Waiting to go into surgery
On November 1, 2023 I had surgery to correct a damaged umbilical hernia. It was very much needed, mostly due to how it has affected my appetite and the pain I experienced, which both had been getting worse over the last several years.
The Details
More than 10 years ago, I started to develop an “outie” which ended up protruding more and more each year until about 4 years ago, it started to affect my appetite, to where I could not finish most meals in a single setting – regardless of how small or big the meal was. I got tired of always having leftovers.
I was hesitant to get the surgery due to many reasons. One, it had been almost 38 years since my last surgery in January 1986 (fix a deviated septum). But it was getting to the point to where the pain and discomfort on my belly button area when cleaning it and doing any type of exercise kept increasing.
So I made an appointment with the surgeon and during the examination, she could tell this was not cosmetic, even though that part would be corrected. We got things scheduled, worked with the insurance company bullshit – which ended up not being too bad and I got over my anxiety of the after effects of surgery. One after effect is that previous surgeries, I get so sick from the general anesthesia.
The day of surgery, I had some anxiety. The wait in the prep area ended up being almost 4 hours longer due to an unforeseen emergency on the surgeons’ schedule. In the end, I didn’t get sick from the general anesthesia and healing is going well. The initial healing is 6 weeks, where I can’t lift anything heavier than 10 pounds. Full recovery and healing is 4-6 months.
As time goes on, I am hoping my appetite will return. And the pain will be gone.
TikTok
If you want to see a couple of before and after pictures, check out the TikTok video I made.
Surgery Recovery
– no TikTok account needed to watch the video