Surgery

I have a small but bothersome umbilical hernia I am going to have fixed in mid-October. Based on Internet research, it sounded like I could get back to normal activities (for me that includes training) in a couple of weeks. But the surgeon yesterday said no heavy lifting or activities for 4 to 6 weeks.

I had also read  you could go back to work in 2 to 3 days. Surgeon says minimum of 5 days off work, with 2-3 days of "significant pain." Those were his exact words. This was in response to Drake asking a question, so maybe he was just trying to impress upon him the fact that I will be uncomfortable and will need a little TLC. Anyway, this is sounding a little more involved that I had first envisioned.

I pressed the doc (who is a very nice and otherwise did a great job explaining the procedure) about what I might be able to do in that 4 to 6 week period - I mean, it's not like I pass some magic threshold at 4 weeks - I'd like to gradually ramp my activity level up. Here he was a bit flummoxed I think at the specificity of my questions. I get no weight lifting, but what about some light jogging? When might I start that?  Swimming? Cycling (here he had no idea because he "doesn't ride a bike").

He suggested my coach might know, which I seriously doubted (after all, she's a coach not a surgeon), but actually she did know quite a bit about it because her husband had the procedure a few years ago (she's also a physical therapist, so I am sure that helps). Anyway, her husband started right away with walking, then was soon able to do light jogging. For cycling, I should be fine with some easy spinning.  Swimming (I'll need to wait until the wound heals) she suggested started out using a pull buoy to isolate upper body work.

Believe me I don't want to risk the results of the surgery, but it also just seems logical to keep active within safe constraints.

Also, please note I decided to skip a related image for this post :-)