Ugh...
 

It all started sat morning...I went out on PT with the Marine recruiter's office up the street. Ran a mile or so...maybe a little further...then we all sat down for a situp test. As soon as I laid down and put my knees together, I felt the pop. My hernia...I had become very familiar with this over the past ~12 years I'd had it. Usually I could pop it back to where it didn't hurt but not this time. So I finished my 45 situps, ran another mile or so and ran sprints to finish up. By that time I was convinced I was going to die. I felt like I had been kicked in the balls by a world class soccor player. After walking back to my apt and writhing in agony for a half hr, I woke my girlfriend up to take me to the ER. All the poking and prodding at the hospital was fun...lemme tell ya...NOT! But, a bit less than 5 hrs after walking in the ER doors, I was discharged...FROM SURGERY! That has to be some kind of record...

Now I'm going to be laid up for the next 3-6 weeks. Ugh...no biking...no gym...no running...no work...no nothing. Oh well...at least it's fixed finally.

ouch.

Heal up quick.

I had hernia surgery last Tuesday night. The recovery has been interesting. Two or three days the incision hurt. Sitting up was difficult. But the bigger problem came about the fourth when my balls and penis swelled up. The penis didn't hurt, but the balls sure did. They were so sensitive, so enlarged. (Getting bigger is not all that it is cracked up to be!!) It was tough to walk. Today I decided to try a jock strap. Wow! It's like night and day. I can now picture myself getting back on a bike. Yesterday I had a hard time picturing that. Thanks, BIKE company!

Well...my junk isn't swollen (yet), but it IS all just one big bruise. I now have a black man's penis. lol

But yea...sitting up is tricky...walking is tricky...I'm hangin in there though. Honestly, the most painful part is waking up in the morning. It's before I had any pain meds so that initial trip to the restroom is bruuuuuuuutal.

Also...doc gave me 65 percocets and, when I got the prescription, I was like "wow...that's sweet!" Now I know why he gave me so many! They are only lasting all of an hr or so! When I go to my week check up, I'm going to see if doc will give me something...I dunno...time released or a little stronger or something so I don't have to keep eating pills all day. My day is full of being high as a kite but comfortable for an hr, then cringing as I stand up to get some more water or something and realizing they wore off, then taking 2 more...and round and round it goes...I can't help but think this isn't quite the way it's supposed to be...

:thumb:

Hope there are no further problems.

Ah I know the feeling, had mine done last October. However as long as they did the surgery laparoscopically I was back on my feet (where I could at least walk around) in a week, and back at work in 2 and a half (I have a desk job tho). However I wasn't allowed to drive my car (manual transmission) for about 4 weeks, and I couldnt lift anything more than a ham sandwich for close to 2 months.

As for the balls swell, I didnt have that problem too bad, but a little soreness and black and blues around my junk.

It's been a week now. Much of the swelling and black and blue-ness is going away, although I am still quite tender in my balls. Jockstraps have enabled me to walk around without a lot of discomfort. The location of the surgery has not been too bad at all, just a little tenderness, a sense of pulling once in a while. I obviously do not have the ability to do things that I want yet. I started some back stretches today and discovered they still need to wait. I am going to try a swim some time soon--maybe today or tomorrow. I'll get back on the bike as soon as the balls aren't tender. the doctor told me that I probably could be back on the bike in a week. I think maybe he was a bit optimistic.

You might want to write down what time you take pills and how many you take and try to stick to the prescribed interval between doses. Check with the doc if you aren't getting a level of relief you can live with.
Ibuprofen might help, in addition to the percocet. Don't take acetaminophen along with percocet, as percocet has acetaminophen in it. (and you shouldn't take more than 4000mg of acetaminophen daily).
If in doubt, check with your doc. And/or, talk with the pharmacist.

I already called them regarding this and they in fact did say to get some ibuprofen. I tried it multiple times and didn't notice a difference. Even in general day to day life, I've never noticed any otc pain relief medications helping with the exception of extra strength Tylenol helping with mild headaches sometimes so I honestly didn't really put a whole lot of faith in them in this case.

Don't get me wrong...the percs work ok...it's just a big relief-rollercoaster. Doc prescribed 65 of them to be taken 1-2 every 4 hrs. That would be twelve a day...I haven't taken that many in a day yet and I don't see taking more helping. If I took that many of them, I don't think the relief would last any longer, I just think it'd be more intense. Intensity isn't the problem. It's duration...plus, I'm already a bit stoned so I don't WANT to take any more, really. I still have to watch my daughter so having my wits about me is a must.

One thing I do need to ask them about is what to do about the constipation that goes along with the pain meds. I haven't **** in almost a week now. I bought some laxitives but ended up not wanting to take them when I read on the box that they may cause cramping. Cramping with the hernia surgery as it is and all would be murder...

I can walk around semi-kinda-sorta-not-really-ok (think the "95 yr old shuffle") right now. I can't lift anything (picked my daughter up today, ~25lbs or so, and got reminded of this) and bending in any way is tricky. If I move wrong, it feels more or less like I'd imagine getting stabbed would feel like.

I dunno though. It feels so weird and I kinda deal with recovery in an odd way anyway. I'm not the kind of person that will lay around, bed ridden, having people wait on me cuz I'm "sick" or whatever. I do my thing for the most part regardless and get away with what I can without messing anything up again. However, if I didn't have any pain medication, I WOULD be bed ridden. I wouldn't be able to MOVE. When I wake up in the morning after the pain meds have worn off over night, it's bruuuuutal...

Thanks for all the chat and support though, guys! :-D

Went for my week checkup today and he said everything's fine. I told him it hurts pretty bad and basically just really sucks and he gave me percocet 10s. What cracks me up is that the 65 percocet 5s he prescribed me first were ~$25...these 55 percocet 10s were $92...go figure...

This is the tenth day after my surgery. I saw the doctor yesterday. He said things look good. I swam yesterday, and I rode my bike and swim today. The bike ride really was brief (11 miles or so), and the swim was probably a quarter of mile or so. It didn't hurt when I rode, yet my nads remained a bit tender. One pair of shorts that I wear (one with a big chamois) hurt me too much. But another pair without much of a chamois did fine. The area of my surgery is a little more swollen tonight. Maybe I should have waited a day or two to ride. The doc said it would be fine.

why would your doodads swell? :wtf:

If I can ride my bike in 3-4 days (which would be my 10th day out from surgery), I'd be amped. I don't see that happening. This is still quite an uncomfortable thing right now. I can barely walk...

Well...my "doodads" (that rocks...lol) weren't swollen...the end of my wang was! Luckily it's not any more. The good ol' twig 'n' berries still have a black man's skin tone, though. lol

Weird, weird things happen with surgery. Aside from the festive looking bruising and interesting swelling, the top inside of my left thigh (hernia was on the left side) and part of my left...eh...upper-ball-area...(???) is COMPLETELY numb due to nerve damage. I mean COMPLETELY. I could probably pierce it and not even notice. Since they gave me a half assed, partial "bikini shaving", I decided I'm going to have to shave all of it (which I did one time in the past and vowed to NEVER do again...) to avoid looking very, very weird. Well...shaving skin that's completely numb feels REALLY weird. So, I got done with the side that had feeling and decided to wait until I regain feeling on the other side to proceed.

I look like frankenstein from the waist down right now...lol

The fluids from the surgery go to the lowest place, and guess what? That is your doo dads. The worst part of the surgery for me was the swelling of my balls. I liked the bigger "twig." It didn't hurt. But it certainly became all black and blue.

lol...yea, this has sure been an adventure. I didn't know what to expect going into it. It hasn't been too bad, really. Honestly, the worst part of it all happened today...

Due to the opiate pain killers, I hadn't pinched a loaf in a week or so. I bought some Dulcolax to remedy the problem but didn't take any right away because it said it could cause cramping. I did NOT want the added pain of cramping while dealing with the pain I'm already in.

Well...I said to hell with it when my girlfriend said she'd taken them before and never had a problem.

I woke up today in more pain than I could ever describe in words. I get cramps like that from time to time anyway and I go take a crap and I'm fine.

This was the most brutal, mind numbing, excruciating cramping I've ever felt in my life...and it lasted a little over TWO HOURS! It was so bad I thought I was going to puke for a while. I'd rather spend the rest of my life pooping out of my nose than EVER have to go through that again...

Moral of the story, if your pain meds have you stopped up, WAIT IT OUT!

No offense to your future aspirations, but I see this injury as a blessing. In fact, I hope it keeps you out of the Marines forever. Both my best friends went into the Marines about two years ago and they said the novelty of being a Marine wore off real quick. Anywhoo, I sure hope your feeling better, I have had the same thing and its quite painful.

You hope my surgery, with a worst-case-scenario recovery time of about a month and a half, keeps me from ever joining the marines because a couple of your buddies didn't like the experience they had and/or your own personal viewpoints? Of all the people I've talked to on the subject, I've never had anyone give me such nieve, useless feedback but I'll take this odd statement for what it's worth...which isn't much.

I also do consider the way the surgery came and all that a bit of an omen. While considering enlisting, I was concerned about what I was going to do about the hernia because I knew I had it and I knew I was going to have to do something about it before I left...I just didn't know what. Well...problem solved.

But yea...I am kinda starting to feel better. There is an area on the hernia side that stretches from my waist down to the middle of my thigh with the worst part, of course on the actual incision, in the middle of the oval shaped area. and I still get that God aweful feeling like I'm getting stabbed if I move wrong. Why I have such widespread soreness is beyond me. But it is getting better.

Don't be wasting all those perc 10's on pain.

It's because it's a hole in your core muscle group, effectively speaking. All that talk from fitness experts about core strength focuses on stuff below the ribs and above the thighs.

Be glad that you play guitar and not oboe. :lol:

Well,then you gotta admit that u waited too long.

:roflmao2::roflmao2: Good to know I'm not the only one that thinks this way. In all honesty, I'm doing my best to save them but this **** hurts! lol To me, relaxing is: a vicodin/perc (2 darvocet is quite nice as well...), a great big blue Monster energy, my xBox 360 or my guitar and an empty house. I should be able to do without them by the time I go to my 2 week checkup...but the doc doesn't need to know that...;)

Have you ever seen an oboe reed!? Goofy looking things they are. Me + wind instruments = not good times. But you can give me just about anything with strings and I'll be able to at least get sounds out of it that I want. I used to work in a music store and I basically just sat around and played with stuff:

Guitar (duh)
Bass (duh)
ukalele
mandolin
dulcimer
banjo
violin
piano
drums (I know it's not a stringed instrument but it's important!)
autoharp (kinda cheating but hey...whatever...)

I liked stringed stuff...:-D

glad to hear you're doing better.
Remember, kids: Opiate pain meds cause constipation. No way around it. Consider taking stool softeners like docusate if you take Percocet, Vicodin, etc. And, increase your fruits/veggies/fiber intake and drink enough fluids.

I knew this before hand but honestly had never had a problem. Man did it get me this time...and the matter was made exponentially worse by the use of the dulcolax. I'll NEVER take that **** again. That was completely miserable.

I've tried making an oboe reed. Didn't work out too well.

(How many oboe players does it take to change a light bulb? .. Just one, but by the time they're done wrapping, clipping, trimming, and shaving it, nobody cares anymore. ;))

Playing oboe is like sitting there constantly squeezing a reluctant concrete turd out of your butt. It's a surefire way to aggravate a hernia.

Screw woodwinds; I'm sticking with low brass. :thumb:

LOL! How in God's name does that work? (Or not...lol)

I don't do the wind instruments in general. I picked up a trumpet that was sitting around at the music store I worked at once and gave it a whirl and it sounded like a wet fart...not good...lol