Abdominal wall hernias are a rather common problem for Americans, in fact more than a million hernia repair surgeries are performed each year. One of those surgeries was done on a Pierre farmer who is finally experiencing life with less pain.
For the past two decades, Doug Reiman had been living with the discomfort of an abdominal hernia.
“I was diagnosed with one when I went in for a physical, and that was 20 years ago, but it's one of those deals where you just let it go and let it go, because it wasn't bothering me. So that's where we ended up having basically an emergency instead of getting it taken care of,” said Reiman.
Being a farmer, Doug was trying his best to get through this past harvest and ignore his hernia pain, but it eventually became too great.
“They (hernias) don't ever go away. That's the question I get asked all the time is, can I wait till next week? And well, certainly you can, but you're going to be in pain. These aren't things that you take two Tylenol and things are better. That weakness in the muscle won't go away. The only way to do that is with surgery. The good news is we can fix it and we can get you in right away to do that,” said Brandt Becker, MD, general surgeon with Avera Medical Group Pierre.
Fixing a hernia means stitching up a tear or hole in the abdominal muscles where tissue or organs have started poking through. The description of the injury alone is uncomfortable and Doug's situation proved to be even more involved than originally thought.
“I didn't know I had as bad of hernias that I did. I ended up having four hernias and I only thought I had one,” said Reiman.
“In Doug's case, interestingly, he had a portion of his bladder actually going through the hernia, which is definitely a little more rare and a little bit more challenging for us to fix. It's one more thing we need to move back into the abdominal cavity and avoid when we're doing our work there and get everything put back in the right spot,” said Dr. Becker.
“I could tell right away that things were different,” said Reiman.
Doug admits he waited far too long to address his pain. But after surgery and rehabilitation, he's feeling better than he has in a long time and doing his best to make his health a continued priority.
“One of the biggest changes is I'm taking care of my personal health better. I ended up getting a personal doctor here in Pierre and going to make sure I get in for my yearly physicals and take care of myself,” said Reiman.
“Yeah, Doug was pretty beat up. We got him fixed back up and I think that's our big advantage here. We have all the resources that we need to, but we're small enough to get those lines of communication open, get people seen efficiently, get them the care they need and get them back on their feet and check it off their list,” said Dr. Becker.
It’s estimated that one in every four men will undergo a hernia repair in their lifetime. The causes will vary depending on the person, but if you are experiencing abdominal pain the best place to start is visiting with your primary care physician and diagnosing the issue.
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