Inguinal hernia rehab

Hi everyone! Ive only been climbing for a year now.   prior to being diagnosed with an inguinal hernia I was bouldering around V 5-6.

 At the time I was trying to focus heavily on technique, fingerboard and total body strengthening routines. However, after a pull-up leg lift session using a 10lb medicine ball I heard a few pops in my lower left ab/hip area. 

Moving forward, today I am entering my 4th week post laparoscopic/DaVinci surgery. My surgeon cleared me for cardio at the 2nd week and said at the 6th week I could start light core routines.  

It's killing me to be walking and using the stair master at my gym and watching everyone send.. 

Anyone have any good suggestions on getting back into climbing? I have been looking at the Hömich routine. Also, anyone still have like a tenderness/sensitive feeling on their left nut at 4 weeks out? How long did that last?

my advice is don’t rush. let it heal slow. cool your overstoke fomo.

from another post of the same topic: “I had the surgery and a mesh shield installed. Fortunately the surgery went well and it doesn't bother me anymore. 100% fine now. Recovery was kind of grim for a week or two. After surgery I had trouble waking up my ability to go pee. That Lasted several days to a week. That was the worst of it. But it eventually sorted itself out. The full healing process takes a couple of months and I recommend following exactly what the doctors order. Don't climb. Don't lift anything remotely heavy. Let it heal. Then come back slow. You don't want to re-injure that area.”

Be patient.  You don't want to tear them stiches apart.  Take you're time, work on your fitness.  You'll get back soon enough.  Or else you could screw yourself up and be out longer.

For what it's worth, I heard that laparoscopic/DaVinci surgery can take longer to recover from. I had open surgery for my inguinal hernia specifically because of this advice (my surgeon in SF strongly recommended it if I wanted to get back to being active more quickly). I don't know if this is actually true or if my doc just preferred doing open surgeries but I have met someone who had complications with laparoscopic during crossfit. So as others have said, just chill for a bit and learn to play the ukulele which is what I tried to do. 

Thanks for your input guys, I really appreciate you! 

Update: post op week 6

I am progressively feeling better, I attribute this to eating healthy foods and hella sleep. I still feel a slight sensation where the inguinal mesh was placed but that and the nerve pain going to the left testy boi is gradually fading away. I've began to jog at a nearby artificially turfed soccer field. The cushy turf is more forgiving on the side then the old chalk covered treadmill. Cheers guys! see you at the crag soon!! :) 

BFK wrote:

For what it's worth, I heard that laparoscopic/DaVinci surgery can take longer to recover from. I had open surgery for my inguinal hernia specifically because of this advice (my surgeon in SF strongly recommended it if I wanted to get back to being active more quickly). I don't know if this is actually true or if my doc just preferred doing open surgeries but I have met someone who had complications with laparoscopic during crossfit. So as others have said, just chill for a bit and learn to play the ukulele which is what I tried to do. 

For this reason I got open almost 30 years ago when I had mine done. No issues so far. My doctor told me it heals 10% a week so by 10 weeks it's as strong as it will be. He also told me *wink* *wink* that he doubted I could tear it if I tried and he's had laborers get the surgery Friday and are back on the job Monday. 

I wanted to follow up on this thread and see how the OP healed up.  I just got an epigastric hernia repaired a couple of days ago.  Never realized that my poochy upper gut was due more to the hernia than age and slow metabolism.  Recovery plan says no exercise or lifting anything heavier than 5 lbs. for a month.  Going to be a slow month but was curious how others progressed after the most severe restrictions were lifted.  I had my knee rebuilt twice in my early 20s and so learned early about the virtues of patience and steady progress.  Still, I’d love to hear how others found their way back.  

I had a laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair in mid October 2023.  Lots of walking and light stretching exercises for the first  6 weeks. I had feelings of stretching and pulling in that area from weeks 6-10,  but could climb and ski around the feelings.  Turn the page to January, and I’m back full strength for climbing and backcountry skiing.  I hang board regularly and have been lifting light weights.  Writing this post,  I don’t get any feelings from the surgery area anymore and short of a couple tiny scars, wouldn’t have known I got surgery 4ish months ago.  Good luck with recovery - do what your body tells you to,  the hardest part for me was to stay chill and not bite off more than I could chew.

on a side note,  I’d say a high percentage of my pain feelings post surgery was from the incision sites healing and not the actual hernia site healing. 

Had open inguinal hernia repair about 10 months ago (had to do open due to scar tissue from previous laparoscopic surgery). Painful first couple of weeks. Incision will heal first , but it takes more time for the tissue to fully grow into the mesh, so patience is key.  Stick strictly to the weight limit they give your for those first 4 weeks or so. Surgeon said fully healed (including mesh ingrowth) in 10-12 weeks.  No issues since. 

Thank you both.  I’ve already gotten the sense from my first week that one’s core is really compromised while it heals, which is a good reminder to take it easy.  On the upside, my wife and kids have been very helpful handling those menial tasks they’d ordinarily be happy to ignore.  I can be patient for 10 weeks, especially knowing that others have had good success with their outcomes.