Reply To: Had my surgery done finally – Shouldice

[MarkT]

Thanks for the detailed posting of your experience, Watchful.

I’ve posted mine many times, but of course they are going back many years and we have wondered what has and has not changed. My main contribution at this point is anecdotal in confirming that both of my repairs were flawless with zero post-op complications or restrictions on activity to date, one side done 30 years ago, the other side almost 20 years ago.

Interesting to note the variation in procedure regarding the cremaster and sutures…that is something we have talked about a lot here, especially the latter.

With the sutures, did they say if they have shifted to exclusively using prolene now? Is it simply the surgeon’s choice? Or something the patient can request? Maybe all new surgeons can/must use prolene, but the older ones still use steel? If it is a complete shift, that would be a *very* new development (certainly within the past 1-2 years, AFAIK).

I also wonder what data or other motivation has informed their decision to deviate from always resecting the cremaster…and how they make that decision for each surgery (indirect vs. direct? other hernia or patient characteristics? surgeon preference? patient request?).

It does sound like you had a rather unusual short-term post-op experience. I do recall a fair bit of variation when I was there. The first time, one other guy was also my age (18/19) and he was on a stationary bike the next day, while a couple of other patients (much older) struggled to walk to the dining room and skipped ‘exercises’. The vast majority of us were in between…no issues walking slowly, but not exactly motivated to hop on the bike right away either. One of the older guys had a notably rougher time.

Your experience of the cohort model being problematic during recovery is notable and not something I had previously considered. I experienced it as a reassuring ‘we are all in this together’ type of thing, both before and after surgery…but my short-term recovery also aligned with that of most others, while yours negatively deviated from them. That is something that warrants more study and there should be additional supports in place to not only aid in the recovery itself, but also to address the potential *additional* anxiety from seeing others fare better.

I would like to see the facility upgraded…sounds like not a lot has changed with the ORs and the rest of it looked much the same when I visited around this time last year.

The patient experience is very important, but the end result is ultimately what matters most, so I hope you will continue to post updates throughout your recovery and in the months that follow. Going forward, I hope all goes smoothly and you end up with a problem-free, enduring repair.