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Pain after laparoscopic inguinal hernia surgery
Hello,
I had surgery on a Thursday and I’m just wondering what kind of pain is normal over the first week or two – specifically where. I currently have a fair amount of soreness in the groin and inguinal area, and it seems it would make sense given that’s the area that was repaired. But I’ve also read people say that they didn’t have much inguinal groin pain – their pain and discomfort was elsewhere – in the abdomen or legs or area where the instruments were inserted etc., and that they immediately had relied on the groin area after surgery.
Of course anyone right after surgery worries about messing things up and having to do it again. But I’ve also read several surgeons state that despite the physical restrictions about lifting etc, it’s highly unlikely a patient could do any damage to the repair given how the lapascopic method works to put the mesh behind the abdominal wall.
So I guess I’m mainly just wondering where people had pain during the first week or two and how long it lasted. I started mostly with discomfort in the abdomen and chest and very little that I noticed in the groin. The former has subsided greatly and now it’s mostly the groin. I wonder if I just wasn’t focused on the groin earlier because of how uncomfortable the pain was elsewhere. I’ve also done some light housework and hoping I didn’t overdo it too soon. Trying to take it easy but it’s just so hard to sit around and do nothing. There’s so much variation in people’s stories. Some say go back to work in a few days, some say a few weeks. Some say they were mostly pain free in a few days, some say a few weeks. And I wonder exactly where there pain was, specifically if they had lapascopix surgery.
Need to schedule my week or two week follow-up also.
Thanks
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11 Replies
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quote drtowfigh:Pain after hernia surgery is often inflammatory. Anti-inflammatories work best: i.e., ice and either naproxen/ibuprofen.The chest pain after laparoscopy is from the CO2 gas. It goes away after a day or so. Most pain from laparoscopy is related to where there is a cut (e.g., the belly button) and where there was a lot of dissection, e.g., groin if the hernia was large. Lastly, testicular pain can occur. It is related to dissection of the hernia off the spermatic cord and placing an inflammatory mesh over the spermatic cord. Once the inflammation reduces, the pain should resolve.
Thanks! I’m on day 9 I think and the pain and discomfort is minimal if not absent. Just some soreness in the inguinal area and around my hip. It actually seems like there’s still a fair amount of abdominal swelling, and tightness particularly on the side that was repaired. My assumption is that it’s fluid that will take some weeks to be reabsorbed, and the localized inflammation. At least that’s what I hope.
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Pain after hernia surgery is often inflammatory. Anti-inflammatories work best: i.e., ice and either naproxen/ibuprofen.
The chest pain after laparoscopy is from the CO2 gas. It goes away after a day or so. Most pain from laparoscopy is related to where there is a cut (e.g., the belly button) and where there was a lot of dissection, e.g., groin if the hernia was large. Lastly, testicular pain can occur. It is related to dissection of the hernia off the spermatic cord and placing an inflammatory mesh over the spermatic cord. Once the inflammation reduces, the pain should resolve.
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Vey sorry to hear that. I’ll have to go back through all of your posts but I’m guessing you’re trying to figure out what went wrong at this point. Hopefully you get it sorted out. I’d have to assume there’s a very specific cause, especially given the consistent location of the pain, and that once understood properly you will have some clear options to get back to normal. Best of luck.
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I had laparoscopic inguinal hernia surgery with mesh and tacks. It took more than a month before I could do anything more than a granny shuffle due to pain. (Pain is always in my groin and crease ) It’s been ten months since surgery and I’m still in debilitating pain and have other issues, but I don’t think my case is usual.
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That’s the million dollar question I guess. I’’d have to think that as long as things are generally improving, albeit slowly, you should be encouraged. And little setbacks here and there are supposed to be fine, too, as scar tissue occasionally breaks up. Sounds like it’’s supposed to take quite a while, and non-mesh tissue repair probably takes even longer. I think after a few months things should be mostly fine unless there’s an underlying problem.
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I too wonder about recovery and have posted previously as well. My situation is different than yours in the sense I had open non-mesh Shouldice repair but question if my recovery is normal. It’s been 3 1/2 weeks since my surgery and still have pain in my groin specifically when getting in bed and when I get in and out of the car. It is getting milder but it’s still there.
Because Shouldice repair involves sewing the muscles together instead of patching the hole, I’m hoping my pain is reflective of the muscles being connected and tight. My incision can still cause discomfort as well when things rub on it.
Reading all the horror stories about nerve pain and chronic pain scare me. I’m wondering how people can tell the difference between nerve and post op healing pain
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I frankly feel like getting in and out of bed seems more dangerous than lifting a heavier backpack. But nobody tells you to do anything special when getting in and out of bed except to just be careful and go easy.
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Awesome, thanks, all good to know. And I did chat briefly with Dr. Procter who also said people usually have groin/testicular pain etc for the first couple of weeks. Right now my only real pain is in the right testicle and a little in the groin, but it’s not too bad.
I did get the usual instructions – no vigorous exercise for 4 weeks, no lifting greater than 20 pounds, stool softener while on the pain meds (oxycodone plus acetaminophen- which I stopped taking a couple of days ago actually). And of course they mentioned surgery takes a lot out of the body and expect to be tired. I’m going to take another day off and then probably work from home the remainder of the week. Been walking around the house mostly but will try and walk down the street a bit later. It’s basically been raining all week here.
Good point about the lifting instructions. I was thinking about that myself, and how ‘lifting’ and the amount can really vary depending on the actual movement and force etc. I’ve even heard some surgeons don’t bother placing specific restrictions because there isn’t any good literature proving it’s in fact a danger. Not sure if that’s true, and I’m certainly not going to test it.
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It’s barely been four days. You’ve had your peritoneum peeled off of the abdominal fascia and an irritant, the mesh, placed in between. Your body is working to cover that irritant with protective tissue. The mesh is placed directly on top of the various arteries and nerves at the area where the spermatic cord enters the inguinal canal. Those parts are now rubbing on the mesh until it gets dealt with by your body. It will take a little while and the type of pain will probably change as things progress.
Walking seems to help move the fluids around so that they can be removed, and reduce pain. It did for me, and I’ve seen others report the same. Ability to work without causing damage, and pain, are two different things. Didn’t your surgeon give you a pain medicine prescription and advice? The internet is nice but there should be direction from either the facility or the doctor. Sometimes it’s buried in the paperwork, you should go through your documents closely. Mine was “do not lift more than 10 lbs”, a prescription for hydrocodone, and advice to use ibuprofen or acetaminophen, singly or together.
The real risk would seem to be doing something that increases abdominal pressure to a level high enough to push the mesh through the hole, or to tear a stitch or tack free. But I don’t think that the actions to avoid, to avoid that, can be specifically given. One pound lifted with your arm at full extension might be worse than ten close to your body. I don’t think that anyone really believes the lifting instructions are worth anything, but they give a clue. Good luck.
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Thanks for the reply. It sounds like most of the pain people end up having is for problems unrelated to mesh failure plus recurrence and more the procedure and the material. My pain is in the groin area but also the right testicle. Though I feel like I had some of that before as well. Really hope it diminishes over time.
People always talk about the pain and recovery after laparoscopic hernia surgery and it seems like it would make sense for much of the pain to be related directly to the area that was ‘fixed’ i.e. the groin and inguinal area, but it sounds like that may not be the case, which is why I worry. But then again I also feel like I’ve heard many say that they had sensations throughout recovery that felt just like the original hernia but then got better. And people talk about being sore when getting out of bed etc and I wonder where they are feeling the soreness. So confusing. Maybe I’m just worrying too much too early in the process. I hardly have any pain any more anywhere except the groin. While the chest and abdominal areas were quite uncomfortable for the first 2-3 days, that seems to have mostly gone away. It’s hardly present at all.
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Hi Ajm222
I had only right inguinal hernia which was repaired laparoscopically. I had pain on the three small incisions made but very surprisingly more on the left side where it was simply probed and no hernia was found. I always thought it was still in the healing process for the first few weeks. I had little pain on the right testicle and groin also but not much. Most of the pain was where the incision were made and also further down from the incision area in the abdomen. But as weeks went by and now I am at almost 11 weeks post op my pain on the left side from umbelical down to pubic tubercle became quite intense that I had to go to see the doctor. It was only after I found out later from x rays that he has placed two tacks on the left side also. God knows why. Only rationale I can think of to close the peritoneum on left side. In addition there are 11 tacks on right side where the actual hernia was. My main concern after surgery was parsthesia of right leg from butt down and burning. Now I am more concerned about my pain in left side on the pubic tubercle area where there was no hernia but there is a tack there. All my tacks were titanium. It is not a rocket science to figure out why I am getting pain on the left side even when I walk. It is just the tack which moves with muscles when I move. I am getting an MRI done today. But to recap your question I would say I had very little pain in the groin after surgery which became more intense as weeks passed by even today. I hope you heal fast. I also didn’t do any exercise or any lifting for first 5 weeks.
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