Living With A Hernia

Posted on 2008/04/20 11:20:07 (April 2008).

[Wednesday 16th April]
(the title is a Weird Al Yankovic song, a pun on "Living in America").

I went to the doctors in the morning. I had only just registered at this place the previous day. I'd been advised that if I wanted to see a doctor soon I should go along to the drop-in session in the morning, and get there early. So I arrived at something like 8:20, a whole 40 minutes before any of the doctors actually start working, and queued up outside. I was soon joined by a fair number of other people. One particular old gent engaged me in conversation, the archetypal old war stories etc.

The doctor was unusually nice, he seemed to be in no particular rush, was very friendly and chatty. He asked what I did for a living and initially I gave him a very short answer, thinking he was probably in a rush, but then he seemed particularly interested, and it turns out a friend of his was very keen to get a job at my company. Whilst this was a refreshing change from the usual abrupt "bedside manner" of doctors I've previously known, on this particular occasion I couldn't help but think "can we get back to my bowels please?".

So it looks like I probably have a hernia. I'll be going for a further scan next Monday. Assuming the doctors (and my own) suspicions are correct, it ought to be a very easy thing to fix. In the meantime though it is causing me quite a lot of discomfort, even walking is becoming a bit of a struggle.

In the evening Dad came to visit, as he was working in London for a few days. We'd originally had grand plans of a big night out in London with Japanese food and lovely old pubs etc (a bit like Dad's previous visit to London) but I wasn't feeling that great, and so we revised this to a rather unambitious visit to the tapas place near our flat, followed by couple of whiskies back at the flat. Still, it was very nice nonetheless. Dad seemed to particularly like the Ichiro's Malt.

John.. definitely leave out the bike if you've got suspected hernia.. the action of cycling will put a teriffc strain on your lower abdomen.. assuming that's where it is.. Take care chum

Posted by Jerry at 2008/04/20 23:37:19.

Thanks Jerry - yes I had similar suspicions (confirmed with a brief experiment!). It is sort of ironic though, I have been going on about getting that exercise bike for ages as I'm unfit and don't do any real exercise... I was really determined that I wouldn't just leave it sitting in a corner somewhere and not use it, and now, for the time being at least, I'm doing exactly that - and on doctors advice!

Posted by John at 2008/04/21 08:21:29.

Ouch! Sorry to hear that, John :( Hope it's a "quick fix" etc. Bodies! Who'd 'ave 'em?

Posted by Nigel at 2008/04/21 08:44:03.

He had a right side hernia when he was a baby, we have just been waiting 30-odd years for the left-side one to appear ...

Posted by John's Mum at 2008/04/21 11:35:18.

Aww JM, isn't it amazing the wonderful bits of information you can impart on this site :)

Posted by Mad Mumsie at 2008/04/21 13:52:38.

Yes, and there doesn't seem to be any editing or censorship!

Posted by John's Mum at 2008/04/21 16:46:25.

One of my lads just had his Hernia op 6 weeks ago.. now he's all healed up and back training with me as from last week.. He is 50 so you shouldn't have any probs healing fast if you take it easy.

Posted by Jerry at 2008/04/21 17:18:24.

Blimey Jerry - 5 weeks of having to take it easy? I had kind of assumed it would only be about 3 days!

Posted by John at 2008/04/21 22:26:16.

....of course, I do have the sort of job I could do without even getting out of bed, so several weeks without any intensive physical activity probably wouldn't be such a big problem.

Posted by John at 2008/04/21 22:28:13.

Well it's up to you... If you want to pull all those lovely stitches out, get on that bike and knock yourself out man! Ha ha!
My mate said he was having to stifle sneezing, coughing, anything that pulled his guts really.
I guess it depends on how severe it is and how big an op to fix it.

Posted by Jerry at 2008/04/22 19:25:01.

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