I had an umbilical hernia repair about three weeks ago. I am still not 100% yet but feeling much better now. I was thinking about waiting another two weeks or so and then start doing some body weight exercises and slowly work up to using weights over the course of a month or so.
My question is: Can I still squat, deadlift etc. later on? I am in China (an american but I work and live here) and the doctor was not very clear on what I could do later. He had never done the operation on someone as fit as me. He just said I could return to sports etc after a few months as the mesh he put in would “bind” with my body.
Right now if I eat even a moderate size meal or flex my stomach muscles I can clearly feel where the hernia repair is and it will be a little tender for about an hour afterwards. Heavy squats and deads didnt really seem to effect the hernia area before (mostly it was after eating that I would have soreness and some protrusion) but now that it is fixed the area is sort of tighter. I am wondering if when I lift heavy weight whether or not it will rip the suchers or if I am good to go after I heal up/slowly work back into heavy weights.
I had an umbilical hernia repair in the summer of 2011. For sure you will be able to do all the compound lifts again.
I may have babied mine more than I needed to, but I backed off if I felt pulling on the internal sutures. Fear of tearing it out. Not worth messing it up by rushing things. Mine was caused from pregnancy and so I had sutures to pull the rectus abdominus back together from a couple of inches above the belly button all the way down. No mesh and a low C section incision.
I checked my old log and I tried benching at 6 weeks but I felt a lot of pulling so I backed off. Even benching engaged my abs a lot more than I realized. Rehabbed with BW, and some DB delt moves and such. At 2 months post op I was benching 65 lbs, and doing Bulgarian split squats with 20 pound DBs. I was doing trap bar DLs with the 10 pound plates on it :). Doing elbow planks but for only 30 seconds. I worked back up to things slowly. Pull-ups were one of the hardest things to get back because they really stretch you out and I felt that pulling of the internal scar tissue. They engage the abs more than I realized.
Honestly, it might take 6 months to a year to feel completely normal and be able to lift as heavy as you want without feeling anything there. Just my experience. You may not take that long since yours sounds less involved.
Thanks for the great responses! I am a guy so my hernia was not due to a baby but started in the same place as Powerpuff describes. It was about the size of a quarter and I have had it for years but recently it had started bothering me and the “bubble” seemed to be growing so I went to get it fixed.
I had it done laproscopically which is supposed to be the easy way but holy crap did that hurt for the first three days after the surgery. The doctor said he was not used to dealing with someone with as thick and dense stomach muscles as me so they had to add extra air and higher pressure to open the space in my stomach enough for him to work. They also did 7 incisions with 2 big ones instead of the 3 little ones he said they were gonna do. They added the mesh but he didnt tell me much about it. All I know is that it was very expensive. The piece of mesh cost 10x more than everything else including the surgeon, medication, and hospital room/board combined.
Anyway, now everything is much better. The incisions still ache at weird times. I never knew how much obliques you use when you sneeze but not I am not dreading sneezing like the plague as I was for the first two weeks. The most achy thing is where the sutures are especially after I eat or drink a lot. I keep worrying the sutures are going to rip through the muscle or something. Can that happen?
Thanks for the advice and descriptions of what you guys went through!
[quote]irfhdah wrote:
Thanks for the great responses! I am a guy so my hernia was not due to a baby but started in the same place as Powerpuff describes. It was about the size of a quarter and I have had it for years but recently it had started bothering me and the “bubble” seemed to be growing so I went to get it fixed.
I had it done laproscopically which is supposed to be the easy way but holy crap did that hurt for the first three days after the surgery. The doctor said he was not used to dealing with someone with as thick and dense stomach muscles as me so they had to add extra air and higher pressure to open the space in my stomach enough for him to work. They also did 7 incisions with 2 big ones instead of the 3 little ones he said they were gonna do. They added the mesh but he didnt tell me much about it. All I know is that it was very expensive. The piece of mesh cost 10x more than everything else including the surgeon, medication, and hospital room/board combined.
Anyway, now everything is much better. The incisions still ache at weird times. I never knew how much obliques you use when you sneeze but not I am not dreading sneezing like the plague as I was for the first two weeks. The most achy thing is where the sutures are especially after I eat or drink a lot. I keep worrying the sutures are going to rip through the muscle or something. Can that happen?
Thanks for the advice and descriptions of what you guys went through![/quote]
I had to laugh when you said the surgeon mentioned your unusual ab thickness. Mine made the same comment. Kind of nice. Yeah, I remember rolling to my side to just get out of bed there at the beginning. Ouch!
About costs, mine was 100% covered. Very fortunate since my doctor decided to fix it right instead of just patching the hernia. Not normally covered by insurance, but I ended up with the benefit of having my waist go back to my pre-pregnancy size. Nice. When he saw how lean I was as the pre-op appointment he said he’d just sew it back all the way because I would actually see the difference, as opposed to some of the obese patients who wouldn’t even notice. Awesome guy. He had planned to use mesh but decided not to once he got in there. He said he thought the sutures would have a better aesthetic effect since I’m a small woman.
Best of luck to you! Also, my doctor said that the external scars turn from pink to white as they heal. That takes a year or more. Picture that the internal scar tissue is doing the same thing. As long as you can see pink, the scars are still healing. It takes time and it isn’t as flexible, but you’ll get it all back.