[Albertadiver]

Well, I know this is nothing to do with the outdoors really, but i've seen weirder stuff on the General forum.

So here's a story....

Two weeks ago I woke up with some pretty bad abdominal pain. Thought at first it was gas or something and was going to tough it out and go to work. Thought, man this sucks. Cancelled my first meeting of the day, and then cancelled the next as I alternated from laying in bed and trying to go #2 thinking I was all backed up or something.

I think what might have contributed to this was that we did a 2 night backpacking trip a few days prior, and I found it far more strenuous than past trips, mostly due to me not being in the best of shape I would have liked to have been. I felt like garbage most of the trip. Trust me, lots of shame in that regard, but I have been working on it and down 15lbs so far.

Now, I don't go to doctors. Case in point, my wife finally convinced me to get a checkup and physical after about 6 or 7 years, so I go into the Doctor's office to make an appointment and was told that my doctor passed away 3 years ago. (tests turned out fine once I got a new doctor)

5hrs later, nope, still pain and I had to hold my stomach when walking around to alleviate the pain. My wife made me call health link. Described everything and the nurse said to go to a walk in clinic. Pain was bad enough I called my wife to take me in.

Turns out my new doctor happened to be on call, so I get in after about 25 minutes of excruciating pain sitting up in a chair. (the bumpy ride over in the car wasn't much better) Doc gets me up on the bench thingy and has me lay down. Takes one look at my stomach and says, um, I'll be right back, I'm just going to call an ambulance.

So that kinda freaks me out. Never been in an ambulance before. Doc figures I have a Hernia, and he's worried its strangulated. (intestines push through stomach wall lining and circulation gets cut off which can be big big trouble).

Medics come, put me on a stretcher, and before they leave the doctors office for the hospital they put in an IV. Give me some gravol, and then a shot of Morphine.

Well, let me tell you, that morphine hit me like a ton of bricks. Wow. Anxiety gone, and was calm, and pain was greatly reduced. When I had initially got into the ambulance my legs were shaking like crazy. Paramedic said that was from adrenaline. Never had morphine before, but now can understand why that stuff absolutely needs to be highly regulated.

Get to foothills and they put me in a hallway between two bad guys being guarded by 4 police officers. One was bit by the canine and raving about brutality, and the other looked like he'd been helped to the floor quite nicely. Anyhow, in my state I just found the whole thing amusing and kept giving the thumbs up to the cops.

After my third dose of morphine, a doctor comes by and starts massaging my stomach, which REALLY hurt, even with the morphine, and basically pushed my guts back inside and it was instant relief. I could walk the hallway no problem, and the cancelled the CT scan they were going to send me in for. The medical term for what I had was an incarcerated umbilical hernia.

If you want to see some really gross pictures throw that on google!

As messed up as AHS is, I have to say the medics were absolutely fantastic dealing with a big wussy like myself. The emergency doctor was very thorough in explaining things even in my altered state. From the time I got in the ambulance to the time I was walking out of the hospital was probably less than an hour and a half and emergency was so busy they treated me in a hallway!

Because I'm not an emergency issue now, the treatment is going to take a while to get a consult and then ultimately a procedure.

For those that have had this issue (apparently pretty common in men) I know there's the arthroscopic surgery, or a regular incision. Also they put a mesh in to reinforce the hernia. In my research, I've heard so many different opinions and would appreciate some first hand comments.

Currently I'm wearing a hernia belt to help when at work or out and about. Don't wear at home. I'm pretty gun shy now though and won't do anything too strenuous, although I am going to try a bit of golf tomorrow with the belt on.

Any do's or don'ts? How was treatment for those that elected to have a procedure? Any just gut it out and deal with it if you have a hernia 'attack?'

I'm hoping hunting season isn't a total write-off as we mostly go where it's foot access only.....