Question:
im having hernia repair with removal of excess

hi amos family! well, its surgery time again for me, coming up soon. im having hernia repair with the remvoal of excess abdominal tissue. very glad to be having this but also nervous like before. i did absolutely beautiful with my open rny. i have an estimated stay of over night then its home i go. my question is, does this seem right? i know everyones different but how will the pain and recovery compare to the open rny? about the same, no where near or much worse? also for rny i never took pain meds cuz the loritab gave me the dry heaves and weird dreams, im wondering if it was just the new pouch not liking the med, can we take regualr vicadin pills at this point? im a little over 1 year post op. thanks in advance for all the answers :) love carrie :)    — carrie M. (posted on March 4, 2003)

March 4, 2003
I had a hernia repair with mesh insertion and abdominoplasty in Dec 02 and it was worse then the RNY, but not bad. I note you said you breezed through the RNY, I didn't have much pain with that either and never took pain pills once I got home. With the hernia repair/abdominoplasty I took percocet for about three to five days and in fact because it caused severe itching and made me feel out of it, I began breaking them in 1/2 and taking 1/2 with some regular tylenol and wasn't in that much pain. The worse pain came from the muscle tightening and I still have soreness from that., if you are just having a panni then you will probably avoid some pain. I only had one night in the hospital also before I was sent home. Best wishes!
   — Lisa N M.

March 4, 2003
I had a hernia repair with mesh insertion and panniculectomy February 4, 2003 and believe me, the pain for me was worse than the open RNY. At least it was at first. I had surgery on Tuesday and was released from the hospital Friday - and I still had my PCA pump an hour before I left the hospital. That night I took a vicodin every 4 hours for 3 doses and after that it was much better. After my RNY, I didn't take any pain meds after leaving the hospital. My surgeon told me to expect this to be worse and then he said that some people don't find it bad at all. I had a friend who had it done and went home the next morning, so like everything else, it varies from person to person. It's been a month now and I had to have my incision opened because I had some fat cell necrosis - fat cells dying off and trapped - it had to be allowed to drain. It's much better now and I am doing great. With both surgeries, I went back to work after two weeks.
   — Patty_Butler

March 4, 2003
I have only had an open RNY so I don't know first hand, but I had a friend who has had both and she said the hernia and abdomenoplasty wasn't a tenth as bad as the RNY.
   — sandy L.