my umbilical hernia was small in diameter, approx. 1 cm. my doctor chose to fix it via surtures rather than mesh. my question is:

1.) how much longer is the recovery time?
2.) will I have decreased abdominal muscle strenght in the future?(i am active in sports)
3.) what is the risk of recurrence?

thanks

Good morning MikeB, how long ago was your sugery? I had an ventral Hernia repaired 6 yrs ago with sutures, my surgeon didn't release me until 4 months after surgery. You maybe luck with a small repair. but still their is always a risk of recurrence,with suture repair.( Even more if their has been prior tension surgery).Now 6 years later I have a recurrence of the same.need surgery. I have been told with this second surgery to take vitiam E, Omega3 fish oil, multi vitamin. These help repair the muscle tissue faster. The best advice is your doctor's.

i had it 3x days ago. it was the first surgery i had on my embilical hernia. i am hoping to get back to playing sports(rugby) within 5x weeks or so and i'm hoping this is feasible

Mike Lin here. Just keep up with your doctors. Like I said after my 4 months the surgeon released me and said I could return to normal life. But three months later I was having what felt like pulling of tissue. Which he denied happening. Iknew it was so been fighting that it has been going on so now 6 years later I'm laid up. Again listen to doctor. But also if you have a book store near you, their are hernia books at book store. Everybody heals at different rates. A health diet during recovery is one of the best to tissue recovery.