Double Inguinal Hernia Open Procedure Experience

Male, mid 50's,double inguinal hernia, open procedure.

Day 1 no real pain until the meds/anesthesia wore off. Not too groggy.

Day 2-4 no pain when lying down, just when getting up. Then sharp pains in groin near upper thigh, really nasty pain. Right side, retained feeling everywhere. Left size all numb below scar, to and slightly onto thigh, and to base of penis. Balls not sore nor swollen. Advice, get a bed pee thingy if you drink a lot of water, it's a lifesaver.

Then onward, once the pain began to wear off a bit after about five days, I stopped pain meds and switched to advil. Nothing made much difference. I didn't have a bm until about five days after the surgery and was terrified. I was taking Colace and it worked fine. I drank a ton of water.

When I started getting up and walking, the sharp, burning, scraping pain was there when getting out and into bed. When walking it was like someone had put a brick in the left side of my groin. It was heavy and uncomfortable, probably due to the neuropathy. My nerve was not cut, I found out later, but it was all probably due to the fluid, swelling, and trauma of the nerve during surgery.

The progress here on in was extremely slow. A month in, still some paint, but less, still equal amount of numbness and discomfort when walking and sitting. After week three i could finally like on my side, which was great. This relieved the pain in my heels that were killing me from resting against the bed. And it ended the sore kidneys/back from lying around. A friend said socks can prevent this.

Week 5, still numb, but the heaviness in the groin feeling is getting slightly better. I went through a sort of depressive time after reading online about people who didn't recover well after a year or more. I'm feeling better these days, emotionally. After sitting/walking around for a couple hours, especially if I go out and walk, visit a store or anything like that, I get completely wiped out sort of all of a sudden. It feels like my entire energy is gone. Other people I ask say this is normal with surgery and it takes a long time to get the energy back. Saw doc and he said it seems everything is healing per normal. That was good, at least.

So I wanted to post this, because it seems some people are up and running marathons the day after whereas for some of us, the healing seems to take a lot longer than expected. Here's wishing everyone good recovery and mental strength. It is taxing to lie around and wonder if and when things will begin to improve.

My recommendations: Tons of water. Daily vitamins. Colace for first few days, then bran etc. Get a cheap bedside hospital table from walmart or somewhere, it's great for sliding over your stomach and putting a book or computer on. I also put it over my abdomen at night to keep the cat from jumping up onto me.

Bottom line, don't get depressed. Only after nearly five weeks did I begin to notice a real sort of improvement at all.