look him up brightonsporstherapy.co.uk . He might be helpful to you .

[Monika]

Hi watchful,
I hear what you say however I saw on here Dr Towfigh actually recommending transverse abdominal muscle exercises for hernias . I guess it all depends on your fitness level and how well you can control abdominal pressure as you should not perform exercise that put more pressure on this area . Like I mention before I see a physiotherapist for this as well.

Hi Vish , I would really speak to the doctor about chances of hernia coming back . Also is there any possibility that if you do the op now you could move your pregnancy for a year or so? This might be an option .So sorry I can’t help more . I know this is super hard .
William – I haven’t mes my inguinal hernia however it was 6 mm x 6mm .Again I am not sure if my epigastric hernia got smaller because of exercise it’s hard to tell . I’ve had this hernia for 2 years and just now started to do exercise for the last 4 weeks. I am just being hopeful and want to believe in what Dr Towfigh said about small hernia as I really don’t want 3operations .

[Alephy]

Hi Watchful, what symptoms do you experience now, as opposed to before you did the core exercises?

I have always wondered what could increase the pain of an hernia, and barring nerve inflammation the only thing I can think of is that the “defect” got smaller, while the hernia tissue got somehow more trapped than before…but I am wondering whether exercising can ultimately reduce the pain in the medium to long term (this was also mentioned by Dr. Towfigh if I am not mistaken i.e. exercising may reduce the hernia and make it more manageable)….

I would not neglect the fascia i.e. there are some people out there who actively focus on the fascia as a means to get better athletic results, and I personally think it does help with hernias too (at least with mine it does:)…in fact I train the core indirectly by focusing on the fascia….

Last but not least, I would not just train thinking of the hernia, but really looking at the whole body (for the fascia this is important)

[Watchful]

Are core exercises really a good thing with an inguinal hernia? Mine got worse with these excercises. I think applying muscle pressure in that area where you have a defect and a hernia can backfire. It did for me (unless it was a coincidence). My hernia started giving me more trouble after that. Pushed me from watchful waiting to seriously contemplating surgery.

[William Bryant]

Heres the post from Dan on this forum
….

“From what i know, Dr Kang uses pds suture which are slow absorbable (130-180 days to fully absorb)

I am a korean american looking to get dr kang’s surgery once the pandemic ends. I will probably update once i get one. However, there is a story written by a korean woman on her blog about her experience with the surgery. She became pregnant 1 year after surgery and gave birth through c-section. According to her, her hernia did not reoccur even after holding a baby inside her.
Do what you will with that info”.

It may be best to her pregnant after. Quite a time after. But maybe Dr Towfigh may give a more qualified answer.

[Vish]

Thanks for sharing all this Monika. My big fear is that I want to get pregnant immediately and then my flat abdomen will really start to grow. I fear the hernia will only get bigger with this. Plus, with the incarcerated fat permanently sticking through, I worry about tons of pain through the pregnancy. I don’t have months to do an exercises if I get pregnant now. I also don’t want an emergency situation during the pregnancy that puts me in surgery while pregnant. Did your doctors give you any insight about how your hernias might act in a pregnancy? If they could get much bigger or put you at risk?

[William Bryant]

Thanks Monika – has your inguinal got any smaller?

[Monika]

Hi William ,
Have a look at nourishmovelove.com she has 8 exercise for abdominal work that are very beginner friendly I think it’s called 8 exercise after pregnancy-diastasis recti safe (don’t worry you can ignore the name:) they are good exercise for deep abdominal muscles for anyone. Also I do modified side planks , leg side clams with a band over my knees (that one is good for inguinal hernia) , knee drops (as well great for inguinal hernia), bridges with a Pilates ball between the knees ,single leg abdominal press,dead bug,banded hip abduction,supine ball squeeze , heal slides ,pelvic tilt , lying single straight leg lift ( this one is good for inguinal hernia ),lying bent knee pulls to your chest ( great for inguinal hernia). I also do stretches of the abdominal muscles as I read that’s equally important . All these exercise are super easy . Most important thing to do is to breath correctly during these experience and brining your transverse abdominal muscles in . Also move slowly during these exercise. I saw that guy on My natural hernia cure doing some ab work for his inguinal hernia however those exercise are super hard for most of people if done correctly . I also use ice pack twice a day for 20 min each time everyday day.I am not sure if this will help but I hope it will . Like I said am before my epigastric hernia actually is a bit smaller now which gives me some hope.

[William Bryant]

Hello Monika, what exercises can be done by least active person like me?

How I got hernia I’ll never know.

[Monika]

That’s really great you don’t have separations as it will really help with chances of recurrence and healing . I was super active as well doing heavy weight at the gym everyday and running .I stopped that complete as I felt my hernia more during workouts and was worried it will get worse .I am only doing some work with physiotherapist ,swimming and that seems to help me .If you choose to go with the repair before pregnancy and the hernia comes back from what I understand your next repair would need to include mesh so that might be something you want to consider . Have you tried anything to stop the pain? Less exercise ,cold packs, never over eat , don’t eat food that makes you gassy and bloated. I I have actually 3 hernias one is epigastric , umbilical and inguinal hernia . They are all super small at the moment . Strangely my epigastric hernia was incarcerated when I first got my ultrasound 2 years ego . I just had ultrasound done on it again and now it can be pushed back and it’s tiny bit smaller as well . I am not sure why tho . You might be able to do something to improve your pain. I have read on here that Dr Towfigh believes that when it comes to very small hernias you can improve them and your symptoms with lifestyle .

[Vish]

Hi Monika,

Thanks so much for your response. The fat is stuck in mine and can’t be pushed back in. I appreciate what you’re saying about delaying this, though. My surgeon left it entirely up to me. He checked it I have Diastasis Recti and it appears I have very little separation at this time. He’s happy not to do the repair, and it’s actually the pain that’s driven me to think it’s better to do this now than deal with potentially much worse pain in a pregnancy as my abdomen stretches. I discovered and felt my hernia 4 months ago, so I haven’t had it for very long. It seems to me that in these 4 short months, as I’m a very active person, the pain has become worse. I really really appreciate your advice. Any further thoughts?

[Monika]

Vish do you know when you got your hernia(how old is it)

[Monika]

Hi Vish , my hernia is fat only as well but it is reducible. Same thing happens to me when I am bloated or eat more . I even once when to an emergency as I saw one side of my stomach pushing out and got very scared . My hernia is not hurting however I feel it often . What helps me is eating small portions of thru the day . Also I have been doing transverse abdominal exercise and that seams to help with my hernia pushing out. I spoke to one of hernia surgeon about my umbilical hernia and he didn’t even want to repair it as it’s so small and your one is even smaller . Also what he said to me most important part of the hernia is actually the neck of the hernia which is the defect size not the size of the sack . Your hernia neck is 4x 8 mm so the possibility of bowl getting taped there is tiny. Again that’s the information I got from 3 different surgeons . I just notice you said this would be your second pregnancy – I would check if you have any abdominal separation (diastasis recti). If you and go forward with the operation now the chances of recurrence are hire . Ideally you wouldn’t want to have diastasis recti before operation as this will lower your chances of recurrence .Dr Towfigh on here mention she is fan of deep abdominal muscle exercise as this can help with small hernias . Please have a think about it and ask your doctor . Are you able to move your operation to next week and get some more info?

[Vish]

Thank you for these responses!

Monika – was your small hernia incarcerated? Mine is with fat tissue and it’s definitely painful if I have any bloating or stomach extension. My doctor has left it up to me and says there’s a high chance of recurrence.

[Monika]

Just wanted to add as well . I am very slim myself and feel my hernia sometimes a lot . I was super worried about it however all the surgeons I spoke to about this problem said it’s because I am slim and everything is much closer together and there is not much fat on the belly that’s why you might feel more discomfort.

[Monika]

Hi Vish,
It looks to me that your hernia is very small 4×8 mm. I have very similar hernia . My doctor actually dose not want to operate on it as it’s super small. I actually got this hernia from pregnancy myself. Maybe you could speak to your doctor and see what she or he thinks . The pregnancy will put a lot of pressure on the abnormal wall also you will develop muscle separation in last 3 months of pregnancy . I am not a doctor but I think it might be better to fix this after pregnancy . Also you could try and go to women physiotherapist to work on your deep abdominal muscle that could help with hernia as well and your pregnancy. Please do speak to you doctor before the operation .

[MarkT]

Hopefully @drtowfigh can chime in here…but I found a wee bit of info from one of her HerniaTalk videos on umbilical hernias and pregnancy (timestamped at 56:02):

https://youtu.be/Iyauzcas6Jg?t=3362

For women who had an umbilical hernia repair:
– higher risk of recurrence following pregnancy
– if a mesh repair, higher risk of chronic pain in that area during pregnancy
– for women without symptoms, best to wait until done with pregnancies before getting repair

Given that you are not symptom-free and have sufficient pain to have booked surgery, perhaps Dr. Towfigh would have different advice for you.

You might even consider contacting her office, if you need more info ASAP (https://www.beverlyhillsherniacenter.com)

[William Bryant]

That is tricky as the less stressed after repair the better. Could you not wait a bit longer than the 3 months as it takes longer than that to recover. Forget all that in to hospital and out, back home, back to work stuff.

However I’m sure I’ve read Dr Kang did an op on a pregnant person nor they have birth not long after surgery… So maybe possible

[Watchful]

I started experiencing much more frequent episodes of large protrusion of the hernia after I started doing core exercises. It comes out more frequently, and I have to lie down to get it back in. Fortunately, it’s still reducible.

It could be a coincidence – maybe it would have happened anyway. I had noticed that it was getting a bit bigger and a bit gurgly even before I started these exercises. Still, it feels like the exercises pushed it into the territory of something that I most likely need to do something about fairly soon rather than continuing to wait.