Hello everyone,

As many of you know, I had a hernia and went in to have it fixed. I wanted to report back and tell you how it went.

I came home last night. So far, so good! I probably posted this before but, this explains the procedure and is where it is taught. It is also the hospital where my doctor learned how to do it. http://www.shouldice.com/

http://www.herniasurgeries.com/ The guy on the right was my doctor. This is where he works. He does all procedures himself, has repaired over 15,000 of the traditional ways that "our" doctors here do it and has done well over 10,000 Shouldice repairs himself. He is apparently, pretty well known as he teaches and travels around the world explaining it.

I had the surgery on Thursday. I left the hospital at around noon. I walked on Thursday which is a part of their requirement for healing. Exercise… lots of it. The more, the better.

On day one, the day of surgery, they wanted me to walk 80-120 minutes. Well, I made 105. On day 2, they wanted 3-4 HOURS of walking. No way could I make that. Not with driving home 5.5 hours, stopping to walk, hurting, eating etc., but, I did manage to still make 105 minutes.

He said my hernia was much larger than he expected and so he also inserted a Gore-Tex Mesh. Of course, I am a bit swollen needless to say.... But, let me tell you this. I had a hernia repaired 16 years ago. Let's compare these two fixes on a scale of 1- 100 with 100 being the worst as far as pain goes and with 100 being the worst as far as recovery goes.

My 1st hernia was a 100 all the way, hands down for both categories. I could barely get out of a wheel chair at the hospital and into my car all drugged up on Morphine let alone walk into my own home.

During surgery number 1, when I was at home, I had all I could do to manage to stand up out of the chair and then it took a while to get to the bathroom. It took me 2 weeks to become mobile enough to start working again.

This one, the Shouldice method by comparison I would easily rate a 25. Maybe even less. I'm not sure when I can go back to work yet, he said, within 2 days but, I'm still pretty sore especially with certain things being swollen!!! But, I feel great! I am able to get up easily out of a chair, I can walk, move around, pick things up off from the floor etc.

I'm telling you man, if anyone listens to the one thing I recommend, it would be this. Go to the place in Ohio to have it done!!! Or some place where they do the Shouldice method. I SO HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!!

Guess what? On the way back from the hospital, we had an accident. The car in front of us, a van hit something in the road that looked to me like it was about the size of about 4'x3'x maybe, I don't know, 2" thick? It flew up, slammed into the front bumper of our SUV punching a huge hole in it, dislodging the bumper itself, cracking it, knocking off the lower part of the bumper. It smashed the grill which is totally gone. It smashed the lights in front, knocked debris up and over our vehicle scratching things on the way over. Then, it bounced around underneath until it got behind the SUV. Some idiot was driving a motor cycle without a helmet. It JUST missed him. He swerved around it to avoid it. Had this thing, whatever it was, gone up and through our windshield, I have no doubt from looking at the damage that it did to our vehicle that one if not all 3 of us might have been decapitated. Yet, after all of this, our Trail Blazer is totally drivable. It wasn't leaking anything at all that we could see.

My son was driving us back to the hotel from the hospital at the time. He did a marvelous job of not panicking and avoiding further damage.

The rest of the way home, my biggest fear was of someone in front of us doing something stupid that might force my son, our driver, to lock up his brakes. The seat belt was of course, around the area of where they did the operation. That would NOT have felt good at all.

So, anyway, just thought I'd let you know the outcome and say that I highly recommend this method over the other by a long shot from my experience of it...

Jer

I'm so glad you're doing well, Jerry.

It's true, surgical procedures have come a long way since olden times, fifteen years ago. It's still no picnic to have to go through them, but not so long ago the cure wasn't available at all.

Pretty ambitious walking program, for Day One and Two. But, prolonged inactivity impedes healing, and actually makes it worse.

My best wishes for your healing and recovery.

Thank you Jeff!

It is a very ambitious walking program for sure. Today I managed 100 minutes so far...

Glad to hear your feeling better and that all went well Jer. Then to have a road incident to top it off...omg. I need the same thing done and have been avoiding it, I should go in, it's only going to get worse...right? Anyway, glad to hear your doing well and keep trucking dude...lol

Thanks Les,

Yes, they do not repair themselves. And yes, they do get worse. He told me after my visit that I should not have been lifting pianos with this one at all!

What you want to avoid, is a strangulated hernia which means a certain visit to the ER, they can be very painful and can be life threatening. Please consider contacting the doctor that I visited. I am feeling fantastic with this method. It is not nearly as bad as it seems!

Wow, I didn't know you were scheduled for the surgery so soon.
I'm glad that you went with the Shouldice method because when I underwent the same method many years ago it was a piece of cake but I had heard so many horror stories from others that had undergone the alternative methods.
Glad to hear that it worked out for you and it's a shame that you couldn't have come to Toronto to go to the actual Shouldice clinic here where it was developed.
I would have paid you a visit (unfortunately I don't remember if there was a piano there or not).

Thanks Sparky! I would have loved to go up to Toronto again. I have been there a couple of 3 times now and loved every minute of being in Canada. It is a beautiful country with very nice people. I would have loved the visit too! If you ever get to Grand Rapids, give me a holler!

Good to have you back, Jerry. If we didn't lift those darn pianos, we wouldn't have hernia's. The doc told me years ago, I'd probably get one on the other side. I'm still waiting, but I don't lift too many pianos anymore.

Thanks Bob! Glad to be back too!

Jerry,

Glad to hear the method the doctor chose for your operation worked out well for you. Being laid up for a long period of time is not a good thing when you're a sole proprietor...

Exercise is crucial. As we get older (which we all do, like it or not...), retaining fitness is key to staying healthy, particularly in recovering from injury and sickness. I hope you continue to follow the walking program prescribed by your doc. And take your wife with you, too!

Hang in there, Mr. Groot. Good to have you back!

Hey, Jer! Wow, what a story! Life is never dull for you, is it? Glad you are back in action so quick!

--Andy

Thanks Andy and Dave,

Fortunately for us, my wife and I took up a routine a few months back of walking/running for about 40 minutes a day or every other day. So, walking for 120 minutes like I did yesterday was easy. I did it 30 minutes at a time. 40 minutes once, and 20 once. Walking through the "ouch" part of it isn't so easy sometimes but, it is manageable. Once in a while, I have to bend over to relieve the pain a bit for a few seconds and then I continue on. Funny how the continued walking usually seems to make things feel better after a while for the most part. I don't understand how that works.

I think without having starting the routine that we started prior to my surgery, the required walking would not be as easy as it is so, I am really glad that we started it when we did!

I slept like a baby last night though!

Hey Jerry,
Congratulations, I wish you a continued good recovery. I had hernia surgery last summer, followed by many months of pain that really cut my activity down to the bare minimum. (Look up "adhesions") I was told that I would probably have the same problem with the other side at some point (hopefully never) and I'll keep your experience in mind.

Regards,

Thanks Zeno,

A friend of mine up in Canada recommended the one in Toronto. The doctor that worked on me happened to be born in Canada, I want to say born in Toronto but, I can't be positive about the city. Anyway, he learned the procedure in Toronto, moved to Ohio, opened up the clinic there and has since worked here. Fortunately for me, it's much closer and so far, has worked out great! Read up on it before you do it again. I did after the friend recommended it which is why I chose this procedure.

Jer

If I ever have to have another hernia repaired I will be all over this type surgery.

About 6 years ago I had to have a hernia repaired about the size of a baseball. The doc put in the mesh.

It was a tough ordeal to get over. Sounds like they've made lots of progress, hope this technology works it's way down to Texas before I go through that again.

Progress report for anyone considering the Shouldice Hernia Repair:

Sunday, day 3 after surgery. I am feeling great. I am tender still and have to be careful but, I walked 2 hours yesterday and so far, 1 hour today. In comparing how I felt Thursday to today again, using the same scale of 1-100 with 100 being the worst pain, on Thursday, I was a 25. Today, I would rate myself about 25 % of how I felt on Thursday. I am planning on going back to work on Tuesday but, I may take the day off for extra healing although the doctor said I would be okay to resume full activities after day 2. I find that hard to believe totally because I am still tender, swollen and sore but yet, comparing it to how they did it 16 years ago, this is NOTHING. I almost feel like I could run but, I don't dare.

To repair me, I can see that they went in on an angle trying to avoid cutting the muscles as much as possible. This is where we get all of our pain. The larger the cut and the more muscles that are cut, the greater the pain. Especially when we attempt to use these muscles and cannot because they have been cut all the way through.

Using the Shouldice method, they try and avoid cutting muscles as much as possible and also stitch me from the INSIDE OUT, helping the healing process from what I understand.

I don't know if my muscles were cut at all or not, I feel that maybe some might have been, and if they were, it was very minimal and not very invasive.

I hope my reporting helps any of you that have or have had hernia's and are considering future repairs....

Jer, your makin my you know what, do you know what just thinkin about it...

Jerry, 20 years ago I had 3 doctors tell me to have a double inguinal hernia operation. I elected to go to the Shouldice clinic because it was up the street from where I lived at the time. Their 2 top doctors both said that if they had what I had, they would not get it done and just wait to see if it gets worse. I followed their advice and am still OK but careful what and how I lift things. Not only are those doctors good at surgery, they are the best in the business when it comes to diagnosis. Glad to hear it went good for you.

BTW, an any given day, over half the cars parked in their parking lot are from the U.S. and people fly in from as far as Europe and Japan to use their services.

Gives me the heebee geebees too Les and I'm done with it!

Thanks for that additional information Emmery. That's what I've been told too, that many people from around the world including from the USA come to Canada to have it done. We are lucky that my doctor came from up there, trained there and then came here to do the surgeries. I can't believe that more USA surgeons are not using this method.

Good to hear the recovery is going well! I know it's hard, but try to be good anyway.

Jerry, so glad the operation went well for you. But I am even gladder you and your family were not harmed in that accident, which was truly terrifying and so easily could've become a tragedy.

Glad it turned out so well Jerry!...wow, a car accident on the way home from surgery....murphy's law~! The important thing is your are all ok!

When I had a hernia operation back in the late 1960's, they had to go through the abdominal wall.....it was painful, and took a longggg time to recover....could not laugh or cough for weeks. LOL.

Continued good health!

Thank you Don, Monica and GPM,

This recovery period is obviously different per operation. I think I will be taking tomorrow off. Although, I think my wife wants me to go away. For about a week... :-) I'm not comfortable enough to be moving piano parts around just yet. To remind myself, he did say my hernia was much worse than he had first thought which I suppose explains the continued irritating discomfort at times.

At night, it's like having the flu, the symptoms become the worst. I had a small fever Friday and Saturday night, but that is expected he said. Eventually though, you just crawl into bed and crash from exhaustion and from pushing yourself. Especially at aged 54. I sleep well though!

Good? What's that? Candy is good! M&M's are good!! Coffee is good!

Hi Jerry… glad your hernia surgery went well and you are recovering nicely.

I had open inguinal hernia surgery on my left side about 5 years ago. I suspected I had a small hernia on my left side because if I did any strenuous work or heavy lifting, I would have a dull, nagging ache that radiate up and down my left side and groin area. Sometimes the pain would be high in my belly and sometimes it would radiate down my groin and leg, even down to my knee.

The thing about it was, my regular Dr. said he couldn’t detect a hernia, but I knew something wasn’t right. I saw another Dr. about the groin pain and he said I didn’t have a hernia and asked me if I was depressed. I had all kinds of other tests done, including a colonoscopy, to try to find what was causing the radiating pain in my left groin area. The thing about it was, if I didn’t do anything, it didn’t hurt; if I did any strenuous work of heavy lifting, the dull ache would linger for days.

Finally, I saw a vascular surgeon who knew what he was doing. He examined me and found the small inguinal hernia on my left side. I told him that I knew all along that I had a hernia but no other Dr. had ever verified it. I had the open inguinal hernia repair, by the same surgeon, and “eureka” the pain is gone!! I can do strenuous work, heavy lifting (within reason) and no dull ache!!!! I love it! And, I am so thankful to that surgeon who knew his craft. Not all Dr’s do.

Happy healing!!!

Rick

Thanks Rickster! Happy to hear that you have a happy ending too!

I'm feeling great today and will try for, 1/2 day tomorrow.... 1, maybe 2 tunings...

Hi Jerry, I am a woman, and I have a hernia from heavy stuff, (I weigh 115), I prefer to call it a "himea" ... SM

To anyone who is putting off a hernia repair, my advice is don't! I put mine off, and woke up at 3am with intestines protruding though the hole. The surgeon said "Wow, I've never had to cut so much to fix a hernia". Not the words you want to hear. Jerry did the right thing - he found a great doc, and got it fixed before it became an issue.

For me I merely had an abdominal hernia, which was essentially a 1 cm opening in my abdominal muscles.
It made my innie belly button into an outie.
Although I could push it back in,(which felt pretty strange) if I coughed it would pop back out.
Compared to you guys it wasn't much, but it was still something that I couldn't let go too long.
However my mistake was going right back to doing heavy work the day after I got out of the hosp[ital, which caused some nasty internal bleeding causing my belly button to swell up like an over-ripe pomegranate.
A quick trip back to the hospital where they jabbed a big syringe into it to suck out all the icky stuff was a bit of a lesson to me to actually give myself some time to recuperate.
It's good to see you're doing so well Jerry.
Don't do what I did and give yourself some time.

SM, funny! Himea! Good one!

Bob told me that story before and I got goose bumps just picturing it!

OK Sparky, you're making me cringe again... I am at that stage where I am chomping at the bit to get back to work again being off from work the week before last and then Wednesday through now too. I did cancel 2 of the 4 tunings tomorrow but am wondering now if perhaps I should hold off on that too... ? Gee..... It's kind of like going back to work after being sick with the flu. We don't want to do that to soon either or we get it back two fold... We'll see how I feel in the morning. I'll pick up my tools, a small case and see how that feels walking around. Should be okay, I think.

I sure hope all of this advice makes some of you go get your hernia taken care of (LES)... It's not worth waiting for it to get worse.

I haven't had to do anything with my himea. \ So far. .. i do have to deal with other stuff and have to modify my posture in tuning, get closer to keyboard. Hey it works!