At my boys 2 month well visit today we found out the bulg in C's groin is a hernia which will require surgery. I am VERY worried about such a tiny baby being put under and having surgery at such a young age. Please share your experiences. DS was work 10 weeks premature and is only 39 weeks adjusted age. The pedi said it was common in preemies but i am so worried. thanks!

My daughter had double hernia surgery last summer. She was born 10 weeks premature, and at the time of the surgery was 5 months actual, 2 1/2 months adjusted. It was a very easy surgery - all the prep work we had to do the day before took longer than the surgery itself, which was about 30 minutes.

General anesthesia is always a risk, but your son will be hooked up to monitors to watch all of his vitals. Our hospital had a policy that babies younger than 6 months had to stay overnight for observation, to make sure that the anesthesia didn't cause apnea. My daughter was in the double "risk" category because she'd come home from the NICU on caffeine and a monitor (and had only been taken off the monitor two weeks before the surgery).

From what I remember, unless there is a risk of strangulation of the hernia, it can be put off, as it supposedly doesn't cause pain (I couldn't tell if my daughter was uncomfortable from it, she cried all the time anyway). You can always discuss it with your doctor, but since you'll likely always be worried about him going under, I'd go ahead and do it now, especially if they are going to keep him overnight for observation. If you wait longer, then it's just an outpatient surgery, and you'll probably freak out having him at home, wondering if something is going wrong because of the anesthesia.

Amy

Mom to Julia, ^Caitlin^ & Gabrielle



http://onealaskanmom.wordpress.com

One of my sons had hernia surgery too. He was still in the NICU when they found the hernia and I asked like 10 times about just doing it while he was there, but they didn't want to do it unless it was causing him pain. The surgeon recommended waiting until 50 weeks (mine were born at 26 weeks) because anything younger than that and kids were required to stay overnight. I was okay with that since we still had a home monitor but didn't find out until we checked in that he was required to stay anyway because he had come home on caffeine and a monitor. Anyway, I agree with Amy that it was nice to have the peace of mind of being at the hospital just in case.

The surgery was totally fine and Jack seemed to recover with no trouble. He was a little crabby at the hospital for a couple of hours but really it was no big deal. He also had a PDA ligation at 31 weeks, and that I was totally freaked out about because he was teeny tiny (less than 3 lbs). Again, that went fine.

You are right, it is so scary with these little ones. I felt much better after talking to the surgeons - for them these surgeries were another day of normal. I have also heard that hernias are very common in preemies. My pedi had said to fully expect that my other son would get one before he turned two, but we are past that now so I guess it is less likely. Good luck, and I hope your little boy does well with the surgery.

Allison

Mom to:
Madeline 09/2001
Jack, Evan & ^Alex^ 03/02/2008 @ 26 weeks

One of our boys is having double hernia surgery on the June 24th and will turn right around and have Spring Mediated Cranioplasty on the 25th (one of our other trio will also be having the same SMC surgery on Friday as well). The doctors tell us they will only be in the hospital til Saturday or Sunday and the hernia surgery will only last about 30 minutes.

Two of mine had hernia surgery on the same day when they were in the NICU. They were born at 30 weeks and had their surgery's when they were 7 1/2 weeks old or 37 1/2 weeks gestation. My little boy only had one hernia. He was on the vent for about an hour after surgery. He quickly came out of it and was eating within a couple of hours. My little girl had a double hernia surgery. Something happen to her from the time she left the operating room to the time she got into the NICU. She was breathing fine after the surgery and they pulled the thing for the vent but by the time they got to the NICU she was not breathing on her on. They had to give her meds so they could get the vent in. The meds made her sleep for a long time and she was on the vent for like 6 hours afterwards. After she woke up she was fine. My babiess had their surgies on a Wednesday and came home on that Saturday. They were both around 5 pounds when they had their surgery.