If you’re traveling over the holiday season or planning on jetting somewhere warm in January or February, the last thing you want to do when you reach your destination is to check in the hospital because your hernia worsened during your travels. If you’ve been diagnosed with an asymptomatic or mild hernia, you’ll want to be mindful about traveling out of state or out of the country so that you’re aware of what’s to come in the event it gets worse. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at what you need to know about traveling with a hernia.
Vacationing With A Hernia
If you’re traveling locally for a Christmas holiday, you probably don’t need to take too many precautions in the event your hernia worsens, but that changes if you’re heading out of state or out of the country. This is especially true if you have already been diagnosed with a hernia, because that means it is considered a medically known condition.
That’s important because many people opt to accept travel insurance to avoid a hefty medical bill in the event that they need medical care outside of their network or outside the country. Most travel insurance providers will not cover expenses that are related to a known health condition, and you can be sure that they’ll check to see if the hernia had been previously documented. If your hernia is on record and it gets worse when you’re out of the country, travel insurance likely will not cover the cost of surgery because you were aware that worsening symptoms of a previous condition was a possibility.
With that in mind, you’ll want to be extra cautious about how you approach travel if you have an asymptomatic or mild hernia. Long flights or car rides can be uncomfortable and trigger symptoms, so stand up and move around when possible. Also, if you’re carrying luggage, know that lifting and carrying heavy baggage can cause a hernia to worsen, so be mindful about how you maneuver any heavy luggage. And while activity is helpful for your whole body, be smart about the activities you take on during vacation if you have a known hernia. You can do things that are comfortable back home, but ziplining, beach volleyball to backyard football with the nieces and nephews can all cause a hernia to enlarge or put it at risk of strangulation, so don’t take on too strenuous tasks if in-network care isn’t nearby.
Our advice is to talk with your gastroenterologist about your hernia before you head out of state or out of the country. They can give you some advice for preventing worsening symptoms or what to do in the event of a medical emergency, but they can also talk to you about addressing the hernia completely with the help of a minimally invasive surgical procedure. If your vacation is still months away, now might be the perfect time to have that mild hernia repaired so that you can have peace of mind knowing that it will not cause an issue when you’re far away from home.
Contact a Hernia Surgeon
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by broaching the subject with your primary care physician or a gastrointestinal specialist, so don’t delay. Don’t get stuck with a huge medical bill, or face the prospect of surgery in a foreign country because your hernia worsened at the wrong time. Be proactive and ensure your time away from home isn’t clouded by pain or even the fear of worsening symptoms.
If you have been diagnosed with a mild hernia or want to talk to a gastrointestinal surgeon about any discomfort you’re having prior to a trip you have schedule, pick up the phone and give Dr. Bhatti and the team at Bhatti GI Consultants a call today.