What should I do? Hernia related page

[Fern]

I have just discovered that I have a hernia, I am not 100% sure where exactly it is, but its right above where my c-section scar is, and its about the size of a baseball (well half a baseball sticking out of my stomach is what it looks like). I still need to get to the doctor but for now my question is, should I try like hell to have the surgery now to fix it? I have no medical coverage right now so it might take some working on to even get a doctor to see me. Or should I wait until after the warrior dash that I am doing at the end of August. Really I want to wait til after the dash because I only have a few months left to train and I don't want to fuck up my race as this is my first ever race and I want to be able to do it. A few other people have told me that I need to get this fixed right away, but the thing is I have had it since a few weeks after my son was born, I noticed it after my c-section was pretty much healed and went back to the doctor who did my c-section and he told me that it was just because of how fat I was and that everything was fine. So then 2+ years later I have finally lost enough weight to see my stomach and its not just fat stupid fucking doctor. So what should I do?

[secretlobster]

They may or may not do surgery on it. Does it cause you pain? The recovery time on the surgery is usually a couple of weeks, not too bad... If you were a candidate for surgery then it probably wouldn't put you out of commission long enough to set you back too far.

[Neiby]

You really should ask a doctor about this. As a non-doctor who has had a hernia before, I would recommend getting it fixed sooner rather than later. How many months do you have to train? Depending on how they do the operation, it will probably set you back 3-4 weeks or so, but then you know it will be taken care of instead of steadily getting worse.

[Fern]

secretlobster: No it does not cause pain, ljust looks funny and feels odd when I push it back in. Like I said I have had it for over 2 years thinking it was just fat. I am pretty sure they will want to do surgery because its kinda big (or at least to me it is). My husband had 2 hernias last year and they were not anywhere near as big as mine and they had him in surgery within 3 days. His recovery time was 6-8 weeks. But he and I heal way differently, he tried as hard as he could to not do anything for months after, like he had his surgery the first week of August and he didn't pick up our son (25ish pounds) after that until probably December, and still to this day tells me they hurt and he thinks that there is something wrong with them. But after I had my c-section I hated not doing stuff (possibly why I have a hernia??) and at 4 weeks after it I was moving a fridge and furniture, so if I have the surgery I will need to make a point to not be active until I heal.

Neiby: I only have 10 weeks to train. I want to be able to jog at a 14 min/mile pace for the 3.5 miles of the race, right now I can go for about 1 1/2 miles at somewhere around a 15 or 16 min/ mile. So I feel I am making progress because I have never ran more than 100 yards before this. And I do plan on asking a doctor when I can, right now I just cant, but hopefully next week I will get in to see one.

[Neiby]

I guess the upside is that you'd probably have restrictions about lifting heavy things for a couple of weeks, but I bet that after a week or so you'd be allowed to run (or at least do a fast walk or jog) if you could handle whatever pain you had.

[szorn]

I would suggest having it checked out asap by someone other than your previous doctor, preferably someone that specializes in hernias. A hernia can become strangulated by the abdominal muscles. Then if it ruptures it can spill fluids outside the abdominal wall and cause a bad infection which can be dangerous. Obviously the harder you train the core the greater the risk of strangulation.

[Lojasmo]

That is an umbilical hernia. See a surgeon if it bothers you.