Hernia anyone?

Gary had a HUGE hernia after his Whipple, and it bothered him tremendously. They didn’t do anything about it until 16 months after his surgery because he had so many other things he was dealing with – a bile leak that never healed, drains, infections, a wound vac, chemo, radiation. Finally he, his surgeon and oncologist made the decision to suspend chemo for the time it would take to do another huge surgery in an attempt to repair the bile leak (it was successful) and the hernia at the same time. His original surgeon fixed the leak and then a plastic surgeon took over and repaired the hernia by doing abdominal reconstruction (basically a tummy tuck). He also neatened up alot of the scar tissue,etc. The results are amazing. The decision to proceed when they did was an issue of quality of life. We’ll never be sure if the time off from chemo resulted in the cancer spreading to his liver or not, but we still feel it was the right decision.
If your hernia isn’t too large or uncomfortable you may be able to just wear an abdominal binder. Good luck!

Suzanne,

Mom had quite a large hernia by her incision. They did the surgery about a year after she had the resection. The hernia was uncomfortable, so that is why they decided to do the surgery. The surgery set her back a little bit at the time, but it did relieve a lot of pain.

Big hugs to you!
Amy

Suzanne,
If Sue (scagrots) doesnt stop by, drop her an email. She had a hernia, and I think she had surgery (if I remember correctly, but who knows on that score!). She is lovely and will answer your questions.

Kris

Suzanne,
My husband has a hernia right under his abdominal surgery incision sight. He developed this about 4 months after surgery. We had an appointment today with our Radiation Oncologist and he wants our surgeon to look at it to see if anything should be done. He really thinks it should be left alone but the hernia has grown since our last visit and he wants the surgeon’s opinion because it is getting larger. He did tell us that the hernia is “flat” and shouldn’t cause any problems but it does protrude and is annoying because he has to consistently push it back in to his chest. The hernia is also located very close to his external drain sight and that would make the surgery more difficult. I am really hoping our surgeon says he shouldn’t go through the hernia repair because I really hate to see him go through surgery again and the risks of infection and other complications that could occur. My point is we were told by our oncologist and radiation oncologist to leave the hernia alone and neither one recommended surgery until the hernia got bigger and then they wanted us to consult with our surgeon just to be sure.

Make sure your doctor is aware of your hernia and be very careful not to strain yourself or lift anything heavy. My husband feels good and tends to try to do too much around the house, it is hard to keep him down. That could be why his hernia has grown. We were told that post operative hernias are very common.

Debbie