I'm pretty sure I have a hernia. What I'm not sure about is what doctor I should be seeing to address this issue.

Signs: 1-2 times I week I feel a bulge in my back on the lower left side. Tends to occur in the middle of the night. When I feel it, I can press it back in and it feels a little squishy. Then it's gone for a few days, or a week, and then it comes back. This has been happening about 3 weeks maybe.

It's retroperitoneal, a good 3-4 inches from my spine, and lower than my kidneys, so to me this says hernia in the descending colon.

I don't need referrals for specialists. I'm going to see my reconstructive surgeon for pre-op on Tuesday, so I can talk to him about this, but even though he does hernia repairs that's not his specialty. Other options might be bariatric surgeon or GI doc? I'm sort of leaning toward my bariatric surgeon because GI docs don't tend to want much to do with bariatric patients.

Any advice?

My bariatric surgeon told me that if I ever think I have a hernia issue to come see him about it first.

Immediately after making this post I called my bariatric surgeon's office and they said, "come see us first!" So I have an appointment for Tuesday. Day of Appointments.

My WLS surgeon did my hernia operations.

I was going to guess an internist...but that was a guess..

I am glad your surgeon is on the ball with this and that you can see him soon!

I've posted this before, but my bariatric surgeon has also told me "from now on, I'm your GI doctor". Like you said, some GI docs might not want to touch a bariatric patient, and our "condition" is a sub-specialty that is not well understood outside the bariatric medical community (in my opinion). I worry a "regular" GI doc might miss something because while it is not common in the general population, maybe more common in the bariatric population.

It depends. But since you have a great bariatric surgeon - I would go to see him first. For anyone else - that either moved, or had surgery out of the country - find a good (or rather great) gastro doc and follow up with them. But chose carefully your gastro. Some of them are clueless about any bariatric surgeries and our insides.

Dude, I have never heard of a hernia that poked out from the back. Good for you for basically diagnosing yourself and not freaking out. I am interested to learn what could cause such a thing!

Jen

I am totally freaking out on the inside. :/ All signs point to "intersigmoid hernia" and those seem like serious business that involve stuff like "intestinal strangulation" and "bowel resection." And, of course, I don't want anything to derail the surgery I have planned for Nov 6!! ARGH.

But, yeah, beyond that it basically amounted to "not many things are in the back" and "hernias poke out" mixed with a few semesters of anatomy and physiology = hernia in descending colon. We'll see what my surgeon says on Tuesday!

Yikes! That does sound like serious business. You've been feeling all right and the mail is still being delivered? Now I'm freaking out! Thanks, Obama! :D

Jen