News Feed Discussions Bad mesh plug or suture?

  • Bad mesh plug or suture?

    Posted by Nathanharris86 on April 6, 2017 at 2:50 pm

    I had a hernia repair in 2008 in Tallahassee Florida. Since I have been in pain and discomfort. I had no insurance until the year of 2010, I went for a routine physical and my primary said I had a hernia. I said no that is where I had a repair the lump was the plug they put in it has always been like that. She said it wasn’t supposed to be and sent me to a specialist who said the mesh plug had been rejected. Everything needed to come out. My deductible was $5000.00 that I didn’t have and insurance said it wasn’t medically necessary. So I have lived with this excruciating pain for 9 years now.
    I have now lost a $45k a year jjob and havent worked in almost a year. I have Medicaid and have an appointment with a surgeon Thursday the 13. She said She believes it’s just a suture and doesn’t believe the plug was rejected.
    can a suture cause the internal pain and all the tension and discomfort I feel in my guts? I feel like I’m sitting on a golf ball that has been jammed inside my guts.
    I forgot I add the bulge in my groin area is about he size of and eraser on a pencil and hard s rock.

    drtowfigh replied 6 years, 10 months ago 5 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • drtowfigh

    Moderator
    May 27, 2017 at 10:32 pm

    NathanHarris,
    How did your Doctor’s visit go?

  • mela414

    Member
    April 24, 2017 at 1:37 pm

    I am having pain and discomfort at the site of where a hernia near my belly button was removed. No mesh was placed it was just sutured. I have had pain since surgery. the first week to there was a large swelling and doctor thought it was a seroma. He tried to drain it when I was in his office but not nothing came out. He said it had already solidified and said it would get absorbed but might take a few months. I also told him it felt tight and pulling.
    So here I am 6 months later with same daily pain. It hurt more when I sit up or lean back or forward from a sitting position. I feel pain anytime I use those abdominal muscles. Then it stays sore for a while.
    I finally did a CT scan and saw the surgeon Friday. He said everything looked fine on scan.
    I had him feel area and showed him on CT where the pain was. We used a little round metal marker on the pain area when taking the scan. He felt the hard knotted lumps and reviewed his notes and then said he used permanent sutures and that could be causing some pain and could go away with more time. He referred me to pain management to have it injected. I’m not too thrilled about this.
    He said if this didn’t work out he could go back in and remove the sutures. He also said that even removing the sutures there is a 50 % chance the pain could remain.
    Im ready for another opinion and making an appointment with someone today.
    Im really starting to lean towards suture problem. Maybe thats why nothing drained when he thought it was a seroma! I just want this resolved. My suegert was for incarcerated femoral hernia. He only found this by chance and removed and sutured it when he was done. I think the femoral
    hernia with mesh is ok.
    Mel

  • mela414

    Member
    April 24, 2017 at 1:35 pm

    I am having pain and discomfort at the site of where a hernia near my belly button was removed. No mesh was placed it was just sutured. I have had pain since surgery. the first week to there was a large swelling and doctor thought it was a seroma. He tried to drain it when I was in his office but not nothing came out. He said it had already solidified and said it would get absorbed but might take a few months. I also told him it felt tight and pulling.
    So here I am 6 months later with same daily pain. It hurt more when I sit up or lean back or forward from a sitting position. I feel pain anytime I use those abdominal muscles. Then it stays sore for a while.
    I finally did a CT scan and saw the surgeon Friday. He said everything looked fine on scan.
    I had him feel area and showed him on CT where the pain was. We used a little round metal marker on the pain area when taking the scan. He felt the hard knotted lumps and reviewed his notes and then said he used permanent sutures and that could be causing some pain and could go away with more time. He referred me to pain management to have it injected. I’m not too thrilled about this.
    He said if this didn’t work out he could go back in and remove the sutures. He also said that even removing the sutures there is a 50 % chance the pain could remain.
    Im ready for another opinion and making an appointment with someone today.
    Im really starting to lean towards suture problem. Maybe thats why nothing drained when he thought it was a seroma! I just want this resolved. My suegert was for incarcerated femoral hernia. He only found this by chance and removed and sutured it when he was done. I think I

  • Chaunce1234

    Member
    April 20, 2017 at 6:13 pm

    Nathanharris86, I am not a doctor but I’d personally suggest seeing someone who has a good amount of experience in re-do hernia surgeries for pain, it is a unique field.

    Dr Jonathan Yunis in Florida has done re-do surgery for a patient on these forums with good results and elsewhere you may find on the internet. Perhaps Dr Towfigh knows of other Florida groin pain and hernia experts as well to recommend.

    Otherwise in the southern USA there is Dr Bruce Ramshaw in Tennessee who many people reprot good re-do experiences with.

    Best of luck, keep us updated on your case.

  • Nathanharris86

    Member
    April 10, 2017 at 12:59 am

    Thank you for the input. I have actually seen three specialist now and two out of the three want to do surgery right away. The one I have chose is in Tallahassee Florida which is 15 miles away. She is extremely qualified is gastrointestinal and hernia surgery and shares the same office with the top hernia surgeons in Tallahassee. Hopefully it isn’t to bad once they get in there because no one has yet take any kind of picture.

  • drtowfigh

    Moderator
    April 8, 2017 at 4:03 am

    Just to give some perspective for you:

    Many patients who underwent a plug type inguinal hernia repair have a palpable area of firmness, which is the mesh plug. That does not necessarily mean the mesh is causing the pain. In many patients, it is the mesh. In others, it may be something else.

    If the mass is as small as the head of a pencil’s eraser, then likely that is not the plug itself. That said, the pain may still be from the plug, if you’ve had it since the operation.

    My recommendation is to make sure you see at least two specialists. Mesh removal is not something you want to have done without doing your homework. You want to pick a surgeon who has the expertise to handle whatever is found during surgery. If it’s a suture, then perhaps removal may be able to address the problem. If it is the plug itself or a recurrence, then the surgeon you choose for the procedure should have the expertise to handle that situation as well.

    I call these my box of chocolates. You often never know what you’re going to get once you’re in there. So as much data gathering as you can get before surgery is helpful.

  • idoncov

    Member
    April 8, 2017 at 2:59 am

    I’m not a doctor but I can definitely tell you that the golf ball sensation you describe can be cause by a hernia. I have had one for years and the inguinal hernia surgery remedied that issue. In the mornings when fresh out of bed I could lean on one leg on the side of the hernia and feel the golf ball prominently but less so or totally absent when leaning on the other leg. As the day progressed the golf ball feeling became dispersed and seemed to be more in the middle. The same results can be had at any time of the day after a rest in a laying position. Incidentally, if you lean forward while standing the golf ball is much less felt. So I can confirm that that sensation can be caused by a hernia.

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