My bilateral hernia surgery with mesh

[spinotza]

Insert *look how they massacred my baby* meme. Wow, I can’t believe what happened to this forum! Excuse the analogy but this is forum equivalent of a botched hernia surgery.

Anyway, I just wanted to give me 6 months update. I am very happy. No pain and back to snowboarding, skating, calisthenics, tennis. I am very happy with the result!

• This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by  spinotza.

[spinotza]

3 week update:
I will quiet down from now on as recovery is going very well. I’m back to swimming, jogging and weight lifting. Of course nowhere near to the intensity before surgery but still I think exercise is good for me if nothing triggers pain. I listen to my body and my body is ok with what I’m doing.
Yesterday and today I had zero pain.

I’ve been very careful with my diet and I went down 1.5 kg since surgery and now I’m 180cm and 76kg which I think also helps.

I’m emphasizing a lot fitness, no? Well I got my bilateral hernia in 2017 when I weighed 88 kg, I was depressed and would get sick and cough a lot.

I know it’s annoying to say this if you have a hernia,but I watched waited 5+ years and the most important thing I learnt was how to take care of my body even with an injury. There is always something you can do to improve your physical state and this will help both your surgery and recovery!

My long term goals are: go back to swimming 2 km, play a full tennis match and finally hopefully I’ll get back to doing hand stand exercises although that might be a bit too risky.

• This reply was modified 8 months ago by  spinotza.

[spinotza]

Hi Pinto. My insurance meant that I could choose any doctor from the centre as they were all affiliated. I was happy with the one they suggested so I went with him!

• This reply was modified 8 months ago by  spinotza.

[pinto]

Spinotza, I’m happy for you you’re in a good place. You did your best under the circumstances and really took control of it all. I’m sure yours will be successful. If you don’t mind, I’m wondering if you really were able to choose your own surgeon or trusted the Center to make the choice for you. It sounds like the latter but just wanna be sure.

[spinotza]

@Dconfused77 I will update my thread and answer your questions. I don’t really deserve new topics as I don’t hold the golden key to hernia surgery. There are people here who have more understanding that I do about every single component of the surgery. I do have to agree with other forum members that you don’t present a fair balanced description of neither Shouldice, Desarda or Kang and that doesn’t help people on this forum trying to make their own decision.

– who is the best doctor at the centre. The most experienced. I am calling for a consult early next week. I have had a hard time finding any reviews on the Centre -did you find some?
There are some reviews on google reviews if that helps:
https://www.google.com/search?q=The+British+Hernia+Centre+review&oq=The+British+Hernia+Centre+review&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIGCAEQIxgnMg0IAhAuGK8BGMcBGIAEMgcIAxAAGIAEMggIBBAAGBYYHjIICAUQABgWGB4yCggGEAAYhgMYigUyCggHEAAYhgMYigUyBggIEEUYQNIBBzg2NWowajmoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lrd=0x48761ab257909da7:0x77fca0ce9c80cf8d,1,,,,

I don’t know who the best doctor is at the centre but I do know all of the ones available are specialised in hernia surgery.

How are you feeling today -back to 100 percent?

Definitely not. I can walk for as much as I want to and can even light jog but the evidence that healing is not complete is that I feel some light pain when I get out of a chair or out of bed. It’s been 2 weeks and this is normal and it’s likely a matter of time until this pain disappears.

Can you feel the mesh if you twist or turn or lie down?

I can not feel the besh if I twist or turn or lie down. Or at least I don’t think I can. There is nothing that I feel that feels like : aha, this is the mesh.

Hope that helps! Goog luck to you!

• This reply was modified 8 months ago by  spinotza.

[David M]

Spinotza,

Thank you for the upbeat, positive sounding report!

[spinotza]

I think if they had done anything with the cremaster it would’ve been in the notes. It’s been 10 days since my surgery and I’m 99% pain free. It would be 100% if it weren’t for some random flashes of pain which aren’t too bad but got to stay honest. Sneezing doesn’t hurt anymore.
Yesterday I went for a swim, I also did a light jog. I know I keep repeating this but: compression boxers. I used them during watchful waiting and they still make me feel far more confident than if I was just wearing loose fitting clothes.

• This reply was modified 8 months, 1 week ago by  spinotza.

[Good intentions]

Sounds like they followed the basic Lichtenstein instructions. Here’s a video from Dr. Chen of the Lichtenstein Amid Hernia Clinic at UCLA with his recommendations and how it’s done. He talks a lot about handing the nerves.

Also a link to the Medtronic product page.

https://www.medtronic.com/covidien/en-gb/products/hernia-repair/mesh-products/parietene-macroporous-mesh.html

https://youtu.be/nvrpuJs8vuU

[David M]

Wow,everything sounds great!

Do they say anything about dividing the cremaster in line with the fibers on the right side looking for an indirect on that side? I’m still not sure how it works, but I think there are three basic possibilities with the cremaster. 1)leave it alone aside from seperating it from the transversalis fascia adhesions. 2)cut it along the fibers to help look for an indirect (in which case it heals back, I guess?) 3) cut it in half perpindicular to the fibers like the do with shouldice

Good to hear how well it’s going.

[spinotza]

I received the medical notes. Right side: A “moderate-sized direct” hernia,
Left side: A “massive indirect” hernia. Sooo I had both types 🙂
The notes also mention Ilioinguinal and iliohypogastric nerves identified and spared on both sides as well as the cord structure.
The meshes are described as “parietene”. Don’t know if this is a brand name or not.

In other news Day 7 and I feel really good. No pain killers, no constipation just soreness if I walk too much.

[David M]

Very interesting Spinotza, especially the statetment that you might have been conscious but didnt remember it. I know that in the biohernia Shouldice on YouTube, the surgeon said something about asking the patient to cough to see how firm the stitching was.Ive been curious about whether this is ever done after the plication of the transversalis fascia in the Lichtenstein. From your post, it seems that they could have had you cough and you not remember doing so, but who knows? This wouldn’t be a necessary thing for the surgery, anyway, but it might give some feedback to the surgeon, perhaps.

[David M]

Spinotza
I reread your initial reporter to find out if your were conscious during the surgery. I take it that you were sedated for the most part and probably wouldnt remember much. Did you choose to have sedation beforehand, and could you have chosen otherwise if you wanted. What kind of sedation, if I may ask?

[William Bryant]

Thanks, yes the British Hernia Centre. They do say that open mesh gives best results and I think it seems that’s right. Certainly from the stories on here it seems lap is more problematic.

They are high volume and specialist so that goes in their/your favour.

I read somewhere, someone went there from America due to their good reputation.

Fingers crossed for you that recovery continues well.

• This reply was modified 8 months, 2 weeks ago by  William Bryant.

[William Bryant]

Also plenty of fruit and fibre. Orange juice is good for me.

What was the name of your surgeon.

Was it open with mesh rather than keyhole with mesh?

Good news is when mesh works it works really, really well.

[Oceanic]

Laxatives are your friend after hernia surgery, take them on day 1 post op especially if you are taking opiate based pain meds

[spinotza]

Day 5 – I finally relieved myself of constipation which was the last major hurdle. My advice for anyone facing this issue is to bring the heatpad into the toilet and press it against the belly, it helped me a lot.

Today I did my longest walk to the pharmacy as well which feels like an important milestone. I am back to using my compression boxers which provide a lot of pain relief when I am walking. I am down to 1 paracetamol a day and I find myself lucky to be having such a quick progress, which is probably determined by my age (34) and height/weight( 1.80/75 kg) according to my own theories.

[G]

spinotza, good luck to you. I never really had pain with my hernia, but it did keep getting bigger. Mine was indirect. I had it successfully repaired. It will be interesting to find out if your two hernias were indirect or direct. Now for the good news, you won’t need to keep pushing your guts back in anymore. That really is a game changer. I had a tissue repair (no shouldice, no desarda) not a mesh repair. I noticed with lots of socialized medicine and with the prevailing USA managed healthcare system, mesh seems to be the primary if not the only option in many cases. It takes courage and tenacity to actually “pull the trigger” and get the surgery over and done with. Pat yourself on the back spinotza, job well done. Here’s wishing you a complete and speedy recovery.

[David M]

Sounds great. Mine is right side tennis ball, as well. My exercise consists of purposeful walking and that doesn’t seem to really have a pain effect. Due to some recent coughing it may have gotten a little bigger. There does seem to be slightly more pain as the day wears on. The pain and turgidity of the hernia might be being affected in my case by the meal cycle.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing your continued improvement.

[spinotza]

I added more details in a reply but I wanted to make it very very clear I am in no way denying the problems people have had with mesh they have all my sympathy and it could happen to me too! The choice I’ve made was under the constraints and personal circumstances I have and I can only hope for the best.

[Good intentions]

spinotza has been on the forum for over two years. The easy test is to click the name and look at their posting history.

https://herniatalk.com/members/spinotza/