Recovery from groin/hernia surgery

I had a left inguinal hernia repair done in March of 2008. I was back to working out in about 4 weeks. Not completely pain free for a few months. Doc said I could do whatever I wanted as soon as I could tolerate the pain. It took longer than I thought Stupid me, I had it done on a Monday and figured I'd be back at work by Wednesday. Ha! I was out the whole week and still very tender just walking when I went back to work the next Monday. Took a good 4 weeks before I could really work out without significant pain.

Ugh. A bit worse than my primary care guy said. Thanks!

It depends on the surgery too. If they go laproscopic the recovery is easier. Mine was a full incision and mesh was inserted.

PCP thinks they'll use mesh. No talk yet of manner of surgery.

Does seem like lap would be better, just easier for healing.

I had 2 groin hernias and an abdominal hernia and it took a solid two weeks before I felt comfortable enough to return to work. Being a home inspector there's a lot of pulling yourself up into attic spaces off of the top of the ladder and several yoga type moves when accessing areas of crawlspaces. The first attic I pulled myself up into I thought I was going to die and had to lay in the insulation across the trusses for 5 minutes until I could catch my breathe. But at the time I also weighed 220# at 5'-8" and was extremely out of shape and if I weighed what I do now 175# recovery might have been easier. It took me about 2 months before I felt no stress around the repaired area and was able to run my first K.  I think recovery for you you should be easier. If I remember right you ran a timed Ultra for a distance of 33+ miles with little training and that tells me you are in decent shape.    

Good luck and don't push too hard to quick.

I had a hernia repair just as I was existing the build phase of my HIM program. The surgeon told me that the issue with returning to training was not the hernia itself because with mesh it is stronger right out of surgery. The problem with training is the incision and allowing that to heal properly. So a couple of weeks and I was good to go again. Be careful the first week and decrease your intensity if need be. In the end all will be fine.

I had a left inguinal hernia repaired just over 3 years ago, open incision (not scoped) with a mesh installed.  I did not have the Rx for pain meds filled; I just took ibuprofen as needed.  Surgery was done on a Thursday and I was back in to work on Monday, though not without serious discomfort.  I was back to some treadmill walking in about 2 weeks, and up to easy running after about a month. 

I'm scheduled to have my right side inguinal repair (open, mesh) on the 24th.  There seems to be quite a range in recover times from what I read.  My surgeon (who has done a couple tri's) said I could swim in a couple days and run a few days after that "if I felt up to it".

Good luck and let me know how it goes.

That's the key. My doc told me I could do anything I wanted the day of surgery IF I could tolerate the pain. He said there was no way I could do anything to ruin his hard work, so no worries about damaging the repair. All I had to deal with was the pain. Yeah, that's all.......

Even that sort of advice for activity would be welcome. No worries about ruining it, and I could try to remember to take it easy. (Which isn't as hard for me as it used to be). Since it's offseason, and my next race probably won't be until a half-marathon in May, I wouldn't NEED to be on the road, but would probably feel a lot better -- emotionally and physically -- if I could hit the elliptical or something.

Yeah, that's the same problem I have trying to run faster.

Yeah, after I wrote that I almost added... "just like triathlon"

My boyfriend had a left inguinal hernia surgery a year ago and he ran the Miami marathon 3 days before the operation. 3 weeks later he was running and playing tennis. Not a fun thing to go through but it has to be done. He had a mesh put in. Usually they don't give you the option to go laparascopic if you don't have hernias on both sides, at least that's what they told him at Kaiser Permanente, here in Cali.

Wait a sec... did you all have this under general or local anesthesia?

(I'd really prefer local, though I doubt they'd let me use a mirror to watch)

I was put under for the surgery.

I'm getting general.

Is that a choice, or a requirement?

Me too

I had inguinal hernia surgery a few years ago, now I have a high tolerance for pain, but by far the worst pain I have ever been in.  I had mesh put in and the proud owner of a nice 8" scar .   It took me about a week to be able to get around normally and the worst part was......sneezing!!  I had the surgery done during allergy season, bad mistake lol. 

His standard practice, but that is what I would prefer anyway.  I've been under for 2 knee scopes with no problems.  I had surgery on my wrist with a local and I didn't like that any better.