Epigastric hernia - anyone else ever had one?

Just found out I have an epigastric hernia. Basically I have a weak spot in my abdominal muscle right next to my belly button and my intestines are poking through it. The doctor says they don't automatically recommend surgery as some people choose to live with the hernia or take a "wait and see" approach, but now that I am almost a year out from my VSG, I depend a lot on exercise to keep my weight loss progressing and I can't see continuing my work-outs with a hernia.

Anyhoo - for those of you who have had a hernia surgically repaired before, I was curious how long it took you to recover. Was the repair done laproscopically? How long before you could lift things normally or exercise? They haven't even scheduled my surgery consult yet so I have no idea what to expect.

 I believe this is what I have and I'm an avid runner and love a good Jillian Michaels workout so I'm right there with you.  I'm a RNY'er but I'll keep you updated.  We're new here to WI so I get to see my doctor in a few weeks to hear what she has to say.

Hi Carol,

I actually had my hernia repaired in August 2011, almost exactly a year ago. It turns out I had THREE hernias, and the surgeon said they were probably incisional hernias resulting from the VSG. The operation was VERY painful. It was supposed to be outpatient but I ended up being admitted overnight because I couldn't take a full breath afterwards and my O2 sats kept dropping. The pain was much worse than my VSG surgery. The surgeon told me the piece of mesh he put in me about about the size of a lunch plate.

About a month out, I had a lot of pain in one spot when exercising. The surgeon figured it was a spot of internal scar tissue from the mesh healing. It went away over time, and now a year later I'm fine.

I'm actually going to be in the Milwaukee area August 18th for the Dirty Girl 5K race/obstacle course! If someone told me 2 years ago that I would be doing something like the Dirty Girl, I would have fainted LOL.