Pain of Post Inguinal Hernia Surgery

I recently had a Hernia Surgery 2 weeks ago and found it to be a very painful experience. I went in the operating room with no fear (thinking the Vicodin would take care of me after the surgery). Sad to say, the Vicodin worked but not as effectively as I had imagined.

I went in on March 4th, 2009 at 8AM and came out by 11AM. I was feeling great thinking everything was fine 'n' dandy but as I got off the bed to change out of the hospital gown into my clothes I fell next to the bed. The anesthesia was still in my system and my left leg was numb (they forgot to mention this to me). After waiting an hour, I was able to change in to my clothes and leave the hospital. They had given me a pain pump which had a pipe going in to my skin near my abdominal area to provide numbing medicine in the incision area.

Came home got the rest I needed and later that evening I started taking my prescription pain reliever medicine, Vicodin. 10PM as I slowly walked to the bathroom like an ape with my hunched back and legs spread open I fell again. This was supposedly the anesthesia leaving my system and mixing Vicodin causing my blood pressure to drop dramatically. Lucky for me my sister is a nurse and was nearby to help and give me salt water and Gatorade to bring it back up a little. Then at 12AM, my second attempt to go to the bathroom ended up the same way with me laying beside the toilette wanting to vomit but no energy to do so and when something did come out, it was just water since I had not ate all day.

After that first day, the next four or five days were probably the most painful days of my life (thus far). Very painful to move or walk at all and sleeping was an obstacle of its own. Was only allowed to sleep on my back (couldn't turn even if I wanted to because of the pain). Vicodin would keep me constipated and drowsy and didn't feel like it was easing the pain until I stopped taking it and realized how bad the pain got without it.

After struggling the first few days, I was told by my Doctor's office I had to force myself to walk (even if it hurt) otherwise I would not heal fast. Keeping in mind that I am getting married on April 11th, 2009 I had to speed up this healing process. So I walked around the house back and forward after the few days as much as I could and the fifth day, it was time for me to remove my pain pump. I can't believe they expect a patient to do this himself at home. It was a five inch catheter (pipe/tube) that went inside me which I had to pull out on my own. As I mentioned earlier, lucky for me my sister was a nurse or I would be freaking out.

Pain felt worse after that was removed since there was no more numbing medicine being applied. After the first week had passed, I was able to walk more and became more tolerant to pain. It has been two weeks now and I'm feeling much better. I still have my sterry strips over the incision area and waiting for them to come off. They did not use any stitches to close the open area so I'm waiting to see what it will look like once these fall off (suppose to take two weeks so any day now).

So if you are ever have to get a Hernia Surgery then take my advice, WALK! Build that pain tolerance and walk as much as you can, it really does help heal faster.

Have you had a Hernia Surgery before? What was your experience like?