“If there’s anything unsettling to the stomach, it’s watching actors on television talk about their personal lives.” – Marlon Brando
Have you ever heard someone say they have a hernia? Well what the heck is a hernia anyway? It is actually when your intestines, or the fat protecting them, pushes through an area in your abdomen region.
Essentially a weakness can develop or even form an opening in your stomach or groin area and your insides push through it. This may look great for Halloween or as a party trick but it can be fatal.
A tell-tale sign of a hernia is seeing or feeling a small bump in one of these regions. It is also felt at times with coughing, straining and lifting. You may also experience pain or discomfort and possibly some swelling in the stomach or groin area. Pain can range in severity and consistency as well.
Sometimes a hernia may have no symptoms at all but it doesn’t mean you should avoid seeing your doctor. Let the Doc determine which case needs immediate attention.
Eventually many hernias can cause some discomfort or just enlarge. The bigger the problem; the bigger the repair, potential side-effects and longer the healing time.
There are several classifications of hernias. These are reducible, irreducible and strangulated.
A reducible hernia is pretty self-explanatory however it isn’t a cure. You will be able to push your lump back inside where it belongs but it can pop back out with a cough or the strain of lifting something. Some people chose to wear a belt to keep it all together.
So then we have irreducible hernias, which of course can’t be pushed back inside. It could be internal contents prevent this or the lump is too large to make it back in. Even if there is no pain you want to have this looked at to avoid any strangulation of the intestines or blockages. The blood supply could be getting cutoff and lead to gangrene and disease of that area.
Finally we have the obvious surgical candidate known as a strangulated hernia. As mentioned above this absolutely can have a lost blood supply due to being twisted and can kill that section of the strangulated area in hours. This is an immediate surgical situation so don’t wait and get checked out before this.
Surgery involves knocking you out and pushing your guts back inside and then sewing up the opening. In some cases a mesh may be put down to provide extra support unless you enjoy having this problem and want surgery again. I didn’t think so.
Recovery is usually around 3 – 6 weeks. At some point you can start to sit for extended periods but you better stock up on movies for the first week.
You may also want to try a liquid diet, not beer silly, that way you can avoid intestinal discomfort from the surgery and potential back-ups within the system if you get my drift. It’s also a few less trips to the bathroom, especially ones that involve sitting and straining potentially.
Medications for the pain and prevention of an infection can also cause constipation depending on how you personally respond to them.
Here are the common areas you may find hernias on yourself.
The inguinal hernia is the most common region and is located where your upper thigh and pelvis meet. Sit down and look at the fold of your leg and pelvis. That’s it.
Just below this region are femoral h
