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How To Use Lava Heating Pad When Recovering From Hernia Surgery

by Bill Lantz

There are situations where you need both a hot and cold remedy to whatever aches you.

Recovering from surgery is one of those situations.

To use a lava sand heating pad to help in the recovery after surgery, you need to apply the cold lava sand heating pad for the first week or two after surgery and then after that apply a hot lava sand heating pad.

Read on to find out why this is the best way to treat recovering from hernia surgery.

What is a hernia?

First, it is important to know what a hernia is so that you may know better why you have to treat it after surgery.

According to WebMD.com:

"A hernia occurs when an organ or fatty tissue squeezes through a weak spot in a surrounding muscle or connective tissue called fascia. The most common types of hernia are inguinal (inner groin), incisional (resulting from an incision), femoral (outer groin), umbilical (belly button), and hiatal (upper stomach)."

https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/understanding-hernia-basics

There are many different types of hernia's that are caused by many different types of activities.

These types of hernia's include the following:

  • Inguinal - part of the bladder or intestines protrude through the inguinal canal in the groin.  There is a natural weakness in this area, so most hernia's occur in this area and mostly in mean.
  • Incisional - the intestines push through a previous incision from abdominal surgery.  This is mostly due to people who have abdominal surgery and then are inactive and don't move around very much.
  • Femoral - the intestines enters the the canal carrying the femoral artery into the upper thigh.  These are most common in women and even more common when they are overweight or pregnant.
  • Umbilical - the intestines passes through the abdominal wall near the belly button.  This is most common in little children and babies.

There are multiple ways that these hernia's can be caused.

Back to WebMD:

"Anything that causes an increase in pressure in the abdomen can cause a hernia, including:

I recently recovered from inguinal hernia surgery and there are a few occurrences that could have caused the inguinal hernia.

Back in June, both my wife and I came down with the coronavirus.

We both spent 10 days in our bed coughing and going to the bathroom.

That could have been one reason for me getting a hernia.

There was also a few months later when I helped a friend with a demolition project.

During the project, there was a lot of lifting of heavy objects and moving around large blocks of cement.

And lastly, there was our pregnant julianne pig getting out of our yard.

I didn't do proper research and know that pigs will come back to their feeding place.

So instead of enticing the pig back with food, we chased it around until we were finally able to capture in.

After that, I carried it back to our yard and it hard to weigh at least 150 lbs, since it was pregnant at the time.

Any one of these could have been the cause of the inguinal hernia.

The surgeon claims that it was most likely the 10 days of coughing with covid.

But the whole point of my bringing up my situation is to bring up the fact that it could be any number of things that can cause your hernia.

And in my case I didn't even know it was there, but by the time I got it checked out, it was a pretty big hernia.

Surgery recovery

Now, what type of surgery you have will tell you how long the recovery time is.

If you have laparoscopic surgery, the complete recovery time should be 6 weeks to 2 months.

If you have open surgery, the recovery time could be up to 6 months.

Most surgeons are probably going to recommend laparoscopic surgery.

During the laparoscopic surgery procedure, they are going to make 3 incisions in your upper abdomen and then another in your belly button.

Then they will insert a balloon into your abdomen and expand your belly to get a better view of the hernia.

From there, they use robotics to fix the hernia and possibly place mesh over the hernia spot, again depending on the type of hernia you have.

The expanding of your abdomen in the major reason why you need to have some type of cold treatment on your stomach.

Any major trauma typically needs to be treated with something.

According to MedicalNewsToday.com:

"Cold treatment reduces blood flow to an injured area. This slows the rate of inflammation and reduces the risk of swelling and tissue damage.

It also numbs sore tissues, acting as a local anesthetic, and slows down the pain messages being transmitted to the brain.

Ice can help treat a swollen and inflamed joint or muscle. It is most effective within 48 hours of an injury.

Rest, ice, compression and elevation (RICE) are part of the standard treatment for sports injuries.

Note that ice should not normally be applied directly to the skin."

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/29108#cold_therapy

So cold treatment does a few things towards treating your hernia surgery.

First, the cold helps reduce the blood flow to the surgery area.

This in turn slows the rate of inflammation and swelling to the area.

The last thing you want is for inflammation and swelling to take over the areas in which you had the surgery.

This could cause the pain you experience even worse during the recovery process.

And if you are able to decrease the amount of inflammation, you could also decrease the amount of pain as well.

Second, it also reduces nerve activity, which could also in turn reduce pain as well.

So applying cold therapy can do a lot for your pain and recovery.

Start by applying a cold lava sand heating pad to the affected area for up to 20 minutes at a time.

Depending on how long you've had the lava sand heating pad in the freezer, will vary the amount of time you can have the compress up against your skin.

You should try to avoid having it applied for more than 20 minutes.

Then wait at least another 20 minutes before you apply the cold again.

You will probably notice that after waiting the 20 minutes before applying again, that the area of the skin is probably still cold.

This means that the cold is still working even though it is no longer applied to the area.

So after the 20 minutes of waiting, apply the cold pack again and wait up to another 20 minutes.

Do this for as long as you feel comfortable or until the cold pack no longer feels cold for you.

At that point, put it back in the freezer and wait for it to be cold again.

When to use heat

Immediately after the surgery is not the best time to apply heat to the surgery area.

This is mostly the time to use cold pads, as it helps with the pain and recovery.

The best time to use a heating pad is when you are finally up and being active after you've recovered from the surgery.

Since your body hasn't gone through much activity for a few weeks after recovery, your body is going to be hurt and sore.

Those muscles that have gone mostly unused will be used again.

And this will lead to your body feeling achy.

And this point, this is the best time for you to apply heat to your body.

Specifically to those areas that are feeling sore.

If you go out on a run, then you might want to apply the heat to your legs.

If you are lifting weights, then you might want to apply it to your arms.

All of these areas haven't gotten much use after the surgery, so there will be some soreness.

Take your lava sand heating pad out of the freezer and place it in the microwave.

At that point, heat the heating pad up for up to 3 minutes and then apply it to the sore areas.

Don't keep it there for more than 30 minutes and then apply it to other sore areas.

This, and stretching, should help out with the soreness after working out.

Why a lava sand heating pad is the best

There are many different options out there for your cold pack and heating pad needs.

But the lava sand heating pad is going to be your best option for both.

The lava sand heating pad is obviously filled with sand.

And this means that the insides are durable for any changes in temperature.

So you can go from the heating pad being in the freezer to being heated up in the microwave.

And you can do this without having to worry about ruining the heating pad.

Unfortunately, other heating pads are typically filled with wheat, rice, or other types of food.

And this means if you are constantly changing from hot to cold to hot again, the food on the inside is eventually going to end up being ruined.

Then it won't heat up or cool down as well for you anymore.

And you have to replace it.

But with the lava sand heating pad, you don't have to worry about this.

There is very little you have to worry about with heating up and cooling it down.

Summary

Hernia surgery is a surgery that can be pretty simple, and the recovery from it can be very simple as well.

And you can help that recovery by applying cold to your surgery areas and heat when you are finally able to get up and move around.

A lava sand heating pad is perfect in this situation because it works great for both cold and heat.

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