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False Narrative about the downsides of open/tissue repairs
As the title say – there is a false narrative about the cons of getting an open tissue repair floating around for the past few years whether it be for hernia repairs or sports hernias.
The information being circulated online/on forums/on official articles is that the main risks or open/tissue repairs are
1- Tightness/Risk of recurrence of tear/hernia (due to tightness)
2- Longer recovery period.When looking at those 2, they don’t seem all that bad. And for someone like me who was extremely fit, conditioned and healthy – it seemed like a no brainer to go that route and risk the potential of having it tear again vs having a synthetic porous patch. I took a a few months with my athletic therapist to condition myself before surgery to shorten recovery time, was on a strict diet, and did everything humanly possible to offset those 2 risks. I asked my surgeon (Dr. Brown) very clearly if there were any potential risks to the way my physique looks, to the way my core works/operates or to my genitalia. And he said ”none” other than having a scar which was acceptable to me.
But these are not the only risks at all. The risks include having a doctor that will cut into so much healthy tissue that he breaks the structural integrity of the different layers of abdominal muscles to the point of those muscles/tissues/the core completely releasing and becoming permanently weak/dysfunctional and the hundreds of issues that will arise from having a permanently weak/damaged core/groin – as it happened in my case. To never be able to run again, or flex your core again, or have a proper erection. Or even just walk properly.
This is by far the greatest danger of open/tissue surgery. Is having a doctor that doesn’t understand the human body and the limits of what you can and can’t do before impairing the patient for life.
This is permanent, there is no going back. I would argue that you can remove a mesh & still have hopes of recovering/going back to a normal life as long as your tissues are still in 1 piece & in their original configuration. But this? What Dr. Brown did to me? I’ll live like this alone for the rest of my life. I knew this the week after the surgery when I realized my entire groin & both my external obliques had completely released all their tension following surgery and 19 months later I can safely say they never recovered. And there was no way for me to prepare for this even with the best intentions and most disciplined mindset.
Its the equivalent of me going to the doctor for a wound on my calf muscle to get it closed with a needle rather than a synthetic patch. And waking up to the muscle being separated from the achilles tendon & split in half. Its catastrophic levels of damage.
You also risk having a doctor cut into so much healthy tissue surface that you have scar tissue 2 years later that feel like you have sand paper in & around your testicles. Again this happened to me. I had about 1 inch of overuse damage on my external oblique aponeurosis and woke up with about 3 inches of sliced abdominal tissues through every layer, a dissected spermatic cord, and more.
There are so many conversations that need to be had, and a consensus among professionals that are dealing with these conditions (hernias, sports hernias, etc). There needs to be some limits as to what can be done safely and what can’t and shouldn’t be done. I genuinely believed going into surgery that this was the case.
I knew there was a possibility that the surgery wouldn’t solve all my issues. I was okay with this. But I never in a million years thought it would permanently impair me & cause 100 times the issues/damage I had before the surgery. The worst part is, I can’t even get surgery to fix what was missed/my original injury. Because Dr. Brown damaged the structural integrity of my groin so bad – it already affected my testicles & penis (On top of releasing my entire core & both inguinal ligaments) & theyre afraid that any more cutting will seriously harm me.
Conversations need to be had. Information needs to be updated. Most importantly – doctors need to listen to their patients needs, their history, their fitness levels and make sure that whatever they do, the patient doesn’t come out with damage they didn’t have before the surgery.
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1 Reply
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I’m really sorry that it sounds like you have not had the best outcome yet.
I’m genuinely curious.
What were the symptoms you were having before surgery, what were you told your diagnosis was, how was your diagnosis determined, what were the goals of your surgery, how confident was your surgeon that they correctly identified your problem and could give you a good outcome?
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