Got a hernia at work... anyone have any experience skiing with one?

[Rodbelan]

Geez... inguinal hernia! Ok. Sorry about that. Thanks Woods...

[joeatomictoad]

...he said running and most exercises are fine, if running is fine I imagine XC would be.

It might be argued that XC skiing is lower impact to the body core compared to running. With XC each stride / leg lift is aided by the leaf spring force of the camber of the ski. I am no professional for sports medicine, but this just seems to be true in my simple monkey brain.

UNRELATED...I read that heavy coughing fits can aggravate a hernia. That sounds awful. Sorry to hear about your injury. Don't power through discomfort during the healing process, and listen to your body. Good luck.

“If you are not your own doctor, you are a fool.”
— Hippocrates

[Shintangle]

So, I realized today that I'm now 3 weeks out from my surgery.
I was skiing x-c up to the day before without much trouble. The first week after the surgery was pretty sore. I walked for a half hour a few times a day. By week 2 I was mainly pain free and was back on the x-c skis and experimenting with some easy tele turns. Very little snow here and ski hills are closed so no real tele skiing but now I'm doing some easy backcountry tours with short downhill tele runs.
I feel at this point I would be fine for a full day of lift area skiing if it was available. The Dr. said wait 3-4 weeks before any skiing but also that anything I did would not cause any damage to the hernia repair.
Good luck any hernia sufferers out there and remember YMMV.

[Cannatonic]

IMO put the skis away until surgery and recovery....lock them up if necessary! Many doctors are egotistical idiots, especially surgeons, and will not tell you to stop doing sports. Hernia will get worse (larger) with more exertion. The larger it is, the bigger the piece of mesh they'll have to use to fix it. Which means more pain, possibly permanent damage to you.

One of my best friends just went through this a few months ago. You won't be good to ski after the surgery for months either...surgeons are basically like a car salesman, they usually don't bother to even track outcomes among their clients (patients). My friend only felt ready to return to start shoveling snow and returning to his job after about 3 months following surgery.

You want to make any surgery the least invasive/traumatic as you possibly can. Hernia surgery can fail and you'll need it again. Did you know inguinal hernia can quickly become fatal? I would read up on it. Your guts basically leak out the crack, get twisted, and you die. Things usually go well right up until you find yourself in the intensive care unit, the surgeon doesn't care if you end up there, he just wants to get paid.

[Telecat]

Lol I definitely have the issue of feeling 24 and invincible!

I havent had any issues so far, but then again my hernia is still quite small. Though its definitely been getting larger especially with the intense exertion from the recent powder days.

The surgeon didn't seem at all concerned about my skiing, he said listen to your body and be careful.

Especially once I got my ski legs back and got back in tip-top ski shape, I can ski 4 or 5 hours before I feel any pain, and then after that its pretty mild. Also those alpine turns for some reason make it flare up way more than tele turns (and I do both, because I can!)

The surgeon said its a really low chance of becoming an emergency. And so I've decided (maybe via my 24 year old arrogance) that ill take my chances for a great ski season

Im currently planning on getting surgery at the end of april

[Woodserson]

how was your VT trip?

[Telecat]

Oh it was awesome! I'll post an update on it today, ive had a really chaotic few weeks