Reply To: Opinions on mesh removal & managing chronic pain

[Good intentions]

quote groundfaller:

Opinions on mesh removal & managing chronic pain

What helped me out the most has been physical therapy and movement. It may not be right for everyone but the surgeons offered me very little medical advice and there is an almost criminal lack of information regarding follow up treatment/care for hernia surgery complications. Given the frequency of this surgery and the high rate of complications, it baffles me that research isn’t blazing forward on post surgery treatment modalities. I hate to sound so negative but once a surgeon has done the surgery then you have left their field of expertise and they are not much use. So, back to my point, physical therapy might help. I am in the process of seeking out a couple new therapists for help. One specializes in cesarean complications in women and the other is a sports medicine PT that focuses on my activities. I have my fingers crossed that they can provide more positive results with better encouragement for a happy future than they surgeons who all just threw their hands up in the air.

I agree about the lack of post-surgery advice and care. The surgeon will release a typical patient to full activity at four weeks but physical changes will happen for months and years. So the patient lives in fear for that length of time as they feel pain and soreness and experience odd sensations. Even a simple instruction book would help but there is nothing. I think though, that the surgeons really don’t know what to do because they are mainly trained in surgery, not healing. As noted, once the patient leaves after the followup visit, they are assumed to be okay unless they come back with a recurrence. And, back to costs, physical therapy costs money, It’s cheaper to let the patient fend for themselves, than to ensure that they will be okay, mentally and emotionally. That’s not on the surgeons, that’s on the medical industry.

One of the beauties of the laparoscopic mesh implantation is that there’s almost no way to prove that there is a pain problem. None of the tests can show pain. So denying further treatment is easy to do.