another question for the doctors: when you make us "cough"...
 

what are you feeling for? i know you are looking for hernias..but what is the "feel" of the test. i just got back from some job mandated physical..and i was tested differently. i was laying back and the doc pressed down, while i coughed.

you feeling for some vibration?

Hernias, baby!

JR

I'm not a doctor, I'm guessing that if your sack inflates like a helium balloon when you cough, that's an indication that there's a problem.

Fortunately, they don't pair the hernia test with a prostate test. One at a time is more than adequate violation for any particular instant.

I hate it when my dentist does that to me.

kind of like when the doctor stands behind you during the prostate exam, with both hands on your shoulders

My dentist is female. :D


Small hands, quite nimble. Yep.

No, to put it plainly they are looking for a wad of your intestines to pop out of a hole in your abdominal muscle wall. Kind of like one of those smack-the-gopher games.

You'll know if you get one...

JR

so, finger next to my package, they feel for my intestines? weird.

I think before us guys are born our dangly bits are in our abdomen and they descend through little slits inside us, sometimes the guts can come out there as well. My middle son had a hernia as a baby and that is kind of how it was explained to me.

Added benefit of making your johnson look HUGE;):eek:

Basically we are feeling for a bulge coming out of your inguinal canal.

I'm just an internist but as I recall from med school, your little man nuggets originated in your abdomen. They then descended into your scrotum through a little tunnel called the inguinal canal. It closes up mostly after your testicles go through but it is still a bit of a weak area and hernias tend to occur there when abdominal pressure increases (like when Normy flexes his pecs at the beach).

So, we put our finger into the exit of the inguinal canal and ask you to cough (increasing your intra-abdominal pressure). If we feel a bulge of tissue then you might have an inguinal hernia.

By far the most common hernias (up to 75% of all abdominal hernias) are the so-called inguinal hernias.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...inalhernia.gif

(cite:wiki)

I get it now. thanks!

Would much rather feel girls in that area...

^no doubt!

while we're shamelessly stooping to free medical hernia questions from our doctor friends, I have a hernia at my belly button, making my innie an outie. Also told it's no big deal unless it gets bigger. Sound about right?

My advice would be to go ahead and get it fixed. I lived with an inguinal hernia for a long time that got progressively worse and I wouldn't wait again, like I did the first time. Yours is different but why push your luck? I pushed mine a couple times and you don't really want the details.

JR

For a couple years my doc had a female PA who gave most of the annual physical exam. On the plus side she was cute and had slim fingers. On the downside, she was cute and...

Yes, that is correct.

Hernia repair is generally only done when the hernia is painful or troublesome in some way. There is no reason to expose you to the risk of a general anesthesia surgery for a small umbilical hernia that is not bothering you.

The best surgery is the one you don't get. I tell people that all the time.

Reminds me of the story about the very sucessful, very popular gynecologist. 6 month waiting list to get in to see him.
Evidently he was in his 70's and had parkinson's ;)

That's just wrong.