I had four abdominal surgeries in a six month period. Three were open surgeries (colon resections) and one was laparoscopic (to fix a bowel obstruction). Shortly after my last open surgery (November 2019 was the surgery), I started feeling a stinging pain above my belly button and noticed a lump (this was around March 2020). I had a CT enterography for surveillance and my surgeon noticed an umbilical hernia. He suggested I wait for a full year to fix it. I had another CT done about six months later and it showed a larger ventral hernia and significant diastasis recti as well as a few smaller incisional hernias. Mayo advised it would be a very complex risky surgery and recommended I wait until I couldn’t wait anymore. Also, there were some other concerns they had that complicated things.
I waited until around April of 2022 and then went to a surgeon I had used before for gall bladder surgery. She was a general surgeon. She recommended abdominal wall reconstruction (component separation surgery) to fix both the disastis recti and insertion of a large sheet of mesh. I had that surgery one year ago (6/14/21). It was covered by my private insurance as it was the result of prior surgeries. I think a lot of the reason insurance claims it’s cosmetic is because a lot of times, skin tightening and removal is done. I didn’t have this done. My BMI was around 18 so not really much excess skin although the hernia and DRecti did cause a noticeable pooch. I am still working to get my abdominal muscle tone back. It’s challenging and the lower abs are still quite loose even though I exercise daily. If I really wanted to have a completely flat stomach again, I would probably need them to tighten that skin and remove a small amount of fat. I had such a struggle with all of my surgeries that I would never consider undergoing anything else. I struggled with whether to repair the ventral hernia and diastasis recti, but the surgeon recommended it because she said it would continue to get worse and could become impossible to repair.