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New member with lots of questions
Hello all. I came across this site initially because I was looking for advice regarding side sleeping after inguinal hernia surgery. HOWEVER… after reading through many of these posts, I’m finding myself full of many, many questions.
But first, here’s my story: I recently underwent laparoscopic surgery for two inguinal hernias. The backstory leading up to surgery is actually very simple. Last winter I went to my primary care physician for annual checkup where he informed me that I have two hernias and I should go get them fixed. At my request he referred me to a surgeon who confirmed the original diagnosis and also advised surgery. Option one was open incision with sutures, option two mesh. Based on his information regarding both options (open surgery has longer recovery time and greater chance for pain going forward, mesh has shorter recovery time and less issues with pain). The small amount of research I did prior to the surgery informed me that the vast majority of hernia procedures use mesh, therefore I concluded that given the upside versus sutures as well as it’s overwhelming edge numerically, I opted for mesh.
Based on the reading I’m doing now, I’m starting to think I made a drastic mistake choosing mesh. There appear to be many downsides to this product. I guess the first question I want to throw out there is just how concerned should I be? -
10 Replies
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[USER=”2029″]Good intentions[/USER], I submitted a request for a copy of the surgery notes last week (apparently a third party holds the records, who’d a thunk). I’ll post when I get it.
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Your repair was like mine, the “state” of the art for laparoscopic mesh repair. The odds say that you’ll be okay. It will still be worth your time to get your medical records. I’ve been trying to collect information about what works and what has problems, but the information is hard to find.
Stay in touch and report your progress and you can get some advice on if what you’re experiencing is normal or not. Good luck.
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Thanks for the info Chaunce1234. I actually met with the surgeon today. He said everything looks great. Pain and discomfort seem to be improving as well. But I’m not going to lie: the whole mesh on the spermatic cord thing really has me geeked. That just doesn’t seem right. I asked the surgeon about it and his answer seemed rather vague.
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How are you doing now, a few days later?
In the USA, the vast majority of surgeons are general surgeons, and that’s where the majority of hernias are fixed. In the USA there are surprisingly few doctors who are dedicated 100% to hernias and hernia issues, that’s just the way it has turned out for whatever reason. That also doesn’t mean that general surgeons can’t be hernia experts, or vice versa, it really depends on their own interest in the topic and the procedure I’d think. So again I would not worry too much, you likely had a fairly routine experience.
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[USER=”1916″]Chaunce1234[/USER] I’m three weeks post-op. Recovery-wise pain is decreasing, although last week I had a sharp pain in my groin that woke me in my sleep and since then I’ve felt soreness in my testicles. I contacted my surgeon’s office and they assured me that is nothing to worry about, but it sure doesn’t feel that way to me:eek:. The one thing that I have noticed since the surgery is what feels like a persistent low-grade flu: cold and clammy, dry eyes, excessive thirst, achy joints, but no fever. Again, don’t know if that’s typical either. I guess my reason for this post is that as I’m reading through the other posts on this site I’m becoming increasingly aware that there were a lot of questions that never occured to me to ask and had I been armed with that knowledge beforehand I’d make a different choice.
Also, to be clear, my surgeon never offered a tissue suture option. It was either laparo with mesh, or open incision with regular sutures. The surgeon who performed my procedure was a general surgeon and that’s another element to this situation that has me second-guessing myself: it never occured to me to seek out a hernia surgeon. I assumed that the surgeon my doctor refered me to would be the best choice and now I’m learning after the fact that there are several doctors in my area that do hernias exclusively. -
[USER=”1916″]Chaunce1234[/USER] I’m three weeks post-op. By all physical measures rehab seems to be progressing normally based on what my surgeon told me to expect. To be clear, the suture option was not natural tissue. When I went to the initial consultation the surgeon offered two options – laparoscopic or open incision. Based on the pros and cons presented by the surgeon and the (in hindsight) very limited research I did on my own, I opted for laparoscopic.
I wish I had found this website before my surgery because I’m now learning that there’s so many more complexities to the procedure that never occurred to me. -
[USER=”2563″]Excalibur[/USER] I would not worry or be concerned, if you are post-surgery and don’t have any particularly worrying symptoms (ie; unusual pain, severe pain, or some other life changing problem) then you’re probably fine – from a statistical standpoint, the odds are already in your favor. The reality is most people do fine with the average hernia repair with mesh, though there is indeed a disturbingly high percentage of people who do end up with chronic pain or some other unfortunate issue after hernia surgery.
How long ago was your surgery? How are you feeling? In terms of side sleeping, or most other activity for that matter, I would try to do what is comfortable, and what is within the limits as set by your surgeon, particularly while you are still healing.
Do you mind sharing the name of your surgeon? who offered you a tissue suture repair, as well as the laparoscopic repair? It can be helpful to other patients to have options like that.
Keep us updated on your case and progress!
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It depends. I have had my records emailed to me, sent via CD, and mailed in paper form. I’ve done it by phone, by filling out a form on a web site, and by emailing somebody. They all seem to be different. Mine were held in two different places, my surgeon’s office and the facility that he used to do the surgery, an ambulatory surgery center.
It’s very common, for both personal records, and for referrals to other offices. I’d just call the main number of your surgeon’s office and start there.
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For sure.
Would I go to the surgeon’s office to obtain a copy of those records? And would I need to ask the surgeon directly, or would their assistant be able to obtain the records? Also, is that a common request to make? -
There’s really little point in being concerned now. If you had the surgery over a few months ago and you’re in good shape now then any ill effects will be slow in coming. There are, apparently, combinations of patient, surgical method, and material that work well. It’s unclear what that combination is, so there’s no readily apparent way to avoid the bad and seek out the good. That’s one thing some of us are trying to do via this forum, is to identify the good and the bad so that people can make better choices.
Can you get a copy of your medical records and post the details of your surgery? There might be some clues there that will give some ideas of what to expect. Type of mesh, extent of coverage, TAPP or TEP.
Good luck. Don’t worry too much about what is past. Please share more details if you can though.
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