Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Tuner-Technicians Forum Hernia Surgery...how long can I expect to be off work?

Last year I had a "regular" repair for a linguinal hernia. I took only a three day weekend off my mostly desk job. (No sick leave here so I didn't tell my employer.) The Doctor gave me the OK to do whatever after about 2 weeks. I was back to tuning right away, though. I was worried that I'd have to remove an action, but I didn't have to.

It wasn't a bad hernia anyway, I think just some fat instead of intestine, but it had been there for a while. If I paid attention to keeping my lower abs firm, I could keep it "in" after pushing it "in". Soooo.... if you can keep your lower abs tight while tuning (which is a good idea, anyway) I think you'll be OK.

Yea, one week on the sofa and another three weeks doing nothing.

I always find this an interesting topic.

Once doctor Grisken got inside of me, he found that my hernia was B A D, he said. Worse than he thought. He wound up putting mesh in which is great as far as I am concerned. It makes it stronger but, he still did the rest of it, using the Shouldice method as far as getting at it and closing it up and all that which is a lot, less invasive and a lot less painful. The pain by comparison to the first one, well, I guess I can't emphazie enough the difference.

I talked with my wife about it and thought more about it last night after I went to bed, trying to remember it all.

Here's what came back to me (between the wife and I) After 3 days, I no longer needed any pain pills at all and was back to work full time tuning, I had no more pain. I was pulling pianos from the wall, and any other piano related things like removing grand actions even with no problems. I know this sounds unbelievable but, it's true, Dr. Grisken had given me the green light to do whatever I wanted to do immediately after surgery.

A friend of mine who is a marathon runner flew to Ohio from Florida to have the Shouldice Method done. Within a few days, she was running several miles a day again. That's a little bit different because you're jostling your organs around jumping around running so she hurt for longer than I did setting on a piano bench all day long. But, the point is, she was back to running almost right away.

Sorry you're ailing, Dave. My brother had hernia surgery recently, and he said recovery was about a month--- and was no picnic. But he's glad it's behind him, and he's feeling a lot better now.

Kaiser did a pretty extensive job of pre-op education and counseling before I had the knee replacement (and testing, and imaging, and blood-typing--- you name it--- and also a lot of post-op stuff, to make the recovery go better). So, they're good that way. You should have plenty of opportunity to ask the surgeon about what procedure, and why they prefer the one they're offering, and to request the one that gives you the quickest recovery. You are also entitled to a second opinion under the coverage, if you want it.

It can be hard to see the good side of having a surgical procedure, but the downside of not having it is all-too-apparent. On the whole, we're lucky that it's available, and I keep telling myself that about my dentist...

Years ago a neighbor and friend of mine traveled from Ohio to Canada for this surgery. His motivations were the desire for a quick recovery AND the much lower cost, as he was one of the millions of Americans without health insurance. As I recall, the bill for the whole procedure in Canada was around one fifth the US cost.

He was back at work as a woodworker very quickly.

Andy

How long? How about just long enough to go through the Beethoven Sonatas?

Two words of advice I'm surprised have not yet offered,.......stool softener.

At the Shouldice clinic in Toronto, more than half the cars in the parking lot have US plates on them...very popular place for other international travelers also.

When I got my procedure done at the Shouldice clinic(I was lucky in that it was only an umbilical hernia at my naval which was pretty minor) I was informed by the staff there that at the moment about 60% of the people there were Americans and the majority of them had already had surgery previously in the US. I guess there is a lot of eventual failures with the traditional surgical methods that are most commonly used in the US.
I certainly heard some horror stories while I was there from those that had undergone previous procedures elsewhere.
Although the surgery and the 3 day stay actually cost me about $330 (which was the first time I had to pay for ANY procedure at all in Canada) the Americans paid substantially more, yet practically all of them told me that it was vastly cheaper than they would have had to pay back home. Most of them were amazed at how cheap it actually was.

Over the years I've run into many people who have had their surgeries done at Shouldice and I've yet run into anyone that later had any issues.

When I went there I initially didn't understand why there were so many Americans but at the time I didn't realize how superior the Shouldice method was and the very high rate of eventual failure that often occurs with other techniques.
More than one American had told me how surprised they had to go to Canada to use such a ground breaking technique, even though they'd been doing it there for I don't know how many years.

I guess the constant propaganda in the US about of how "horrible" the Canadian health care system is has been going on for so long that many of them are surprised when they find out that that is not the case at all.
(Actually a study performed by the CBC once asked Canadians what they were most proud of and the overall number one answer was our health care system. The number one Canadian ever was Tommy Douglas, the Saskatchewan premier who was responsible for implementing our nationwide health care).


If anyone chooses to go somewhere else that claims they use the Shouldice method I would suggest doing a heck of a lot of Googling and research to make sure that is so.
I got lucky since I was referred to the Shouldice clinic the first time which meant that I would be practically guaranteed not to have to deal with the issue again.

Myself I was back doing heavy labour the next day, although that was stupid and I should have waited a few days at least.
But I only had a umbilical hernia which was relatively minor but those that undergo the procedure for an inguinal hernia I believe that most Shouldice patients are back at their usual work within a week.

According to their website they've got about a 99.5% success rate.
I'd go back in a second but unfortunately I guess I'll never get the chance.

http://www.shouldice.com/the_shouldice_repair.htm

During the debate over what became the Affordable Care Act (now usually known as Obamacare), I had to sit through two meetings at my office where the rep from our health insurance agency gave long scary talks about the horrors of Canadian health care. He claimed that one of his coworkers had an aunt in Canada who had to wait *nine months* after having a heart attack before she could see a cardiologist!

The rep didn't know that the woman standing next to him, my company's finance officer, is Canadian, has actual aunts in Canada, and knew he was lying.

Sparky said:

Think about that for a moment. a 3 day stay, cost him $330! A 3 day stay in a major hospital here in Grand Rapids would probably cost more like $15,000 PLUS the surgery!!

If it weren't for Sparky's advice to me, I would have had no idea about this procedure. I'd never heard of it.

My own Dr., when I asked him why more doctor's here are not using the Shouldice Method looked at me and rubbed his fingers together.....saying it's all about the money in America... It's all about a permanent fix in Canada.

I thought the nine month wait was for pre-natal care!

Whats strange is that many Canadians opt to go to Cuba for specialized surgery. My friends dad needed a special surgery done on his eyes which isn't done here in Canada. There were only 4 hospitals in the US that do it. He got quotes running from 26K to 34K at the American hospitals. The Canadian OHIP system only vouched to cover 5K of his costs.

He flew to Cuba and the got the operation done for $4400, which included a stay for a week in a nice beachside hotel while they monitored his recovery. Turns out that the Cuban doctor was the one who invented the surgery 7 years ago and boasted the best stats for uncomplicated recovery. The US hospitals were emulating his techniques with a slightly lower success rate. Go figure.

I'm in the same boat... looking at addressing mine this year... my how our reading interests change as we age....lol

After some inquiry, I was pleased to discover that my Kaiser doc uses the laparoscopic method for hernia repair: small incisions, quick recovery, exercise (moderate for a while) encouraged, $15.00 copay. That's $15, not $1500! Whew...will give a follow up report on this if anyone's interested.

Thanks for the education and direction, folks! I am relieved about this, I gotta say!

As an aside, I find it interesting that Canada's health care system, so demonized by many in the US, proves superior in at least one way. Go figure.

Both the Canadian and US systems have their benefits and downfalls. The Canadian system keeps the doctors and hospitals in check as far as rising costs but often there are longer wait times for treatment. On a social level its more fair in the sense that a filthy rich dude with a bad drinking habit can't buy their way in front of you for an liver transplant. You would have to leave the country and do that elsewhere. Wallet biopsies are not performed in Canada. People with mental problems such as manic depression and other pre disposed conditions don't have to worry HMO's turning them down with the old "not at this time" line. An incredibly expensive operation or long term care will not leave a family bankrupt. There is some peace of mind which comes with that. If a person is extremely well off/permanently employed and have a relatively clean bill of health, these things may not matter so much. Some people are not so fortunate and it does.

For me, the hardest part of my post-surgery was getting out of bed in the morning. I had to learn to roll sideways as I got up, since sitting upright wasn't possible until many weeks after my surgery. Good luck to you! Always allow twice as much time as the doctors tell you.

I had a similar operation some 36 years ago

small incision, not traumatic repair, I frankly do not remind the details out of the few days of recovery, but it did not seem to be very long.. may be 3-4 weeks and of course being cautious ... of course you are, because you feel as soon an effort is not well distributed

Great post, Emmery, lots of truth.

A quick follow up: Turns out that for my particular type of hernia, my doc didn't think laproscopic would be the way to go due to potential complications should I ever have prostate issues.

I'm guessing the operation went well...As I was being wheeled to the OR on the gurney, the anesthesiologist said "the IV is going." 30 seconds later, I woke up in the recovery room, surgery complete. Getting old isn't much fun, but it sure beats the alternative. I haven't been in a whole lot of pain, and have kept the Vicodin consumption to only one so far. Hate that crap. Walked 1/2 hour today. I should be working next week, back on the bike in two weeks.

Cheers!