"Numbness" in lower abdomen/groin

[dougness86]

Ok, so I am curious about what might be causing a sensation I occasionally get at night. This never happens during the day, and I only feel it when I wake up from having slept, so my guess would obviously be that it is related to how I am sleeping. This also only seems to occur if I sleep on my stomach or, on rare occasion, on my back, not if I sleep on a side.

The sensation I have can best be described as that numb feeling you get when part of your body "falls asleep," then starts tingling as feeling returns. I feel this sensation in what would best be described as either lower abdomen or upper groin (center of the abdomen, partially on the left-center area, just above the hip line).

Now, I have had inguinal hernia surgery on both sides, the right one back in Dec. 1997 and the left in Aug. 2003. I don't remember when I first felt this numbness, but it certainly did not happen until after the second surgery.

So, my question of course is: does the sensation I feel sound like something that could result from the surgery, or am I relating two things that likely aren't actually related? And, if it is surgery-related, is there something I should do about it (aka is it 'dangerous' or just annoying)?

Any assistance with this is much appreciated. Thanks and take care

[Satan Worships Me]

while there is always the possiblity of actual nerve damage during just about ANY real surgery, this very easily could be stemming from an actual spinal problem too? have you mentioned this to your actual primary doc so he can eval it? one really good way to find out idf this is or is not an actual spinal issue would be with a good contrasted MRI being done on that lower level spinal? or going from T spine all the way down may be better? i just cannot recal exactly what level of the spinal actually innervates that groin area where you are having this numbness occur? one thing you CAN do here to see if this actually even "fits" with a real specific spinal level would be to simply look up what is called a 'dermatome chart"? this just shows like a drawing/figure of a person with all the seperate levels of the spinal innervation very well mapped out, including what spinal level would be the exacting parameters for YOUR areas of actual numbness? the dermatomes are pretty dead on target as to what levels of the spinal actually innervate the sensory aspect of our whole entire body.

if you do check this out and the area of your numbness is correlating pretty exacting within any specific dermatome, the chances this really IS an actual spinal impacted type of posistional sensory loss are much much higher than other possibles. but either way, i would definitely see your doc and get this evaluated and do try and get him to also send you for at least a rule out MRI with a good contrasting agent just to help better highlight very certain types of findings that just do not always show as well without using the contrast.

its just the "common or likely area of involvement when anyone actually feels any real loss of any sensory, it IS nerve related(in what you are describing) and more commonly from some level of correlating spinal issue. it does NOT have to even be a herniation but even simple bone spurs that can grow in anyplace within that whole spinal, if it is impacting the area(called the "foramen") where that spinal nerve simply runs from the cord on outward to the periphery, you very much could feel it in that way. we actually have "pairs' of nerves after you go down past c8 up there that have one sensory and one motor nerve that innervates each and every level of our spinal, so you could have a sensory issue that would not at all actually impact the motor functions like in your legs? you just need to kind of 'track back" the area of numbness to the actual generator in order to really be able to actually 'do" anything about this or know what it means? while it could be surgical, the mere fact that this is NOT a real constant but more posistional kind of leads me to think it has more to do with the spinal? and if this actually reproduces while lying down, it will show even better on the MRI which is also while lying down too(but anything that is IN that foramen would just show anyways esp spurring)? i would just see your doc and get the ball kinda rolling here towards finding out exactly what IS creating this numbness in that area right now. good luck with this and please let me know what you find out. FB

[taty85cr]

I also think it's a good idea to ask your doctor about this if you can, just to get a professional opinion.

I had inguinal hernia surgery this past November for two indirect inguinal hernias, and I do have some numbness on my right side of the groin. I've heard that it can take years for the feeling to come back, and sometimes it can be permanent. So yes, it's possible that it can be related to your surgery, and if so, it's likely just something annoying.

For piece of mind, next time at the doctor, I'd bring it up!