Went to the doctor the other day after I noticed a lump in my groin that i’ve had for years (and the doctor told me was completely normal) was getting bigger. Turns out it’s an inguinal hernia.
I don’t have any pain for the moment (nor any in the past) but I was wondering if anyone had experience with the surgery/recovery. How long do I expect to be out of the water? I’ve heard six weeks but I’ve been thinking more…
And I guess shaping is on hold too…
Been there , done that. I think it was about five or six weeks before I began to ‘‘exert’’ myself in any way. I refused to have mesh put in the repair, so took things real easy. That was about 12 yrs ago… never had any problem.
Their generally good at this nowadays, you’ll be out of action for around 2 weeks…
Minimal intrusion, keyhole surgery stuff…
Do get it fixed though, it’s a protrusion of something underneath the muscle layer. If it prodrudes too much it’s blood supply can get cut off by the muscle…
Big trouble there and lots of pain…
WARNING: graphic word imagery
I’ve had a left inguinal hernia repair. Caveats: it was 1979; and I let mine go until the protruding loop of intestine would hammer the family jewels when I ran for a bus. My surgeon was a Columbian fellow with huge hands, which didn’t help my piece of mind. The 6 week recovery recollects about right, even as advanced as my case was. Should be a better experience now. The surgeon told me that there was a choice between a metallic and a non-metallic mesh reinforcing patch, and that he strongly recommended the metallic mesh. To my best recollection, the trade-off according to the sawbones was a very slight increase in recovery discomfort, vs. a dramatic decrease in the probability of recurrence for the metallic variety. As I’ve gone nearly 30 years with mine intact, while other many other people I know have needed second operations in considerably less time, maybe he knew what he was talking about. I have no idea if any of that relates to options today. Anyway, the first few days were pretty painful, but I seem to recall that I was back to normal activity (with the exception of strenuous exercise) in less than two weeks. If you are in surfing shape now, you’ll probably be mostly back to normal in a bit over a month. We all differ, but my body told me pretty emphatically when I was attempting to resume an activity too soon. BTW, if your surgeon asks if you want to stay conscious and watch, make sure you ask what you will see. I was given this option (I’m pretty curious and not terribly squeamish), but after he described the “scenery”, I opted out…
-Samiam
BTW, if your surgeon asks if you want to stay conscious and watch, make sure you ask what you will see. I was given this option (I’m pretty curious and not terribly squeamish), but after he described the “scenery”, I opted out…
-Samiam
Yikes! Think I’ll opt out on that.
Not a doctor, but close (medical student)…Really common procedure, like mentioned above- there is an option to put mesh in…it all depends on your surgeon and their experience/preference- the data on mesh actually helping a reoccurence is a little iffy, but most people think it helps. That think poking out is usually a small loop of intestine…usually harmless and comes/go’s, but you can get into real big trouble (bowel resection type stuff) if that intestine gets strangled in the defect that is present in the canal down there. Really common issue in men…the price we pay for having our gonads in a sac outside our body 
(well worth it though).