Kristian wirz – Spinotza question

[JHawley]

Kristian -saw you posting on another forum saying that you dont believe in tissue repairs because your shouldice failed after 5 years. Honestly i have not seen other reports of shouldice failing. Lots of reports of chronic pain. But none of failures. Can you advise how active you are? were you lifting heavy in the gym I seem Mike M posting he wants to get back to heavy benching —I think this is madness after a tissue repair. Many have told me — get a tissue repair always – but understand that your active life is much curtailed. And I believe that. Do you think your surgeon did a good job with your shouldice? You got it outside a specialty center and that is supposed to increase recurrance. If a shouldice fails is it hard to clean up? Tomas told me if his desarda failed —he would go back in and fix it. He says he has no recurrances but i have spoken with several who had recurrances. I still wonder if the best damn operation isnt open mesh. Again anecdotal only but the vast majority of these cases are one and done and guys feel nothing. Under intense questioning some will admit they feel the mesh –but the majority do not. If you search for open mesh issues you will find lives destroyed. and its very difficult to determine why the mesh destroyed them. Watchful points out the body builder who Chen did who feels pain. I spoke with a guy in kentucky who has been laying in bed for ten years with open mesh disabling him. I cant beleive that there a million repairs a year and there is no clear winner in terms of method….since open mesh is likely the most common surgery —maybe its the winner because we dont hear millions of complaints. If shouldice was doing a million cases a year—what would we hear. I have studied this intensely and can get no clarity at all. Spinotza ==how are you doing?

[spinotza]

Hey man, first of all I am 100% sure I’ve read people on this forum who had Shouldice and Dasarda talk about how they went back to snowboarding, tennis so I don’t believe that active life needs to be curtailed.
What I am starting to believe that my massive indirect hernia was definitely not a good candidate for tissue repair.

As for how I feel. Well it’s been 5 weeks and I don’t feel any pain whatsoever. I am much better than I was before the surgery when I was wearing hernia boxers for 5 years to keep my bits in place.

I’m back to my active life: running, going to the gym, swimming, cycling playing tennis.
My rule is: I always go for less than I think that I can do. I agree that going back to heavy weight lifting is a bit crazy and may lead to going back to the surgeon’s table especially if you don’t wait long enough from the moment you’ve had surgery.
I want my mesh surgery to last for a lifetime. We’ll see how it works but I’m not going to pretend I didn’t have surgery.

So all in all I’m part of the group that’s described as “when mesh works it works really well”. Don’t know how much you can extrapolate but there you have it.

• This reply was modified 2 weeks ago by spinotza.

[Tetesh]

Kristian Wirz’s examination of the Spinoza question offers a fresh perspective on this complex philosophical concept. Thought-provoking and insightful!

[Krisztián Wirsz]

What?

[spinotza]

He is making fun of the title. It sounds like a philosophical debate because Spinoza was a philosopher and you have a pretty cool name too.

[Krisztián Wirsz]

Sure, I had no idea.

[Krisztián Wirsz]

I am a member of several social media groups of hernia patients. The recurrence section has a disproportionate number of tissue repair patients. Yes, I was pretty active. Think training 4-5 times a week, bodyweight workouts, running, swimming, cycling, sometimes kettlebell and eventually macebell that did it. I was not happy with my surgeon at all, he is a disgusting human being who made the decision of doing a Shouldice on me without informing me about the higher recurrence rates, alternatives or anything really. Unfortunately I didn’t do my homework that time either. I am now scheduled for open mesh surgery.

• This reply was modified 2 weeks ago by Krisztián Wirsz.

[JHawley]

Thx Kristian. What group is that? It’s very difficult to get a grip on what te recuuance rates are. All the tissue guys say 1 percent. Grisham told me shouldice was lower than mesh. Have you looked into this in depth. Is it crystal clear that open mesh has lower recurrence than any tissue repair? The problem with mesh is you are never out of the woods. It can be fine for years then get infected or merge into a nerve and your life ends.

[Krisztián Wirsz]

These are facebook support groups, both English and Hungarian. As for the 1%, I think it’s total bs for any kind of hernia repair. 1% in 2 years post op, or maybe 5 but in these studies they never follow patients longer than a couple of years. So we just can’t know the real lifetime percentages. I know many people who had mesh repair (Lichtenstein or lap), so far everyone is doing alright but the open guys do tell me they can kind of feel the mesh. Not pain just feeling that there’s something.

[Mike M]

@JHawley

I am following my doctor’s (Dr. Kang) guidance regarding life after no mesh tissue repair which is essentially “no” restrictions. I either trust him or I don’t. If I don’t then I should have never went to him to begin with for the repair. All the obsessive compulsive noise regarding outside numbers, stats, anecdotal evidence (in this context) is mostly irrelevant, complicates rational thought, and a healthy lifestyle.

If I a get a recurrence based on an action I do then so be it and I will use that knowledge to improve upon my situation and take decisive action to resolve. Based on all the data available from Dr. Kang, his patients, his hospital, his procedure, and my current situation it is unlike to happen but the chance is never going to be 0%. I accept that and so should everyone else who selects a repair for themselves. That is the reality of surgery.

You mitigate your chances by getting *stronger*, healthier. The worst thing I could do is not exercise, allow my core and overall strength to fail, and gain even more excess weight. I will avoid certain exercises not because of the repair but because I do not like those routines and feel they are unsafe overall.

Be safe but you need to live life after repair. Your chance for recurrence and/or pain is *never* going to be zero no matter the doctor or procedure.

[Author]

Posts