hernia

Good morning.I had hernia surgery four years ago when I was morbidly obese. I know obesity can cause it.  I had  had RNY last year. I was told I had one after this surgery. I was hoping to wait to have it fixed when they removed excess skin from my tummy. In October I was sent to the ER for emergency surgery the hernia was wrapped around my bowels. At Christmas time I started with some pain in my belly button. 

Of course everyone thinks it is in my head. Well I went to the doctors and had a cat scan and it showed I have another hernia.

I have questions. Is this normal to have happen? Was it not fixed right? I have to have surgery in February has anyone had this happen? 

I truly don't know if it's "normal" or not for your situation.  But I do know that hernias develop because of weaknesses, tears and gaps in the muscle wall.  It sort of makes sense that if your muscles have been stretched out for a really long time that it would be easier for hernias to develop.  

Sorry you have to go through surgery AGAIN!  

what's she said..

I am almost three months out from 3 hernia repairs that also included a TT with massive muscle tightening.  I have also had hernia repair 8 years ago when they placed my LapBand and again during my revision to RNY.  

And now lucky me - I fall into that rare RNY group and have developed another hernia - this one in the Petersen's space.  It will be repaired end of February.  Hopefully this will be the last ever loving hernia I have to have repaired!!  

If you think something is wrong - have it checked asap.  If you are having the repair done next month is it possible to have the TT then?  I actually wasn't given the choice really - the surgeon's were like "You need these repaired and in order to repair them and keep them from reappearing we need to get rid of this excess skin and tighten things up."  This has been the most painful recovery by far and the longest.  Because of the new internal hernia (which is caused by my lack of abdominal fat if you can believe --) - it is hard to know what is causing all the pain and nauseau and fatigue.  

Anyway - guess we will be Hernia buddies this February.  But in your shoes I'd want the muscle repair done at the same time and it makes it easier for them to see and repair the hernia cause they peel back the skin.  That's how my PS discovered my third hernia!

Hang in there!  Ash

I still have about 30 pounds I need to lose.I just hope this works. It can be very depressing and expensive having surgery two times in a year.

That is the gospel truth!  

So is it that you want to wait til you get to goal or that the surgeon's advise you to wait or that insurance doesn't cover it so you want to wait for maximum results?  

After the last hernia wrapping around my intestines I don't want to take that chance to wait. It started out just like this one. I went to the doctors and they said you can wait. Then three months later I ended up in the ER with my husband away having emergency surgery. It was the worse pain I have ever felt. Worse than childbirth. Morphine didn't take the edge off. 

I know it sucks, but a hernia is nothing to fool around with. I developed a hernia about 10 months post-op, but I didn't it it diagnosed for a few months after that. I had several episodes of intense pain, nausea, and dry heaves. My surgeon explained that when I was having that pain, my bowel had gotten caught in the hernia (called strangulated or incarcerated.) Fortunately for me, each time it slipped loose within a few minutes, or I'd have been having emergency surgery, too.

Your first hernia was probably fixed just fine, but you've developed another one. Go ahead and get it fixed ASAP! I was told that a scheduled, non-emergency hernia repair, done while the hernia was NOT incarcerated, could be done lap, but that if they had to do an emergency repair they've have to open me up.

I told them they should just put a zipper in my belly button.

What Tracy said.

if your new hernia is in the same area as the previous one, they may need to add mesh to reinforce the area to avoid a recurrence.  Not only is surgery that often expensive and painful, but you will likely develop a significant amount of scar tissue that can make additional surgeries much more difficult, and that can result in complications (e.g., scar tissue interfering with your intestines or attaching to internal organs and causing irritation).  

I was warned that too much scar tissue can endanger your health if you ever need emergency surgery again and they cannot get to the problem quickly enough because of all the scar tissue. You can also develop other complications because of excess scar tissue.

After having to have the RNY open, then having a hernia repair AND my tummy tuck all along the midline incision, my TT incision turned necrotic.  When the surgeon had to go back in to remove the scar tissue that had attached my intestine to the mesh from my hernia repair, it had to also be done open and it took her two hours to remove enough of the scar tissue to allow her to free the intestine and remove the mesh. 

Lora