Bilateral Shouldice with Dr. Conze

[Watchful]

Glad this worked for you, Oceanic. If jockey underwear doesn’t hold it high enough, you may want to look for some kind of truss.

If I were you, I would share this with Dr. Conze, and see if he has seen this before, or if this makes the potential cause clearer to him.

I hope this problem subsides soon as you heal. Please keep us posted.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Watchful.

[Oceanic]

I think that picture may be deceptive the area above my canals and the area in between is very puffy and full of fluid.

I’ve been doing regular red light therapy too which from past experience hugely helps with wound and internal healing.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Oceanic.

[ajm222]

you have remarkably little swelling. i had a large lump for quite a while. externally at least it appears good.

[Oceanic]

Watchful my friend I owe you a beer, I just tried your tip of hoisting my testicles up and I really mean I had to yank them higher than they’ve ever been but 90% of the pain vanished immediately and I had pretty much free range of motion of my legs again.

Thank you so much, I have no idea why this works but it really does, this makes me much more hopeful for a full recovery.

Now I just need to find an undersized jock strap and I’ll be walking pain free.

[Watchful]

Wow – your incisions are completely different than mine even though we both had a Shouldice procedure. Yours are horizontal, and mine is vertical.

[Oceanic]

Chuck I’ll take short term pain for long term gain over doing nothing and suffering for years, sure it’s a gamble we all know that but that’s life, everything is.

I can completely understand why you’re cautious though after reading of your lap experience. I’ve read your numerous posts agonising over this and I really feel for you, but just go for it and chances are it will be ok and you can start a new chapter of your life pain free and put this all behind you in a few months.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Oceanic.

[Oceanic]

All the happy Shouldice procedure patients tend to just resume their lives and don’t feel the need to frequent forums discussing it, why would You?

Don’t let doom and gloom echo chambers put you off

Give it a few more months and I’l lift something heavy and tell you how I feel, I think a lot of the people who moan aren’t prepated to put the rehab in needed to make a full recovery and think sitting on the sofa doing nothing is all they need to do.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Oceanic.

[Unknown Member]

Thanks Oceanic…will pray for your speedy recovery. I did not have the luck you did in finding pain free shouldice patients…althought i was mostly looking on Facebook forums and folks with problems tend to post. What really discouraged me from shouldice were the happy patients who said they were glad they got shouldice…but could still feel it when their dog pulled hard…or they lifted their grandkidss etc. I suppose a pain free experience is unavoidable…thanks for your supplement recommendations…you might add Wobenzyme N to your list–please continue to keep us posted

[Oceanic]

Incisions at day 5 just before I had the dressings changed again

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Oceanic.

[Oceanic]

Chuck- It was this forum that guided me to Dr. Conze, I’m in the UK so Germany was a 1.5 hour flight away, I exchanged a few emails with Stephen, Dr. Kangs assistant but the journey put me off and the fact he does 9/10 procedures a day

I just figured Dr. Conze was enough of a specialist that I was in with a fighting chance of not getting maimed by him.

I’ve read numerous accounts of Shouldice procedure patients feeling completely normal and like they hadn’t even had surgery within 3-6 months so it’s impossible to generalise, don’t discard Shouldice from your options would be my advice for what it’s worth, my right side is exactly as I could have hoped for and feels superb, I could easily do a 10 mile walk on that and there is zero pain apart from nerves tingling as they heal from being moved about.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Oceanic.

[Unknown Member]

Oceanic—thanks sooooooo much for your post. Its hard to get first hand reports on Conze. And your post just reiterates how difficult it is to get a decent painfree tissue repair. Shouldice is such an invasive repair I hear many reports of issues with it. Some reporting 3 year healing times. You seem like a smart guy who did a lot of research —any reason you chose Conze over Kang? To be fair one of our friends reported being badly gutted by a a double inguinal kang repair….hoping he is on the mend now. But this is why i selected lap mesh surgery…which turned out to be a disaster too. The state of hernia repair is a real mess.

[Oceanic]

Thanks for the encouragement Guys, I know it’s early days, I think the left side repair just may be a lot tighter than the right side for reasons I don’t understand.

@ Watchful, I feel completely fine laying down, sitting is ok (ish) but you still put tension on your groin doing this but I’m back at work today and have been sat in a chair all day and its only mildly uncomfortable, standing or walking causes the most discomfort. They were both direct hernias which I’ve read are more painful after a tissue repair. Not tried lifting my testicles (I will thanks) but the discomfort is mainly from under the incision site towards my thigh and down the inguinal ligament I think.

I’m taking collagen supplements, eating plenty of protein and pushing myself a little each day to let my body know what it needs to do, time will tell. As you all rightly say I think this is a jourmey of weeks to 6 months to a year full recovery.

I had a tendon graft in my arm done a few years ago and that was still improving nearly 2 years on, its a slow gradual process but I’d rather have the pain of surgery recovery than the pain of a hernia.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Oceanic.

[William Bryant]

If Dr Conze wants patients to have his mobile, hopefully he will answer your concerns and address the issues soon.

[William Bryant]

I fully agree with ajm, as I have posted before on another thread I had non hernia related and far less complicated surgery years ago. I had pain for sometime after. My mum had keyhole for another non hernia and was in pain at times ages after. Both cases resolved with time.

More recently I’ve had a flesh wound. It occured January still not healed and still sore 4 months later. It has improved during that time.

[ajm222]

Double Shouldice hernia repair – no wonder you’re in a lot of discomfort. There are folks sometimes on these sites that seem to think people should be 90% recovered in like 7 days, which is absurd. These surgeries – and any surgery – take a long time to heal. Sometimes months or even years for certain things to fully resolve. In my experience there are usually big jumps in improvement after about 2 or 3 weeks and then again more in a couple of months. Wishing you the best. Be patient and don’t fret too much. It’s still very early. But also be persistent in getting in touch with your surgeon if you have questions and need their reassurance. The healing process has many stages. The initial trauma can take weeks to subside before the body even starts the primary healing stage. Then you’ve got weeks or months of scar tissue formation and then remodeling and nerves being restored and the mind body connection ‘forgetting’ the pain and discomfort. Plus, everyone heals differently, even with all things otherwise being equal.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  ajm222.

[Watchful]

As long as you keep improving, it should turn out ok with some more time.

Does the pain and discomfort completely go away when you sit down or lie down?

If you lift your testicle/scrotum with your hand while walking or standing, does it get better? At the Shouldice Hospital, some surgeons give their patients a truss to lift the area during recovery.

[Oceanic]

I communicate with Dr. Conze via Whatsapp so it’s fairly direct, he’s very open about all his patients having his mobile number which is refreshing.

[William Bryant]

I think Pintos advice is very good and reasonable. I’d give Dr Conze until tomorrow afternoon and then ring again. Sometimes messages don’t get passed on to the person they heed to be. It could be that.

Good to hear one side at least is how you’d hoped/expected.

Thank you for reports and feedback now and I’m the future.

I’m sure I read about a Desarda patient who had pain for about a month and then it resolved. Hopefully the same or quicker may be true of Shouldice in this case.

[pinto]

I feel relief hearing your doc has been on top of it. Has it really been three working days since? It was Thursday last contact then hit against the weekend. I know you probably feel isolated and maybe a little scared but this weekend thing is so common even if big bucks are paid. His “few days” probably has a looser meaning and he might wait to see if his diagnosis was on target. That seems reasonable. Call his office if not already and at least talk with his secretary and press them it’s gone past the “few days” and you need/deserve some assistance. If no go, then I would ask for another surgeon in the same Dept./hospital for assistance. You’ve waited a reasonable time already and deserve attention.

[Oceanic]

Dr. Conze did personally drop some stronger pain killers to me in the hotel a few days after surgery to help get me home, his diagnosis was swelling and pressure in the inguinal canal stretching the genitofemoral nerve and it would resolve in a few days, it hasn’t and the pain is coming from a bit higher up I think but I’m no expert. He did message me again last Thursday to see how I was getting on and I did message him back saying still having problems do you know why and not heard back from him and it’s been 3 working days now so make of that what you will, he is busy I’m sure but I did just spend north of 11k Euros with him so hoped for a bit more of a timely response.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Oceanic.