"Phil had two huge hernias. One above his belly button that spread 2 inches wide on each side where his upper intestines were caught within the torn tissue and muscle and a lower abdominal hernia which was apart of his umbilical hernia that he was born with (which was repaired at age 2 and was done horribly wrong) this lower hernia was so bad that it tore from side to side, up and down causing Phil to have a 3 inch hole that was an inch deep and had 4 inches of his small intestines hanging over that hole. The doc was able to push his intestines 5 inches back down into his abdomen and tightened his abdomen together and closed the holes. The doctor came to me after the surgery in shock that phil was able to live this way. He explained that hernias are genetic and Phil was born with very little tissue covering his abdomen. Doc also explained that phil has been using only half of his abdominal muscles due to his hernia at birth. Phil has been an athlete all of his life and this hernia was a ticking time bomb. He explained that Phil was a day away from a very scary and possibly fatal intestinal strangulation. His belly button was more visible this year due to the fact that his small intestine was literally inside of it, pushing it forward right underneath the skin. He said out the 20 + thousand hernia repairs he's done.. this was one of the worst he's seen.
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Phil accepts all the hate comes with being a Champion. The reality is... we live in a very troubled and hateful world! Phil and I have received so much vile and hateful comments and even death threats over his "stomach" this year. There is no denying that Phil was incredible on stage...bringing one of his most hard and conditioned packages yet! I'm still in shock he was able to do this all while in pain and days away from being hospitalized.
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I would like to thank all of his true fans and those of you who love the sport of bodybuilding. The positive messages that we received did make Phil smile. He's 7x MrO but he's a human being first! To those of you who realized that... THANK YOU!
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