Mike M
Forum Replies Created
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Most people can fast diet 5lbs-10lbs easy using reduced caloric intake or greatly reducing carbs/sugar before surgery.
Past that without weights you are looking at something like a fast mimicking diet, caloric deficit, or a legit fast for 48hrs+. FMD, OMAD (one meal a day), water fast, etc. are all there to shock your body into using ketones instead of glucose for most energy function. Keep in mind you want to be metabolically flexible and be able to switch back and forth between the two. That will enable the best results going into and out of those types of fasts.
Pre surgery I did a quick keto and it worked well to shed 10lbs. A lot depends on your current size, build, etc.
Post Surgery I found that FMD every 25 day, normal diet in between (minus a lot of sugar or “bad” carbs), and resistance training. I lost a total of ~40lbs post surgery, gained about 10-15lbs of muscle in about the last 5 months of modest training (no crazy squats or deadlifts), 600 calories per day of cardio (8Mets or higher) on treadmill, resting 1-2 days per week. I wouldn’t do any of these pre-surgery though and I wait 2 years post surgery (too long) before I got serious into training again.
Men obviously have it a lot easier than women because muscle, testosterones, etc.
FMD is probably the best thing I have ever done in my life in regards to losing weight. You can create your own diet using the formula in the Longevity book by Dr. Longo or you can do what I did and buy Prolon 5 day FMD and use it every 25 days. It is kind of pricey but you can’t fail as long as you only eat what is in the box. Keep the gains going in between FMD by eating smart and at least a modest walk if you are unable to safely do anything else.
The only unknown is the adrenal issue. You don’t want to stress that out anymore by going on a fast or cutting carbs without a doctor supervision. I would inquire first with an endocrinologist and see if it is safe given your condition.
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Glad you had a successful experience too!
If you have time in a few months to update on your progress that would be great!
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#1. Direct Hernia
#2. 2+ years ago now?
#3. No. Operation was a success.
#4. Every person is different by people are cleared to go back to normal after 2-4 weeks typically with Dr. Kang. Personally I waited a year until I started lifting heavy and working out vigorously again which is probably way overboard. I ended up gaining 20lbs as a result of being “too safe” then losing 40lbs while adding 10lbs of muscle over the 5 months. This is 10lbs less than when I left South Korea. I plan on losing another 25lbs and attempting to gain another 8-10 lbs of muscle over the next 6 months
This speaks to the robustness of the repair and should help dispel some myths of mesh always being the “gold standard” especially in higher than normal BMI circumstances.
The only thing I am avoiding long term is heavy weight conventional squats atm.
Dr. Kang is the only person I would go to or go back to for a no mesh repair. I researched the others extensively. No Mesh is invasive enough without a lot of the added measures completed by the standard Shouldice procedure with equal or less positive results from feedback.
Edit: I did go with prolene non-absorbable sutures which was the standard for his procedure and because of the BMI considerations.
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Forums not form. Using speech to text on my phone and I can’t even go back and correct my previous replies.
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I cannot start discussions either.
The discussion format brings the forms back to traditional and usable forum.
That should really be the default format to be honest.
The other formats remind me of old bulletin board storyboard when logging in back in the 1990s.
Very primitive and archaic system of discussion.
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That is great news Ivan. Cheers to a permanent healthy repair!
I am going on 18 months with my Dr. Kang repair.
No issues so far and I started lifting pretty heavy again about 2 months ago.
Keep us updated.
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There is a recent review on here. It is mixed. I had a consult with him and I ultimately went with Dr. Kang.
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#1. I went from 0 (no hernia) to a 7 in pain with direct hernia in matter of 4-6 weeks.
#2. Sooner I did the surgery I felt I had better chance to recover completely. Age is always a factor in surgery imho.
#3. There was someone I found that I felt could resolve all my linger doubts with this type of operation and thankfully I was correct – Dr. Kang
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Dr. Kang is the best in regards to pure tissue repairs.
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I had mine done the same time as my direct inguinal hernia repair. No issues. The only option that was “highly” recommended was using perma sutures vs. absorb.
My umbilical hernia was 1cm. It was a joke compared to the direct inguinal hernia. Pain was never present at that location before, during, or after the procedure. I woke up during the operation when they were wrapping that part up.
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@chuck I had significant tension for the first two weeks. Stephen and Dr. Kang said it would resolve on its own and it did resolve after a month? I wasn’t too worried about it. The only thing I couldn’t do because of it within the first two weeks to four weeks was stand up for long periods of time or run. I cannot detect any tension now and can stand just like before my hernia and run full speed again without any issues.
I have been at the Orlando parks all this week doing +-G rollercoasters, standing, walking all day, no issues at all. I have been walking around 5-7 miles per day and standing for hours for the last two weeks.
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@Chuck In case you or watchful are wondering – Dr. Kang takes as long as necessary regardless and cuts no corners. He took his time for my repair due to the difficulty and thus lasted a bit longer than expected per Stephen.
Circling back to the first few days after surgery – yes painful but a small price to pay for the overall successful results.
There are so many factors involved in a successful repair but as Chuck has mentioned Dr. Kang has seen it all and has successfully tackled many challenging patients others might have turned away.
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@pinto You are arguing with a ghosts that arent there. I was just paraphrasing info from your previous replies on the forums to assist a member who asked. If some of your info got lost in the transcribe feel free to correct.
Cheers!
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One other quick note is you can really feel all the swelling and scarring tone down after the first week. I moved around a lot on the 5th day, like crazy, walking flights of stairs at the lotte tower. By the time my 2nd ultrasound a week or so later all the swelling was gone.
You do sweat some bullets wondering if the surgery “took”, if you over did it, it is easy to see, etc. But mine was perfect knock on wood!
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In regards to “scar tissue” – Moles, calcium deposits, etc. Things in the human body that you can “feel” but cause no pain. I have had scar tissue in other spots from playing sports and it’s really nothing.
One spot is the outside and inside of my left hand. I caught a football, hit the turf, kept moving except for that part of my hand thus the injury. After a few weeks no impact at all. I was in my early twenties and now Im in my late forties.
We’re really pulling at strings here guys. The key point is I was at a 7 in pain prior to surgery and I am at a 0.0 now.
Thanks guys and I hope this helps.
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Just to clarify a third time I never said anything whatsoever about pain after 1 year.
Not sure where they came from other than I can feel maybe a slight bit of scar tissue, maybe, but no pain.
What I did say is that I was told prior to surgery some cases could take longer than others (even a year+) but that was coming from multiple sources including Shouldice doctors that I went to in the U.S. I also read that on here from previous Shouldice patients.
AGAIN – NO PAIN after 1 year.
The only time I really had “pain” was the 1st week then it was mostly tension after that that went away and faded after a few months.
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Yes. Be patient and take as long as you feel your body needs to recoup. I was very casual on lifting heavy things until a few months after the surgery and I waited over a year before getting into a gym routine. Not mandatory (or perhaps necessary) but I errored on the side of caution.
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Hey Matt, I was deciding between Dr Grischkan and Dr. Kang before my repair in 2022. I was really leaning towards Dr. Grischkan because of all the experience, expert witness in court, the walls in his office are filled with positive letters from former patients, and he was only about 4 hours away.
However I eventually decided on Dr. Kang.
I couldn’t be happier with the results from Dr. Kang. There are a lot of different reviews from various members on here regarding their experience with Dr. Kang.
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@watchful Just to clarify I have no lingering pain and no real pain after the first few days. Also nothing of what I would consider of consequence after the first few weeks. The outcome to me was as “perfect” as I had hoped.
Keep in mind prior to surgery I was to the point (pain wise) where I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to make it on the plane to South Korea. Size doesn’t always tell the full picture imho.
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@chuck
Dr. Kang’s repair that is similar to Marcy is only if you have indirect.
Dr. Kang repair is closest to Bassini for direct hernias.
Pain was only bad that first week. Some tension the weeks that followed and then it fades into nothing. I can still feel something in that area but nothing of mention. You can only really feel the scar tissue the first few months maybe. The nerves seem settle down and accept the repair after a while. I am starting to “forget” I even had hernia surgery now which was the end goal.
I know his son is completing the Kang repair now. I do not have any other information on that but maybe Dr. Kang can comment.
Dr. Kang elaborated on the corrupted vs. uncorrupted Bassini on these forums.
https://herniatalk.com/forums/topic/kang-repair-question/“Although I said the Bassini repair belonged to Group 1, the Bassini repair published in 1890 was a surgery that belonged to Group 2. The essence of original Bassini repair was to repair the damaged transversalis fascia barrier. While the recurrence rate of inguinal hernia repair announced by other hospitals exceeded 50%, the same rate announced by Bassini in 1890 was merely 2.7%. Owing to this remarkable performance rate, the Bassini repair quickly became famous and many surgeons adopted it. However, it was unfortunate that the method was ‘corrupted’ in the course of it being widely propagated – the initial (and essential) process of transversalis fascia repair was omitted, and the new main barrier was built by pulling and sewing together the separated muscles and ligaments. Some called so ‘corrupted’ surgery method the ‘corrupt Bassini repair’ and the original Bassini repair the ‘authentic Bassini repair’. Thus, the Bassini repair that was said to belong to Group 1 in the above was actually corrupt Bassini repair. However, the authentic Bassini repair is certainly a method that belongs to Group 2 and should be regarded as the most advanced method in the Group. In fact, the processes of repairing transversalis fascia (the main barrier) under the Shouldice repair and the authentic Bassini repair are almost the same. The only difference would be how to create the auxiliary barrier. Thus, some call Shouldice repair the ‘Bassini-Shouldice repair.
Sadly, the Bassini repair most surgeons learned, knew and practiced was not the authentic type, but the corrupt type.I believe that correctly and strongly repairing the transversalis fascia, the anatomical barrier, is the most important issue in preventing recurrence of hernia. That is why the recurrence rate of initial authentic Bassini repair was only 2.7%, which is an excellent rate even today.
However, as the corrupt Bassini repair became the golden standard of hernia repair thereafter, the recurrence rate had to show a high level of 10 to 30%.”