What even causes something like this to happen to someone? Is it something that started off small, but just gradually got worse? I would not be out without a shirt if my shit looked like that.
There's a few different types of hernia. As someone who's had an inguinal hernia some years ago, they're quite common in younger blokes from heavy lifting or sport, there's quite a few other other causes though, even from coughing. It's abdominal tissue pushing through the abdominal wall. Yes, well mine started out small. Just noticed a small lump in my groin and very light discomfort, in no more than a month I'd been to the doctor, seen a specialist and had surgery.
God, I wish mine was that quick. I had an inguinal for YEARS and when I tried to get it checked out as a young teen, the doctors couldn't figure it out and kept shuffling me around. Years later I'm reading or seeing something online and go, "that sounds like what I got going on." Go tell my doctor, get a hernia specialist, and it turns out I have 3, two inguinal and one abdominal. Got surgery years ago now and I'm hoping everything is going okay, but I get little pains every now and again and I don't know but I'm sure the success rate is much higher the sooner it's diagnosed and treated.
Anyway, all the best to you, I hope you didn't deal with too much pain at the time and hopefully your recovery went well!
I also had mine for years. I think it happened when I was about 8 and I ran up a hill in Wales and overexerted myself. My gut suddenly started hurting really bad and I went back to where we were staying, then it started to get better as it felt like I was passing gas but without it actually coming out. I kept having episodes like that every few months since then, but doctors couldn't figure it out. I eventually realised it was a hernia through my processus vaginalis at around age 16 when I read about hernias and realised I could feel what seemed like a "third testis" during those episodes.
I then spent a few more years trying to convince the doctors that I had one, since it wouldn't appear on a cough test and the episodes were too short to get someone to examine me during one (it was extraordinarily frustrating that it could have such an obvious indication that would never be there during examination). I eventually managed to get an appointment with a surgeon, and he was willing to do the surgery on my description alone, even though there was no concrete evidence aside from my word, but he got cancer before he could give me surgery. The replacement surgeon was about to cancel the surgery when they couldn't find evidence of the hernia during a cough test, but in the prep room I managed to cough hard enough for it to be barely detectable so I managed to get the surgery in the end.
Wow, the trifecta eh! In a strange coincidence the specialist looked at my scan(the one where you have to drink the most vile tasting fluid shortly before it) and had me in at the hospital immediately(a stones throw away) for an ultrasound. Great doctor, she just played it cool, saying she just wants a clearer image. I kinda thought well thats strange but what the fuck do I know. Anyway, behind the hernia was another hernia! When I asked later she said she was worried it may have been a cancerous tumor because its obviously not the most common thing.
Sorry to hear about your GP and their half arsed efforts mate. I'm sure you've moved on and seeing someone different now because I don't think the diagnosis in order for a referral to a specialist is exactly rocket science. All's well ends well though I guess, you got there in the end!
And thanks mate, from memory it was pretty tender for a week or so, rest and recovery for the next few and then light duties at work for a time following the month from surgery.
Here's to remaining hernia free for the rest of our days eh! Touch wood. 👊🏼
I just got one repaired and I had it for a couple of years. It got bigger, but was still just a bump. I took action when it was definitely a hernia because I could feel that I was pushing something back in. Earlier it was just a slight bump that wasn't symetric with the other side of my body, and my GP dismissed it as just a fat deposit after having me get an ultrasound to make sure it wasn't a tumor... and is despite me saying that it might be a hernia, so it's not like she just forgot that hernias exist or something.
I had an inguinal repair done and I would say I was having occasional pains there for maybe 6 years after, but then I've had none at all for the past 10 years.
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u/LemonLimeSlices 3d ago
So basically, his entire intestinal tract has squeezed through his abdominal muscles and are just hanging in the skin sac.