Internal hernia??

 Hey you guys! 

Wow, I've had just a crap week so far.  Worst of all, my uncle passed away yesterday.  I read his obituary this morning and just bawled.  Ugh, not a good start to the day.  This comes 3 weeks after my aunt (his sister ~ my dad's siblings) also passed away.  This needs to stop for awhile in my life..no more funerals.  

Anyway, on Tuesday afternoon I started to get a horrible pain in the middle/leftish of my upper stomach from about my breastbone to my belly button.  It was so horrible I couldn't stand up and it lasted for about 6 hours.  The pain was less when I was sitting but I would be doubled over upright.  Scary. Yesterday and today the pain has subsided but it's still tender in the area and something just feels off...if that makes sense. So I called my surgeon yesterday and spoke with one of his nurses and she said, obviously, it could be several things but she did mention that people around this time out of surgery that I am at can get internal hernias.  I haven't been able to find out much about them searching myself so I wondered if any of you have either had one or know much about them?  I know it requires another surgery (*#&$^@*&@) but I just wanted to compare my symptoms to that of an actual hernia.  I really hope that it's nothing and I just over did it at the gym but I also talked to my aerobics teacher and a physical therapist and they both said it didn't sound like a muscle pull.  Crap.  

If anyone can help me out or point me in the right direction, that would be fantastic...I'm a little worried but not trying to think the worst.  

Thanks!!

~Emily~

While I don't know anything about the hernias I just wanted to say that I'm sorry about all the losses in your life! I hope it stops for your sake also!   And I hope your pain is not what your thinking it is!

 Thank you, that's very much appreciated right now.  

I'm hoping too it's not anything serious.  I'm giving it a week and if it's not better by then, I'll go in for the CT.  I thought I'd be done with hospitals for awhile....geesh.  

~Emily~

do you still have your gallbladder? is there a chance a gallstone hit something or is caught in a duct somewhere? just thinking of all the possibilities..

I had my gallbladder removed in 2007 but the pain was similar only in a different location.  Thanks for the response!

~Emily~

alright since nobody has really answered you i will do so now. i do in fact have a hernia, an insion hernia. bascially right above my belly button and on the scar from lap bypass surgery, i got a defect and a hernia is the result.( my suergon informed me this is very rare, like less than 2%, i am just lucky enough to be in that catagorey) i will be having this fixed, i was going to have it fixed with a general suergon, but i am far enough out, that i opted to have it done with plastics.
the pain...hurts like a mother f****r, excuse my language but it HURTS! i took two percocets and was still in tons of pain. something you need to look for is there a rhyme or reason when you get this pain, such as after you lift, after you eat? mine hurts if i lift anything more than 10lbs, and doesnt go away for several hours. the pain feels anywhere from a dull constant pain to a extreme pain like a knife is stabbing me.

 THANK YOU!  I kind of wanted to get an idea of what the pain feels like because it started out horrible, like doubled over horrible.  That pain went away overnight and I've been having the dull, achy pain in the middle of my stomach above my belly button.  

I've decided that if I'm not better by the weekend, I'm going to make the appointment for the CT just to be on the safe side.  I'd rather have the test and have it be nothing than to leave it alone with something wrong.  

I was hoping that no one answered me because no one else has experienced the problem....which would be a good thing.  

Thanks again!!

~Emily~

Hi there,
I hope you're doing well, but I just wanted to tell you that an internal hernia is completely different than an incisional hernia. Incisional hernias are caused by a weakening of the abominal wall where your incision was closed causing the intestines to "slip" through the muscles. There is a sort of connective tissue (the mesentery) that holds your intestines in place, when  you are obese, this tissue has a lot of fat on it also. in order for the surgeon to creat the bypass with your intestines this mesentery is cut then stitched back together, through the fat. As you lose weight, you also lose fat in the mesentery which creates holes. When there is a hole at this connection, the intestines can slip through causing an internal hernia. The symptoms can be nonspecific with intermittant or continous abdominal pain. They can also sometimes be hard to diagnose.  I hope this helped a little.
Good luck.

 I knew they were different because obviously the incisional one is where the incision is and internal is well, internal...lol.  

Thanks for the description though, it makes sense on why this may be the problem.  I've been feeling better but I'm still jus****ching myself to make sure. 

~Emily~

hey girl,

so about 3 weeks ago, i had hernia surgery. it started out with a pain across my back like somebody beat me with a stick straight across my back. ( i thought maybe this was new pms back pain somehow? made sense to me)
then a few weeks later, for 2 days in a row i felt pain in my breast bone. that same pain started radiating to the exact spot in the middle of my back. it was so horrifiac. the rest of my stomach started feeling like really bad gas pain, so i decided to go try poo'ing. *sorry if tmi*

anyways, i started to feel like i was going to black out in the bathroom, and the gas pain plus everything else started getting so intense, and me and my bf decided to call my surgeon.

he wanted me in the er asap. he met us there and they hooked me up to iv and pain meds. they decided in the a.m to do exploratory lap surgery. they figured it was my gall bladder or a hernia.
the 45 min surgery turned into like almost 2 and they repaired 2 hernias.

he said me being at the 6 month mark is the most common mark for that to have happened.

i learned to never ignore weird pains like the one in my back ever again..

good luck hun :) im here if you have any other ?s about it :) <3