Those of you who read Damien's weekly parkrun post may recall me mentioning some aches and twinges in my lower abdomen over the last few weeks. This started during a 10k run and though it hasn't stopped me running 5ks since then, it has sometimes been a bit uncomfortable. I thought I might have strained a stomach muscle and tried a break from running, but that didn't seem to help.
Anyway about a week ago I noticed a slight swelling just below and to the right of my navel. My daughter is a doctor and offered to take a look. After a quick prod, she said I think this could be a small hernia. So I managed to see the GP earlier this week - she agreed with that tentative diagnosis and has referred me to the local hospital for further investigation.
As you can imagine I was not happy, having had a hernia in my groin about two years ago, which was extremely uncomfortable and stopped me running for most of a year while I was waiting for and recovering from surgery! However the GP also said that it was possible that the hospital might feel that surgery wasn't necessary at present and that I could continue running, as long as it didn't get any worse. I mentioned that I had a place in the Great South Run in October and her comment was ‘hopefully you'll be OK for that’!
So my current plan is to continue running 2-3 times a week at a steady pace, gradually extending one of those back up to 10k, and see how it goes until I'm seen at the hospital. Ah well, these things are sent to try us!🫤