TMonk

Today I am on day 3 post-operation (hernia repair surgery). Feeling a lot better today, might be able to leave the oxy bottle unopened. Of course, the soreness develops throughout the day, but things are moving in the right direction. Maybe I'll go walking around the block twice today! (instead of once). That will be my training for the day.

procrit

Finished out the week with around 6 hours of cycling, an hour of run/walk, and an hour of motocross. A good break from the 12-15 hour week of road cycling.

There was another unfortunate death yesterday at a local track, a young rider hit a tree at high speed (why there are trees on the edge of the track is beyond me) during a race and died immediately. They were hanging out with one of my sons friends a week or two ago. This makes me question a lot of what we do on two wheels, whether that's cycling on the road with cars, MTB through rocks and trees at high speed, or motocross. None of these are perfectly "safe" and sometimes the worst happens. As my 6 yr old was ripping at 30+ mph yesterday with the adults, I was excited we can now ride together, but also fearful of what a future of high speed on two wheels (he also is really talented on a MTB) looks like as he gets older and significantly stronger and faster.

TMonk

yikes, sorry to hear that procrit. Stay safe out there and good luck for you and your boy's riding.

Enthalpic

What procedure did you end up getting?

TMonk

I had three. Both L and R inguinal were repaired with laparoscopy (TAPP). There is a small incision at the umbilical site.

Tried to ride the trainer for 15 min yesterday and it was uncomfortable. Gonna try again tomorrow morning, but I may just stick to walking until my post-op in 1 week. Walking feels good.

I'll ask for a referral to PT after the post-op and begin being more targeted and proactive with my recovery.

Enthalpic

I had the TAPP procedure done too, my recovery was pretty quick. I highly doubt you will need any formal PT - probably just a waste of money.

Glad you got it fixed and are doing well.

TMonk

Thanks! I'm one week post-op today and feeling much better. The incision site at the umbilical will for sure take the most recovery. I'll try another trainer spin tomorrow.

Enthalpic

Did you only get one incision? I had three. The umbilical one was by far the largest but he also made two other small incisions for tools. My lower right quadrant incision was surprisingly the slowest to finally heal (weeping).

TMonk

Ya the umbilical incision is the largest. There are smaller incisions on each side of my abdomen for the laparoscopic repair of both L and R inguinal ones. So it sounds like a similar situation as you perhaps.

Enthalpic

I had my right side repaired by a open procedure when I was young.

Do you know why we had congenital bilateral inguinal hernias? It's because our balls are so big! Hahaha. But seriously, both testis and ovaries begin in the abdominal cavity but the testis need to descend to the scrotum so the body makes openings for them to pass through. In our case the openings for the balls were so big they failed to close properly after the testis descended.

procrit

That's nuts.

procrit

Easing into the week with three trainer sessions in a row. Tomorrow is a rest day mostly because of work and kids sports, but plan on riding Fri-Sun. 6 1/2 weeks till the first race of the season... Time to start dialing up the intensity a bit.

TMonk

Rode the trainer for 20 min today. I am day 9 post op. Unlike last time, this time I did not feel strong discomfort. I was able to pedal in low z2 for the second half, and noticed that it felt better to downshift and ride at 90 rpm+. Good signs.

Gonna keep taking it easy and mostly walking for exercise till my post-op on Monday. But man at points my legs were rarin' to go and ready to shred. Must.... resist...

TMonk

My hernia post-op was moved up to yesterday. In short, things are going well with my recovery and I am cleared to start riding, sweet. Gonna start with the short Tour De Zwift stage later and build up from there a little each day. Jogging, weights, or other high impact exercise will need to wait another 4 weeks. I think I'll hold off on sprinting or really anything over z4 for that long as well.

When I've most frequently had time off, it's been from overuse injuries, mostly tendonitis in my knees or back. I can tell when I've overdone it in my return with more symptoms, and simply backed off a couple days. This is not something I want to overdo lol, so I will respect it with a slow return. With that baby at home, I'm not really racing outside of the county this year either so I'm not feeling as stressed about having elite level legs. I'll get there eventually.

TMonk

Also it's really only been 10 days off... and I was pretty good before that. Not sure where I'm at right now, nor am I going to find out any time in the next several weeks. We'll see.

TMonk

Set a PR on duration today post hernia surgery on 1/9, at 90 min. Spent latter half with B-bot (3.2) with no discomfort. Next week I will systematically turn up the knobs on volume and intensity (in separate rides).

I feel like I could ride a few hours outside and flatten every hill in my path with zone 5 watts, but I will resist. The surgeon’s PA told me there Is a 9% recurrence rate for hernias with my procedure (TAPP with mesh); I would like to be on the favorable end of that statistic.

himespau 

Going to have surgery next week to remove a recurrent lower leg bone tumor. Don't have a baseline as to how long I'm going to e out as the most recent time I had this done, I'd been hit by a car while riding a month prior and was still dealing with the aftereffects of that (and, due to legal issues, my PT for the car injury had to be kept completely separate from my recovery from the surgery). Hoping the surgery doesn't involve moving the muscle or grinding on the bone this time, which would mean that recovery is dependent on the incision closing. Unfortunately, this is right below my knee (and the incision will extend above it), so exercise that involves a lot of flexing of that area will require it to be good and closed. Hoping it doesn't keep me off the bike more than a month. This might finally the be the time I make good on all those promises to myself and start a weight (or at least core) training program. Not sure what to do about maintaining aerobic fitness without stressing the sutures around my knee.

TMonk

himespau I would say swimming, but I assume you can't have it submerged. Is a stationary hand cycle a thing? Otherwise, ya its kinda hard as I assume that even walking may need to be limited for a bit.

himespau 

Good call on the handcycle thing. I know they had one (or something similar for folks doing arm/shoulder rehab) at the PT place I went to for my back after getting hit, I'll have to see if the gym has one. Submerged is a no go for a while, otherwise I'd have to get back into swimming for sure.

One of the guys on my ZRL team is a certified personal trainer, and he often offers advice. I should ask him, but I hate asking for free advice from someone for something they get paid for (same as I don't like asking doctor friends for medical advice outside of the office). Just my little hangup.

TMonk

ya that is an awkward situation for sure. im the same way. sorta depends on how close I am w someone

Enthalpic

I was told much lower than that. He said about 1% risk for the anesthesia, 1% risk of surgical complication, and about 1% risk failure requiring a second procedure. I might have to do some journal searches myself....

"Let pain be your guide" was my instruction for return to sport. If it doesn't hurt too much you are probably good to go!

Enthalpic

I suspect they will want you moving in full ROM a lot sooner than you think.

Be well.

himespau 

Could be. My second surgery, he tried using the scar from the first surgery as an incision point and some of the skin was so thin that the sutures tore through and led to an open sore. This time he can't use the same site (too far away), so it'll be a new scar and will hopefully heal cleaner.

Enthalpic

A cut in healthy new skin will heal much better than a cut in old scar tissue. They cut into old scars for appearance sake but it is sub-optimal from a healing perspective.

During physio from my hand surgeries I realized a lot of what they were doing was just to make my hand pretty, not functional. After that realization I told them I only want to do things that make my hand more functional and I don't care about visible scars. Telling them that significantly changed the therapy. Apparently many people, mostly women, care more about the appearance of their hands than the functionality.

himespau 

Yeah, with long scars running from my high ankle to mid thigh and the lumps, depressions, and bulges that come from missing the top half of my fibula from the first time I had the tumor), pretty isn't even remotely a concern (or a possibility). The surgeon apologized that he couldn't go through the old scar, and I said that I wanted the best outcome (most likely to get all the tumor out and not have another recurrence) and faster healing and didn't care what it looked like.