Donna

[Guest guest]

I missed your original post so I don't know what procedure you are having. If

you have a hiatal hernia, which is at the base of the esophagus (I think), most

times they won't have to do anything for it surgically. A hiatal hernia can

cause acid reflux, which can be pretty miserable, but normally responds well to

medication and diet modifications. Nexium, prilosec, prevacid are just a few of

the medicines which work wonders for acid reflux. Also, avoiding caffiene,

alcohol, and cigarettes will help, too. If you have any other type of hernia,

the only thing to be done is surgery. The hernia will continue to get larger

until it is repaired surgically. The smaller the hernia, the easier the surgery

(if you can consider any surgery easy). I have had two hernia surgeries. the

first was in Dec 02 for one large incisional hernia (as a result of having my

left ovary and a large cyst removed in Feb 01) and also a small inguinal hernia

in the same area that we didn't even know I had. The hernia repair in Dec was

laparascopic and I had about 4 or 5 tiny incisions. It was an incredibly

painful surgery and took a full 6 to 8 weeks to recover. In regard to the level

of pain, recovery time, and the limit on my ability to stand for any length of

time, it was comparable to my abdominal hysterectomy (which included an 8-10

inch incision from hip to hip) that I had in 1993. However, the surgery was

absolutely necessary as it was to the point that I had to push the hernia back

in to have a BM or even urinate and it was getting worse by the day. It was a

large fist sized bulge in my lower left abdomen. My more recent hernia was a

small incisional hernia above my naval. It was done open, but since the hernia

was small, the incision was only about 2 inches or so. The first two days the

pain was much more severe than I anticipated, but after that, it hasn't been

bad.

As for pain medicine, I would think that taking vicodin on a regular basis would

not be a good idea with you having hepatitis B. I was diagnosed with autoimmune

hepatitis in Jan 03 and as soon as my pain doc found out about the liver

disease, he told me to quit taking the Lortab that I had been taking. He

changed my pain med to oxycodone. I was hesitant about oxycodone until I talked

to the pharmacist and he told me that oxycodone and oxycontin are very good and

safe pain meds unless abused. He said there are not many oral pain meds that do

not have tylenol so with liver disease, the choices are very limited. I now

take MS Contin (sustained release morphine) 30 mg twice a day and oxycodone

(immediate release - not sustained release like the oxycontin) 5 mg up to 4

times a day as needed for breakthrough pain.

My GI doc has said that occasional tylenol is okay with liver disease but taking

tylenol on a regular basis is not a good idea.

Take care,

W