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Ideas to live with hernia? David M and Watchful may have tips
For those who are thinking of watching and waiting, are there any tips from those who are doing (I’m thinking David M) and have done (Watchful).
I think coping 15 years is some going, I’m into year 2 and it’s not easy going. I have modified behaviour so I carry much much less. Which is a bit frustrating as I used to lift and carry loads of things but I dont want to aggravate it.
I think i could lose a bit of weight as I used to be 10.5 stone and 5ft 5. Now I’m 11 stone.
Any advice for living with hernia eagerly accepted. Fortunately so far I’m asymptomatic to the point I can forget I have a hernia. It plays up from time to time but settles.
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4 Replies
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William,
Weight reduction could help to some degree.
I didn’t have issues with lifting, at least not related to the hernia. Lifting just irritated my back problems. My main problem related to the hernia was with standing or walking for a long time. At some point, I would have to lie down and push the hernia back in, which wasn’t easy. When I started to have to lie down on the street or in some field when taking a walk, it was time for surgery.
I didn’t really find anything that helped in my particular case.
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I’m trying to get back on to a near Mediterranean diet. Would that help do you think?
After seeing the latest study posted on here into chronic pain, 18 percent after 4 years, I’m thinking watch and wait for those asymptomatic is probably the best thing.
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Tldr version:
1) bend over if you sneeze.
2) wear a truss.
3) proceed with life, but try not to sleep on the need to get it fixed -
Well, I wish I had some good advice worth sharing. Foremost, I wish I knew whether I should have done this before when maybe a tissue repair would be more trustworthy. I’ve been mostly issue free during the 15 years, though, so who knows what I should have done.
Back when I first noticed in 2008 that it didn’t look right….because there was more of a raised mound on that side…..I was still working and I really didn’t change my activities much. The only specific thing that I remember doing differently was that I would always bend over if I knew I were going to sneeze. Obviously, sneezing and coughing puts a lot of pressure on your innards done there and you can always feel the hernia moving. For some reason, though, bending over before a sneeze minimizes that reaction for me.
That was pretty much it for awhile. In 2018, I had a heart attack and, as a result, really wanted to make sure that I was getting enough exercise. By then, the hernia had gotten much more noticeable, both visually and reactively. So, I bought a truss and began to wear it all the time. I think it really helps, both when I’m exercising and when I’m not. I frequently have to readjust it, and it’s probable that it could fit more appropriately, but it still is much better wearing it than not. Overall, though, I think I could wear it for the rest of my life after my operation. And that presents a big question. If I did so, would it help in never having a recurrence? Even though it is minimally bothersome, there will be a temptation to quit wearing it without knowing the good involved.
Phase three on my life with a hernia started about a year ago. I caught a fairly hard version of the covid and had multiple hard coughing spells. I think it worsened the hernia somewhat. Then I caught something else in March with a lot of coughing to add more insult.
Generally, I’m not very symptomatic, even now, if I am wearing the truss and not coughing. It doesn’t keep the hernia totally in, though. My Hernia is probably a direct hernia and reducible, but it will still reemerge somewhat pretty quickly after moving around, even with the truss. So, the truss – at least the version I wear – doesn’t maintain the hernia as reduced, but it does prevent it from emerging far enough to cause any big discomfort. The truss itself can get slightly bothersome around the waist and make my abdomen feel slightly pressured at times, but that probably is a result of the intestinal pressure. That pressure is not a deal breaker of any sort. Sitting down and loosening the truss always seems to help with that waist pressure.
And I guess that’s about it for me. The big caution that I need to be aware of is that I can’t totally go to sleep on it at this point. There’s a question of how many windows will I have to get it fixed before/if it gets more dangerous. I can hear intestinal gurgling at times when the hernia is out, which makes me wonder if it somehow is weakening my intestines. Then there’s the worry about stretching the spermatic cord too tightly. I don’t know how rational these fears are.
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