My experience of hernia repair surgery and the journey back to running

February 2021 saw me head into hospital for an operation, followed by some time off running. This was the first time I’d ever had to go into hospital so naturally thought it warranted a blog post as a Significant Life Event….

Here is my tale of before, during and after the procedure and to recap it all, some things I took away from it. If anything, I wrote this post to encourage any who needs to get ‘that thing looked at’ to go and do it or to reassure anyone who is anxious about having a procedure done.

Before – what’s this all about then?

Towards the end of 2019, I noticed a lump in my groin area. Thought it was a bit strange, but did the obvious thing and ignored it. ‘It’ll probably go away’ and all that.

It didn’t go away though; in fact, a few months later it was still there and I was able to push this lump back in. The adult in me decided that I had better get it looked out and the hypochondriac in me foolishly did a Google search and all sorts of things came up – which prompted me to make that GP appointment after all.

Ironically, when I saw my doctor, the lump wasn’t visible. It seemed to only be visible when I was in certain positions (standing up usually) and at certain times (I tended to only notice it when I was undressed after a shower). The doctor sent me off for a scan, suspecting it might be a hernia but unsure as she couldn’t examine anything.

The ultrasound indeed later informed me it was an ‘indirect inguinal hernia’. Relieved that it wasn’t anything more sinister to worry about, I realised I had no idea what a hernia actually was. I’d only heard of it from Friends when Joey gets his….

Turns out it’s fairly straight forward. A hernia is caused when there is a weakness in your abdominal wall, which allows the tissue/muscle/whatever is behind it to start to push through over time, causing the seeming ‘lump’. It tends to be more common in men and can be quite painful if it comes on suddenly. Luckily for me, I’d never experienced any pain or discomfort with it at all.  The ‘indirect’ part of my diagnosis meant the weakness had been present since I was young or possibly even from birth.

So, after an appointment with a private consultant (I have health insurance through my job which I utilised), I decided to get the hernia repaired. He had reassured me it wasn’t urgent and I could freely choose not to do anything about me if it didn’t cause me any trouble, but that most people ended up getting them fixed at some point in their lives. When he told me there was a very small risk of strangulation (yes, ew) I figured I should just get on with it.

Plus – we’re all in lockdown. It looked highly unlikely I would be missing out on anything by taking a few weeks to recover!

During – the exciting bit

I’d never had a general anesthetic before or even been into hospital for myself. As my mum likes to tell me, I wasn’t even born in a hospital (I was born at home) so I was a little nervous about having the surgery. I’m quite fascinated by medical things though, so I was also intrigued.

Sadly due to Covid, no-one could come with me inside the hospital, so off I trotted to my hospital room, decked with my new hospital gown and compression socks to stop me getting deep vein thrombosis after the surgery. Sexy.

My nurse was lovely and friendly and I had a visit or two from my surgeon and anaesthetist. After a couple of hours wait in my hospital room, they were ready for me in the operating theatre!

A cannula went in my hand, some things got stuck on my chest, they gave me some pain relief and other various drugs we trust they know what they’re doing with, and before I knew it they were telling me that they were giving me the anaesthetic and I’d be asleep in no more than 20 seconds. Well I probably didn’t even count to 5……and then I had a lovely snooze and woke up to a nurse saying hello to me and the surgery was all done!

I stayed in the hospital overnight and was discharged the following morning. Worst night’s sleep I’ve had in years, but thankfully no complications with the medication or the surgery.

The wound was very sore and uncomfortable, but I was dosed up pretty highly with pain relief.

The next morning, after checking I was weeing, eating, drinking and paracetamol-ed up, I was sent home!

After – home time + “can I go for a run yet?”

The first 3 days were sore and I was quite hobbly. I had a wound about 8cm long that was stitched up internally and covered with a protective gel. Naturally, I milked my patient status by ordering Papa Johns on the first evening home, lying on the sofa…a lot, and sleeping…a lot.

Things the hospital didn’t tell me:

• Your boyfriend will say you are walking ‘as though someone stuck a stick up your bum’
• You won’t poo for about 4 days (anaesthetic slows your colon movements right down and apparently it’s a normal side effect after surgery)
• The morphine they sent me home with wasn’t needed at all and I now have a kitchen cupboard full of very strong drugs…

After 3-4 days, the pain really dropped off a cliff and I started moving around much more easily. I headed out on some short walks and after a week, I gladly felt very much back to normal.

I spent the first two weeks simply walking and not particularly exerting myself. The third week I did a few gentle yoga sessions. as well as two low impact classes on our spin bike at home. That week I absolutely felt like I could go for a run, but knew it would be better to have at least three weeks off post-op.

I should note that everyone has different recovery times and you will almost certainly find conflicting information on Dr Google about this. The general consensus is don’t do anything that is painful or gives you discomfort or if you’ve had specific info from your doctor or surgeon, you’d be wise to follow that. This is my own story and other people may recover quicker or slower.

The First Run Back (official name)

Come 8am, Monday morning, 1^st March, beginning of the fourth week – I was lacing up my trainers and heading out for an easy run to see how everything felt. Itching to, let’s be honest!

Thankfully, nothing hurt and felt uncomfortable. No stiches seemed to pop open either as I was irrationally concerned about….

My chest felt a little tight and I noticed I was feeling out of breath quicker than normal, but I took that as a usual indicator after a few weeks off and a top level loss of some fitness. I hope that the next week or two can be made up of pleasant plods at a nice pace, before picking up some training later in the month.

All in all, I am thrilled with how the process went and very grateful to have recovered well and swiftly so far.

Wisdom to share

I took some important things away from this process and hope to share them with you here:

• Always go and get things checked out with your doc if you aren’t sure about something – it’s usually nothing, but it’s better to know. Your GP is always there, pandemic or not.  
• If you are told to rest, actually do it – it’s when your body takes in the benefits of everything you’ve been doing lately. Plus, it’s actually quite nice.
• Your body is capable of amazing things – whether it’s running, being cut open and rearranged and stitched up again, or simply getting you out of bed and through your everyday lives – look after it.
• You will be boiling in the hospital overnight and no, they don’t let you take the compression socks off.
• PSA: some time off running isn’t the end of the world. In fact, it’s good for you. A prolonged period of recovery allows your body to refresh and do its own clever little things under the surface. Don’t underestimate it.
• You don’t lose fitness overnight, don’t fret about that. Don’t underestimate yourself.

Happy running, happy moving, take care of yourselves,

Ele x