Umbilical Hernia from Exercise...Safe to Work Out Still??

Well, I had an incident a couple weeks ago with sudden intense abdominal pain and went to the ER when it didn't respond to anti-gas tabs, Tums, rest or a warm bath and turned into a rock hard spot just above my belly button. The ER doctor said that it is a rather common occurrence for people who lose alot of weight and recommended surgery to prevent it from becoming incarcerated or strangulated which could be life threatening he said. He was able to "reduce" it (push it back in) and make the pain go away but said that if it ever won't reduce, it will be cause for immediate emergency surgery. My doctor agrees that it should be surgically fixed (and so do I!!) So I have a surgeon consult on Tuesday to see what he has to say. As far as workouts--my instructions are no lifting over 10 lbs., no bending, twisting, situps, crunches or otherwise engaging the abs...which means the Fitness Blender vids I've been doing for indoor workouts during Oregon's long rainy season are out. The only green lighted exercises for me are walking and biking -- and since it's still the rainy season, I was tickled to find a functional stationary bike at the Salvation Army for only $2 last week (Yeah God who knows what I need!!) so there is still at least SOMETHING I can do regardless of the weather. I don't know all of your situation, but those are MY marching orders, which I plan to follow because I really do not want a recurrence of the pain or to push it to the point that I have to have emergency surgery rather than planned and scheduled surgery.

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Hi. I recently noticed that my belly button was protruding and at first I thought it was dur to the 30 lbs weight gain I have had over the last 3 years. I am 5'4" and small framed, 37, I have not had children and I weight 148 which is the most I have ever weighed so it seems unusual that I would develop this kind of hernia because from what I have read it is most common after pregnancy and in other cases it could be caused by obesity. I started working out 3 times a week about 6 months ago and it is a combo of free weights and cardio, nothing too intense, but sure enough 2 doctors have told me that it is for sure an umbilical hernia and one told me it must be fixed surgically and the other said that the only reason to fix it would be cosmetic. I wanted to know if this has happened to anyone else from working out and most importantly, is it safe for me to continue my workouts with this hernia? It does not hurt or anything, but can excercise make it worse?? Thanks.
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