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What ?s should surgeons be asking their patients?
quote :Wow! I was surprised to have been brought back to this post but here I am. My surgery was nearly two years ago. The first year after the surgery was a absolute hell. I was not prepared for the difficulty. I was also not prepared for the lack of support.Ultimately, almost 18 months after the surgery, I found a physical therapist who was willing to put in the time and energy to help me as well as install a sense of confidence that I can be helped. He was great.
I want to emphsize a couple of points. First and most importantly, there needs to be more dialogue and more time spent working with the patient. For lack of a clinical term, don’t leave your patient with “lost cause syndrome.” It can be deadly. I am not exaggerating when I say that I felt hopeless and the idea of suicide crossed my mind as I wasn’t recovering.
Secondly, someone, somewhere, somehow needs to develop a comprehensive physical therapy/rehabilitation program to recover from this kind of surgery. This is one of the most common major surgeries which has a high incidence of complications. Professionals, please, I beg you, consider a better after care process. I can’t stress this enough. Don’t let people sit and waste away.
Can you detail what physical therapy regimen has assisted you in your recovery?
I have found an online physical therapy protocol for sports hernia type injury, which may be relevant to some patients of other types of groin pain and perhaps even groin surgeries.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3273884/
I know that Shouldice clinic in Canada encourages near immediate post-surgical minor activity, walking, and they have pool tables set up which obviously forces people to bend at the waist a bit. Similarly, when you hear about professional athletes being sidelined by surgery, they always have rehab and recovery for 6-12 weeks. There must be something to it.
Perhaps some sort of protocol should be standardized and recommended for all patients?