More from the gift that keeps on giving:

General anesthesia requires a tube inserted into the lungs. Since he can�t open his mouth wide enough (despite the lack of teeth), Tim had spinal anesthesia for his hernia surgery. Otherwise a trach would have been needed. A nugget of info in case he ever needs major surgery. So far he�s had two surgeries in his life, the 11 hour one rebuilding the jaw with the leg bone and the hernia one.

He was back to walking the 2 miles each way to the lab (�The doctor said walking was ok, just no lifting.�) in two days. Little pain at all except, what really, really, really hurts is coughing. Which he does often or else he�d choke on his spit. At least he still has a sense of humor about it all.

The first hernia was diagnosed while he was in the hospital for the jaw surgery over a year ago. Unfortunately, the coughing over the last year may have been the reason that the other side needs done, too!

Hi Susan,

I'm sorry Tim is going through hernia surgery recovery. J had hernia surgery and it took a quite some time before the pain was gone. Coughing and laughing were tough for awhile. He wasn't even an OC survivor, so it must be particularly rough on Tim and you.

One thing that helped was having a pillow to brace against his lower abdomen when he had to cough. He could push down hard on his abdomen through the pillow, have the pressure distributed somewhat evenly, and prevent a good portion of abdominal movement caused by coughing. When my dad had surgery for an aortic aneurism which involved a very long incision, the pillow trick helped him get through coughing during his recovery as well.

It takes some time for the pain to subside. It might still hurt somewhat even after it doesn't hurt to cough anymore. That part goes away pretty quickly, which is good.

Good luck to you and Tim and best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Sandy