I was told using my heating pad wasn't a good idea (that the heat can radiate toward the belly...or something of the sort lol)....

Does anyone know anything about this?

I never heard anything like that but of course every dr is different. I used a heating pad on my back because of the gas and everything was fine. I did not use it on my stomach though I just wanted air to get to the incisions so I rarely covered them early on.

I haven't heard that about the heat, but after my surgery, cold felt SO good. I could not imagine applying heat to my stomach.

I slept every night the first week with a heating pad under my back because my chronic back pain flared up after surgery. It helped immensely. No, heat is not going to hurt your belly in any way.