A while back, I wrote an article about my experience with three different pains over the last several years. I was going to update it because of some new developments in my health situation, but I decided to just write a part two. If you haven’t read the other blog post, I called it Pain x3, so I’m calling this one Pain x4.
In the last post, I discussed 3 major pains I’ve suffered from in the last twenty-four years, with each one accelerating in intensity. Starting with terrible back pain from Deteriorating Disc Disease, to toothache pain, and a kidney stone. In my blog post, I said the stone was the worst pain I had ever felt. But, little did I know that the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life was not from that kidney stone as I thought.
I had never had a kidney stone before, so I really didn’t know what kind of pain they caused. All I knew was that other people were saying they were really painful. After about seven weeks, I passed a small stone, but the pain didn’t get any better. In fact, it was getting worse.
I was going to work every day, and doing my best to do a good job, but I was hurting constantly. Even though I was taking the two pain medications prescribed by my doctor, plus some over-the-counter pain medicine, the pain would never completely subside. In fact, on several different occasions, I was in so much pain I was actually bent over, and couldn’t straighten up completely.
Finally, the night before my next doctor’s appointment, I was in the shower and decided to push in on the knot in my lower abdomen, and it popped back inside. That was it. I was convinced it was a hernia. I had been telling the doctors I thought I had one, but I thought it was higher up, around my belt line. Sometimes it felt like butterflies in my stomach and I could feel, and sometimes hear a gurgling in the right side of my abdomen, and the pain was so bad. Then, I started to feel a knot in my front pelvic area. Sometimes it was there, and sometimes, it wasn’t. When I sat and relaxed it was inside, but when I was walking at work, or when I ate something, it would come out, and it would hurt pretty bad there and also in my stomach and abdomen. My doctor visits were always early mornings, after I had been resting, and hadn’t eaten anything for 12- 15 hours, so that’s why my doctor couldn’t find the problem.
One day, I finally convinced her to send me to the hospital for a CT scan. The diagnosis was an Inguinal Hernia. It was actually a Direct Inguinal Hernia. It was not in the Inguinal Canal, but in the connective tissue in my pelvic area; the white stuff that connects the muscle to the pelvic bone. I had to get it fixed. It was so painful, I could barely function anymore.
My doctor contacted a good surgeon she knew and made me a pre-op appointment. It took a few more weeks to actually get the surgery. By then, the pain was so bad that I was actually looking forward to the surgery, but I had no idea what kind of pain I would have to suffer through after the surgery. If I had, I don’t know what I would have done.
After the surgery, I was in so much pain I could barely function. They gave me some very strong pain medicine, but I was still in misery. Initially, the surgeon had said I should be able to go back to work in a week or so, on light duty. He said, Two weeks at the most. When the week was up, the incision was healing very well and I got the stitches out, but I was still in a lot of pain, I was very weak, and the swelling still had not gone down.
The pain in my abdomen was still there, and I was still getting sick almost every time I ate anything. It was a whole month before I was able to go back to work and I still had to be on light duty. I couldn’t pick up anything over ten pounds the first week, then it gradually increased each week.
I finally got over the surgery, but my stomach was still hurting and I was still getting sick almost every time I would eat anything. The pain would radiate all around my stomach from my abdomen up to my lower chest. It was still almost unbearable at times. I was more convinced than ever that I had a hernia in my right lower abdomen, but the doctor thought it was my gallbladder.
She sent me back to the hospital for an ultrasound, which found multiple stones. By then, I was in so much pain that I didn’t hesitate when she said it needed to come out. Again, the time it took to get the pre-op appointment, and the surgery took forever. It was almost another month.
I think it was two weeks after the gallbladder came out before I could go back to work, but guess what. I still had the same symptoms I had been having. It was going on for about a year and a half at that point, and I was getting worse. Somewhere around this time, I got COVID and was down for a while.
After I recovered from that, I asked my regular doctor to send me back for another scan and focus on the area where I thought the problem was. I was afraid it was colon cancer because my dad had that several years back. She didn’t find anything on the scans, so in my desperation, I made an appointment with the surgeon who had fixed my hernia. This time, I ate breakfast before I went to the appointment so I would be affected when the doctor saw me. He examined me and immediately said, “Yep, it’s a hernia. We need to get some fresh scans to see exactly what’s going on, then we can fix you up.”
Finally, after more than two years, I got some relief. I was back to work in 2 weeks, on light duty, of course, but I was feeling so much better very quickly. Praise the Lord. That was over two years of CRAZY!!!
So, in conclusion, I have suffered severe back pain, terrible pain from a toothache, gallstones, and a kidney stone. I have pain from deteriorating disc disease, a deteriorating hip, and Arthritis. I’ve had two bad car wrecks, and 5 surgeries, but none of those things have given me nearly as much pain as that hernia in the lower right part of my abdomen. That was some kind of pain and I hope, and pray that I never, ever have to suffer that kind of pain again.
I’m so thankful to God for giving me the strength to make it through those two years of terrible pain and frustration, and I’m so thankful for my wife, Linda, and for her prayers and patience, and all she had to do for me. I love her so much. She’s a true blessing from God.
So, whatever you’re going through, whatever you face, and whatever pain you have to suffer, just remember that “God is with you if you’re with him” (2 Chronicles 15:2). Stick with him, love him, praise him, and trust him. Things are not always good, and we will suffer at times, but God has promised to be with us in whatever we go through, and remember that the pain won’t be forever. So have faith, and hope. Never give up. Keep looking for the light at the end of the tunnel, and for Joy in the Morning.
———————————————–
My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com
© 2021 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved
My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6
