Hello,

I am due to have an operation for a very small hernia and am becoming concerned that there may be long term consequences with regards to being in pain when cycling. I have no pain now but have read on some other sites that beyond the post-op pain certain activities (and someone mentioned riding a bike) are out of the question even years later with a risk of chronic pain. Can anyone share any post-op experiences. The thought of not being able to enjoy riding my bikes is a depressing one. Ta

As long as you do the core stability exercises that you should be given then you should be fine.

A question for you – do you have any lower back problems?

I had the same procedure a few years ago and have never had any problems 🙂

Hello, I don’t have any back problems and I think I have a pretty good core due to other sports and activities I’ve been doing over the years…

Your asking about inguinal hernia operations suggests that your core is not as good as it could be.

But then again the vast majority of people wouldnt know a core muscle if it stood up and kicked them in the six pack (which isnt a core muscle btw).

I feel I have a pretty good awareness of my core through Yoga, Alexander technique, climbing and going to the gym but I think my hernia may be due to bad technique somewhere along the line and/or from heavy lifting working on dry-stone walls….from what I have been told it is fairly common and men are more at risk from the inguinal type.

What core exercises do you do?

well any recommendations are welcome but I have done/do various exercises with a body ball, the plank, knee and leg raises from a hanging position and squats among others but generally a varied range of exercises and stretching although at the moment regular cycling, running and bouldering are mainly fulfilling my needs……

So no real core exercises then. That’s what you need to be doing. Even adding side planks into what you are doing would be better than nothing. You might want to do exercises to help your muscle recruitment patterns too.

A decent physio would sort you out pretty quickly.

I have done side planks and as I said a varied range of exercises resulting from reading and guidance…as I understood it working on opposite muscle groups, front, back, both sides is the best approach-is that muscle recruitment? Thanks for your advice and hopefully I will be given core stability exercises as you suggest….

Not that I can help with any long-term post-op situations, but it’s been four weeks since I had an open procedure to fix one and I still get knackered walking up a flight of stairs (usual medical disclaimer of YMMV applies).

I thought a hernia was from an inherent weakness in the muscles at that point. If you have that weakness, then you’re at risk of popping a hernia no matter what. Is that wrong?

Is that wrong?

no you’re totally correct – people get hernias because they are going to get a hernia sooner or later.

Peoples post op stories will vary wildly because the nature of hernias vary widely, procedures offered from one hospital to another are different and the circumstances of you’re op might be different to someone elses. You’ll almost certainly be offered a keyhole type surgery which should see you walking back out the hospital within a few hours of walking in, back to normal activities within a month and having forgotten about it within three months.

BUT, the surgeon won’t know til he/she looks inside whether keyhole procedure is appropriate so on the day you’ll sign consents for two possible procedures – key hole and more traditional open surgery, the open procedure being for if they discover ‘adhesions’ (bits of your puddings being stuck together -preventing access for keyhole work) or its what would need to be done if problems are encountered during procedure – a bit of pudding getting nicked and needing repair. Recovery from open surgery is a much, much bigger deal, and its these procedures that people are likely referring to if they’ve had a long recovery

Open procedure for a femoral hernia, removed nodes from inguinal ligament, still got a 5-6inch scar, 7 weeks off the bike (first few weeks very painful) 12 weeks after the op did the Fred Whitton. Can still feel the scar tissue a good few years on and some tightness when it’s cold but everyones different.

“You’ll almost certainly be offered a keyhole type surgery”.
I don’t know anyone who’s had keyhole surgery – but plenty of people who’ve had open surgery.

If you drop me an email I’ll send you a BMJ review of inguinal hernia surgery and a hospital sheet on recovery times. Will give you some useful background, ie HGV drivers can expect to be off work for 12wks following open repair!

My personal experiences are here: http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/just-back-from-double-hernia-operation

I had one a couple of years ago, it was done by the NHS under general anasthetic and I had a mech put under the muscle to stop it popping out again, I am a 30 year old male, reasonably fit. I walked out of the hospital, albeit in a bit if pain and very slowly. I was pain free when walking within 10 days, riding very gently within 3 weeks and riding properly within 6 or 8 weeks.

Cycling was generally fine, the things I had trouble with were leg presses and the like when you have to extend your entire body under tension, I would feel the wound streching which wasn’t overly pleasant.

2 years on it gives me no issues at all, very occasionally I can feel a strech under the skin where the mech is but this is very rare and is just a bit wierd rather rather than painful.

I hope this helps but if you need anything more specific feel free to ask.

Re. numbness (mentioned in the other thread), I am still a little numb directly under the scare. The area that is numb has decreased over time which is a good job as for the first week my entire “tackle” was numb, thankfully all the feeling has now returned to that area!

Inguinal… Is that a hernia that’s at the top of the abdomen? If it is, I have one as well!

Got an appointment next week with the doc to see what they can do.