Looks like luck ran out – Recurrence Confirmed

[William Bryant]

Yes Sensei – good point about the mental impact and things like depression. It’s a feeling of uselessness and a major adjustment to a different life. Plus hernias, in UK, seen to be a joke condition. So when I was asked to help push a car for example I said I can’t have a medical condition.

It’s hard adjusting as I used to carry very heavy stuff and now I don’t. This point is not always taken into account so we’ll done for highlighting it.

[Watchful]

Best of luck, Sensei. What a nightmare. It’s good that you persisted and got to the bottom of it in spite of so much wrong information that was thrown at you on the way.

[Good intentions]

So you’re just over one year in to your ordeal. Is there any way to find out what the mesh was, the brand and trade name, that was implanted? Mesh is known to move over time but to have it move “all over the place”, far enough to apparently impinge on some nerves, within four or five months seems very unusual. There is a huge variety of meshes out there.

If you don’t have the energy I get it. I just wonder about all of these new meshes that keep appearing with essentially no data to support their use in humans. The 510(k) process of the FDA allows it but the FDA’s purpose is to assess toxicity of materials, not suitability of devices. The whole medical device industry is kind of corrupted, as far as new device approval is concerned. Almost anything goes.

Did you get your medical records from Surgeon #1? There might be something notable in them that explains the failure of his procedure.

[Good intentions]

Well, that is a bummer.

Could you possibly summarize your whole experience here in this thread, from implantation to today? I went back and looked but can’t find what type of mesh you had implanted or how long ago it was. Plus the umbilical hernia/pain. How long did you live with the mesh before deciding to have it removed? I had mesh in me for three years. I wonder if there is an optimum time to wait before mesh removal.

On your removal, from past posts, it seems like the left was removed first by Dr. Billing but a small piece of mesh ws left behind, similar to my case on the right. Too tangled up with critical structures. Things seemed to be healing well, but your umbilical pain started increasing. You went to Dr. Parra to have the right side removed, and he also went to the left side and removed the small piece left over. Then, within four months you had both sides recur and still have umbilical pain.

Thanks for contributing your story to the forum. I think it helps people to see what is involved once you start to have mesh problems. They are very hard to solve. I am certain that there are people out there suffering who just don’t trust the system to fix their problems, so they just live with it.

[William Bryant]

Good luck. Maybe the surgeon will have an idea of best repair option in the circumstances.

[William Bryant]

That’s unfortunate but at least you know now and as far as I can tell open is ‘safer’ and less likely re chronic pain. Which tissue repair do you think it will be?

[sensei_305]

exactly William, there is more to it than just physical pain.

[sensei_305]

Thank you, I was a happy dude before all of this. I have a great family and great job. But this crap really has turned my mental health upside down. I don’t think anyone really talks about the mental toll this takes on a man. I say man because we are expected to carry heavy crap around in the house. Something so basic like furniture. So there is more to it than just feeling physical pain. Sometimes I wonder why me. What did I do to deserve this.

• This reply was modified 9 months, 3 weeks ago by  sensei_305.

[sensei_305]

@good-intentions Sure, maybe “All over the place” is an exaggeration but I recall Dr.Billing saying it has moved. It was Bard 3D MAX or something like that. I recall the 3D Max for sure in the paper work from 1st implantation surgery. Honestly, at this point I am past the point of figuring out what went wrong on the 1st one. I just hope that next time is the last time. Looking forward to hearing what type of procedure Billing will recommend.

• This reply was modified 9 months, 3 weeks ago by  sensei_305.

[sensei_305]

@good-intentions Good evening brother, sure I will try and summarize as best as possible. I had Mesh implanted back on May 12,2022 after suffering testicular pain on left side for a while, a CT scan showed the small fat containing hernias in the inguinal area. 1 week before lap surgery was scheduled, I started feeling weird tugging on my umbilical area so decided to have a CT scan done which showed to my bad luck I had just gotten an umbilical hernia out of nowhere which was incarcerated. So on May 12,2022 Surgeon #1 performed Lap surgery for Bilateral inguinal hernia repairs. I felt 100% for around 3 months, at that point the Umbilical discomfort I recall started,Perhaps could have been sooner but it was on and off, I figured just still going through healing process. Then one day my left Inguinal area where mesh was started hurting, but this pain was very sensitive to touch. If anyone touched my stomach in that area I would almost scream. I went at that point back to Surgeon #1 and he ofcourse was like ahh lets send you to Pain Management, I told him I thought something was wrong. This did not feel like nerve pain. When I had a CT done “Everything was fine”.I still did not trust that. I sent my CD to Paul Szotek who reviewed it and said that the Surgeon had never really fixed the Hernia on left side but had just put mesh right by it. I still do not understand how that happend. He said he found a lot of inflamation on both sides and looked like my body perhaps was rejecting the mesh. At that point he wanted me to wait like 6 months before considering Surgery. I could not wait that long and joined this forum, there is where I found you and your recovery story. After speaking with you I decided to reach out to Dr.Billing and he was right away willing to help when everyone else was making me wait. As you know I flew to Seattle, Dr.Billings had planned to remove both meshes at same time since my right was also bothering me. But as I mentioned before, he found that the mesh on left inguinal side had migrated and was all over the place. He decided to take his time and fix the left side instead of removing both same day. Perhaps there was not enough time. Anyway, this took place on December 21st I believe 2022. So Mesh implanted May 12,2022. 1st removal done December. As you can see I only had it for a few months. At this point I was back home in Florida with left side removed except a small piece close to spermatic cord. Right side Mesh kept bothering me and financially I was not doing too good. So I decided to look for a surgeon here with experience who could remove right side mesh. I came across Dr.Eduardo Parra Davila who apparently had done work with Igor Belyanzki and took my insurance. I had met him 1 month post removal of left side mesh. At that point he ordered and MRI to see what he was working with and scheduled me for right side mesh removal on Feb 24th,2023 with left side exploration. Surgery took place, he told wife he removed 100% of the mesh on right side and had also removed the remains from the left. I took that as he felt comfortable in removing what he found on the left. He said he did not had to cut/ touch any nerves. Its worth mentioning that my umbilical discomfort also carried on after Dr.billings removed left side mesh. I figured it was from having belling filled with gas and sutures getting irritated perhaps. This umbilical thing is not a daily problem, comes and goes, is not pain just discomfort. So, 2nd mesh removal took place Feb 24th like I said. I felt fine few days later like 100% fine from everything, zero pain/discomfort. Then on March 14th,2023 I started feeling this pressure feeling while sitting down which you have also described I believe. My testicles had zero pain at the time. I did not think much of it and thought it was just part of the recovery. Now on early June I had a CT scan to make sure all was fine and apparently CT found nothing according to Dr.Parra-Davila, However, I did mail a copy back to Paul Szotek to get a second opinion. This was days ago, while I waited on a response from him this is where I developed this burning sensation on right testicle. Called Dr.Parra’s office and they were like well give it some time because Insurance might not approve another CT back to back. They recommended for me to go to ER if needed. I went to ER beginning of week, they did ultra sound which found “questionable right side hernia” They did not want to do A CT. So I was not convinced and two days ago I went to Urgent care and had them do a CT for me. Here the doctor felt hernias on both sides during physical exam plus the CT confirmed it. When I told Paul Szotek he too said he found small recurrence on right side from the CT I had at beginning of month. Now this CT clearly showed recurrence on both sides. So here is the thing, 1st CT done starting of June, Dr.Parra found nothing while Paul Szotek found recurrence. Only thing that took place last week is that I was traveling overseas, perhaps moving the carry-on around was the breaking point, I honestly don’t know. For all I know I have been with the recurrence for a while now but did not notice since no pain was present. Where I stand now is that I do not want any more Lap/Robotic surgery. No need to add the extra stress of potentially developing a port side hernia later on. So what I want to have done is open incision with tissue repair/ sutures. I think after all I have been through it makes zero sense to put mesh back in. So this is where I stand, now waiting for insurance to hopefully approve another procedure..

[sensei_305]

To be 100% honest, I have no idea yet. Will discuss with Surgeon once Insurance approval comes in. But 100% I don’t want anymore robotic/Lap.