Hey mick, I had a double inguinal myself at 47. In the months before my surgery I went into a pretty intensive abdominal routine to help speed recovery and ease the pain. It worked wonders. The doctor was amazed when I walked in 48 hours after surgery feeling great. At the time I was a pretty hardcore whitewater paddler, so yeah, I took it easy. You want to give everything time to heal. That said, you'll know. Your body will tell you if you're pushing it.

And remember, before they put you under tell the nurses it's bigger than it looks....it's just that you're both a little nervous. I'm sure they haven't heard anything like that before.

good luck!

The suggestions of a planned exercise, weight loss and strengthen core routines prior to the operation are a good way to go.

It's also really important to have a slow return to activities after the operation - be conservative and let your body guide you.

If you rush back too soon you may end up like one of my friends who was back under the knife 6 weeks after the first op because he couldn't take the steady return approach

When you say intensive abdominal routine what exactly is that, sit ups?
As it is after a surf or even after riding the bike home from work it feels like someone has got a firm grip on the nuts and bolts.
thanks for the suggestions and reply

cheers

Have to agree with the taking your time advice. I had a repair done last year and can relate to itching to get out in the water. At 6 weeks it still was not up to scratch for paddling. The combination of abdominal pressure and movement around the surgery site through flexion/extension is quite pronounced with SUP. I managed to paddle through making myself use poor technique-which is way harder than it seems. Was using more upper body strength, and less movement at the hip, and abdominal pressure. Would normally never recommend it, but it's good to get out there just for your sanity-expect to go easy for a little while.

Whilst you will need to strengthen the area, you don't want to hit it straight away. There's some good evidence that correcting any assymetries in the hips, and looking at range of motion and strength in the hips, glutes and adductors can be beneficial for avoiding hernias and for post surgery rehab.

Your best bet will be to get in touch with a good physio post surgery if you want to make sure your on the right track to get back in the water safely.

The key is to definitely not rush back into anything strenuous. I was out for about two months.
Check with your health fund you may be covered 100% for compression pants which I found to help both before and after the surgery,
you may need a letter from your doctor.
I still sometimes wear them under the boardies when downwinding.

inguinal hernia repair with keyhole and mesh 10 yeaRS ago
recovery was 8 weeks before i would of wanted /could of gone windsurfing, thats light wind sailing not high wing waves etc.
\ felt like a grab/ pull sometimes inside for months later while healing took its time.
oh yeah and no sex for at least 3 months or you will blow apart!!

Hey Mick. Seems like my surgeon was correct when he said that more than 10% of men suffer at least 1 hernia in their lifetime - there's obviously good money to be made in this area. It's a bummer that you have a couple to deal with.

Morning coffee not kicking in yet, so I'll wander off topic slightly....I'm no doctor, but I understand that the inguinal hernias occur because when we are still in the womb our balls start off somewhere up in our stomach area and before we are born they 'descend' down into their proper place [so that they are conveniently placed where we can have a lifetime of being able to scratch them, play with them or just check that 'they are still there' etc]. This creates an inherent weakness in the tissue or whatever that forms outside the gut area. So the bulge is your intestine (I think) poking through the tear in the gut wall. You may remember me telling you that when you and I were surfing in the Vicco finals earlier in the year I had my hernia then - I still surfed with it before the operation, just was a little careful in turns etc (and had to 'push' it back in again after each wave. A few times while surfing I had someone ask if I was ok when they saw me doubled over and holding my stomach, lol. "Just pushing my gut back into place" I'd say).

Anyway, I had my operation for my inguinal hernia in March - keyhole. They booked me in to stay in hospital for 2 nights afterwards. I didn't want to stay in hospital at all and was thinking, I'll go home that night. In retrospect it was absolutely sensible to stay in for at least 1 night. I don't know what concoction they put into modern anaesthetics, but you are gonna feel really cruisey for hours afterwards.

Surgeon said do nothing but lie on the couch for the first couple of days, with some frozen peas etc to reduce swelling. You need to take at least a week off work, even if you are feeling great and have no pain. Gotta let it all settle down. After a few days you need to start walking around and commence v light exercise, but listen to your body. As soon as you feel pain, stop what you are doing. After about 2 weeks start to build it up gradually. Be particularly careful with lifting.

I think I went for a couple of v gentle flat water paddles in week 3. I think I had my first surf at about 4 weeks - but then was in Japan for almost a month, with no paddling. By the time I was back from Japan (7 weeks from the op, I think) I felt fine for proper surfing.

I don't know about an open operation because I didn't have it, but one big advantage I found with keyhole is that there are no dressings to deal with. They just superglue over the incisions and the stitches dissolve over time, too. So its waterproof and you can shower straight away and not worry about it.

Mmmmm bit of a rant, sorry....need more coffee!

Good to read this thread.
had mine down three days ago and have been feeling very soft and sorry. Managed a day without pain killers today and a 15 minute walk. Was able to walk around after day one, but the body sends some clear signals. I try to walk through discomfort, but stop at pain.
i have the Tas state titles in 11 weeks, so fingers crossed.

has been 6 mons since my inguinal hernia surgery [ reg. incision doc said less chance for repeat ] still painful, surgeon said a nerve got intertwined in the mesh ,sent to a pain management dr.put me on pain and nerve meds says next step is a nerve block injection totally SUCKS

Five days later and Im pretty good so far. I can actually imagine surfing and SUPing again. Just localised pain, the odd stab. But no so bad.
Tough break with the nerve fish etc

Chill Ben,
As Mick says and I know let you body recover in time, pick up a guitar or something for a few weeks !
Then you'll be good as

Useful info in this thread as might need an op at some point too. But didn't realise how long the recovery is so might have to be proactive and plan it for winter so don't miss out on quality water time.

For pretty much any operation, the recovery times that doctors will quote will refer to typical times until everyday life activities for the average person can be resumed. The average person does not engage in hard athletic activity, and everyday life activities does include things like SUP. So it's best to bear in mind that when a doctor quotes you a recovery time, it probably only means the point at which you can bimble around doing nothing much. It doesn't mean the point at which you could do the M2O. The point at which you can do things as you did before might be eg. double the quoted recovery time if you are a competitive athlete.

On the upside, fitter people generally mend faster. But better to take an extra month to recover than end up back at square one. So be kind to yourself, and good luck.

1st Hand experience, currently @ week 4 post double Inguinal open hernia. About to start 'gentle' yoga...Surgeon recommends NOT getting on SUP for at least 2 months...and i tend to agree, very touchy and sensitive thus far, would hate to go through this again (one side was a repair on failed 15 year old key hole fix. I was told my in-house physio @ hospital not to lift anything heavier than a loaf of bread for 6 weeks!

More a age thing not sup its self