Let me start off by stating that this recovery from the surgery is fucking gay. I literally cannot do anything but watch tv, sleep, and barely play my Wii. On top of that, of those movies that I can watch, I cannot watch anything that remotely makes me laugh because I get severe sharp pains where the incision is. Thus making me a friggin downer right now which is driving me insane...

Anyways, for those of you who have had this surgery, how long did your pain last? I'm on day 3 and can still barely walk. I was told that swelling in the scrotum is also no uncommon so my other question is how long does that last. Thanks in advance.

your lucky day man!
my chief attending doctor wrote the book on hernia surgery! Robert J. Fitzgibbons jr.

if you press (or just touch) on the incision site do you get the same sharp pain?
Did they use a Mesh implant to fix the defect?
was the incision closed with staples or absorbable suture?

most of the time when i do them the pain dosent last very long. i use a fair amount of local anaesthetic, and sometimes use a system that keeps flowing local around the site for a few days.

unless you had a fairly complex hernia where there was bowel or large amounts of omentum that went in your hernia, the scrotal swelling should be minimal.
redness and swelling around the incision is not uncommon and is natural. however if the redness spreads or you see oozing then you might have an infection and shuld get it looked at. i commonly see my patients about a week after just to check the site and ask about pain.
you should have gotten some sweet pain meds?

id give it atleast a week, if there is still large amounts of pain after that then id go back and tell him somthings wrong.

hope this helps

I had the surgery also, and yes... It sucks beyond belief. The pain may take a while to subside depending on the way they closed the canal/tear and how large it was. Mine got pretty bad and the incision was about 4-5" long. It took me a good 2 weeks before I could walk more than 200 yards at a given time. It was another 2 months before I was back to 100%. Don't push it tho, let it happen naturally. Since then I've had 2 more surgeries due to complications. A major issue, especially if the hernia fell down there, is swelling of the testicle and long term water retention. Hopefully it doesn't hydrocele, they can usually just aspirate the fluid and if that doesn't work they might have to perform a hydrocelectomy and place a drain in. I can tell you the second option is 10x's more painful than the actual hernia surgery, mainly because of the drain. Just keep it iced as much as u can tolerate and stay inactive. I know it sucks, but trust me, it's worth it. It's been 3 years since my surgery and it changed my life. It was truly the most painful thing I ever experienced. I was taking 8-10 percocets a day and it was just barely masking the pain. Just keep ur spirits high and know that you can go back to doing everything you did before ur injury. I lift a lot of weights and haven't had a problem, sometimes it's sore when I do abs, but otherwise it's good. Reminds me, take it easy on ur abs for quite some time.. and work them back slowly. it's really like starting from scratch on the lower ones.

thanks guys...
to answer some of foggys Questions:
if you press (or just touch) on the incision site do you get the same sharp pain?
I don't have pain on the incision when I press on it. The sharp pain really only affects me when I rotate my torso when I'm laying down and when I laugh. Damn you Demitri Martin!

Did they use a Mesh implant to fix the defect?
Yea, my surgery was a non-laparoscopic one so I go the ever-so-popular 4 inch incision and whatnot. It's being held together by surgical tape.

was the incision closed with staples or absorbable suture?
I believe he used stitches that dissolve.

There's no oozing or bleeding near the incision and I don't have a fever so I take it that I'm doing well. As for pain meds, I just have Vicodin which is alright I guess.

Anyways, it's nice hearing other people's experiences. I'm very active with the gym and snowboarding and I'm starting to realize that I won't be 100% for a while. Sad times but it had to be fixed...

I had one a couple of years ago. The pain can't be THAT bad. You should have a coughing pillow to hold against the area with the incision and apply pressure when you need to cough, sneeze or laugh. Your pain should start to go away slowly. Unfortunately, when I say slowly, I mean it. You'll be able to walk and all of that, but occasionally when the muscles in your abdominal wall contract, you'll feel a bit of a sharp pain. Nothing major, just a little bit of discomfort. That lasted for maybe 6 months(That could be exaggerating, but I remember it lasted awhile atleast 2-3.)

Don't complain about the rest you're getting. This part is the life! Soak it in, bask in it. Enjoy the helplessness while you have it!(not to mention the meds) ;).

One good thing that came out of the surgery is 1 the repair, so you can make up some stupid stories for the ladies, like you took a bullet for someone, and it got lodged in you there, when they don't believe you, let them feel the "plug". if they ask about the scar from the incision, just say they were going to get the bullet out but found out it had struck a major artery and removing it could cause you to bleed to death. They won't know the diff. :p But on top of that, if you work out, when you do so, if you do it wrong you'll feel pain in that area, before any other, so you'll know to stop. It's sort of a nice warning.

Alright i'm done. Get well soon.

P.S. I don't remember my sack swelling. Sorry.

jeez. Sorry about your scrote, dude.