Visiting Dr Kang next month, any tips?

[Alan]

Just had a consultation with Dr Kang after meeting Stephen and going through tests (Blood, chest x-ray, urine and ultrasound). All extremely efficient and quick. Surgery booked early tomorrow, covid test first will be staying overnight.

Hotel is 20 min walk, so the taxi ride back should be quick.

Dr Kang gave me a signed copy of his book so reading this evening before bed.

[pinto]

I recommend you book a hotel closest to the hospital within your means or requirements. Stephen will give you a list of nearby hotels. My first trip required a long taxi ride that was painful. My second trip, I booked a nearby hotel. As you will be in Korea two weeks, you might think of visiting Pusan, a resort city.

[William Bryant]

Good luck Alan, hope all goes well. Would you be able to update us after the operation if and when you feel up to it as it would be a great help to many.

Not just the op but the flying etc..I’m in UK too and apprehensive about such a long flight but have provisionally got a Dr Kang repair in mind.

Salon what do you estimate the cost, all told, flights and hotel etc.

In the meantime hope it all goes well for you. Good luck

[Alan]

Thanks Mike, I’m taking my partner (who’s a traveler and desperate to see Korea), we are staying at Peyto hotel, which is 400m away from the hospital.

Thanks for the app recommendation – I love Korean food so looking forward to that part of the trip.

[Mike M]

Alan – Reach out to Stephen Kwon prior to your trip if you have not already. Stephen is awesome and a great resource for overseas English speaking patients. He will make sure your trip goes smoothly.

I stayed at the CoEx which had everything I needed within walking distance (including a mall below the hotel). Rates were pretty reasonable through an agency or Priceline. The hotel has laundry service, a lot of English speaking staff, and a lot other amenities that made my stay effortless. Coex is close to the hospital but about 30mins drive time due to traffic.

One of the best Korean BBQ places I found was walking distance from Coex. It was a smaller shop but probably the best I had on my trip next to BBQ near the Lotte Tower.

There will be a lot more open sightseeing attractions with your trip. Back in April they were just opening tourist areas back up to the public.

Lotte Tower, Temples and Palaces, JSA, Observatory, White Jade mines in Chuncheon, etc. there is a lot to take in but you should be able to see a lot in 2 weeks. I was pretty conservative the first week but 2nd week I was talked into walking up to the top of the Lotte tower. A lot of stairs but no real issues. Just had to take it slow.

Gangnam-gu is the south side of Seoul where the Coex is located. It was awesome and very amenable to a noobie traveler from the U.S. like me. Load the SHUTTLE food app on your phone too if you like Doordash / Ubereats. It is the best app I found for English speaking travelers. They deliver all over the city.

Dr. Kang is exactly as advertised. You made the right decision imho.

[sensei_305]

Thank you William for the input.

[Watchful]

Without knowing the statistics based on a good study, how can you say that the chronic pain or discomfort cases are rare? That’s my point – we don’t really know how rare or not rare these are.

I’d like to see another statistic which never seems to be studied which is what percentage recover to 100% normal – zero pain, discomfort, numbness, twinges, tightness, etc. How rare or common is that?

[MarkT]

That is quite the false equivalency to respond with “none of us know the real statistics”.

I know that you are smarter than that.

[Watchful]

None of us know the real statistics. There is certainly reason for concern. The observation that the incidence of chronic pain is higher than expected came directly from the chief surgeon at Shouldice in his interview with Dr. Towfigh. They’ve been doing a major study of this as a result of noticing this problem. Let’s wait for the results of this study before concluding anything – hopefully they’ll be published.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by  Watchful.

[MarkT]

So I’m an outlier, a rare problem-free, back-to-normal case after two separate surgeries, and the ‘at least minor issues’ rate is hovering somewhere close to 100%?

I think perceptions of reality are being badly skewed by non-representational sources like this forum, doctor review sites, anecdote, etc.

I would suggest that the reason you haven’t heard of more cases like mine is because people with unremarkable experiences tend not to seek out opportunities to share those unremarkable experiences.

Also, the bad cases, however rare, tend to be what stand out and remains salient in our mind.

[Mike M]

@Chuck Also in regards to the structure being back to 100%.

Scar tissue is unidirectional vs. bidirectional.

My understanding is because of this the tissue is about 70-80% of what it was previously. However when you add in structure like permanent sutures and the fact the procedure attaches to other parts of the body in that area to provide additional strength? who knows? Optimistically I would hope it was better than prior to the damage occurring.

[Mike M]

@Chuck

The only thing I couldn’t do after a few weeks of recovery was run (not because of pain though). I run just fine now. Lifting, coughing, etc. I couldn’t feel it after the recovery period. I did a little exertion after the recovery period but my goal was to take it easy until after 6 months, which is when the tissue has fully healed from what I understand? Walking and some light lifting at most. 6 months was early Oct so I’ve been lifting more weight now and being a lot more active.

My BMI was at the upper limit of what most doctors would consider for open Tissue no Mesh repair. The upper limit for most places is around 30% not 25%. I’m a bigger dude all around 6’3″. Ideally I need to lose around 40lbs. My hernia was larger than typical, not insane? but it was the size of a hen egg per Dr. Kang.

The pros were – I have no pre-existing medical conditions. Normal Blood pressure, no diabetes, no previous surgery, healthy, and still fairly young? in my late 40s.

No issues but it was a little scary before surgery to consider the points Dr. Kang made regarding weight in the US vs. weight in South Korea. Most individuals in South Korea are in better shape weight wise than in the US (even older patients). You start to doubt if open tissue no mesh could ever work on X patient but it does work. I am definitely not the hardest patient he worked on but I wasn’t a walk in the park either. It goes back to really doing the research and selecting the best doctor with the highest level of surgical skill you can find and access. I can totally see now how a surgery like this could end in a nightmare if you are in the wrong hands.

Funny – I actually lost weight in South Korea (10lbs) in the two week period and I ate rice and Korean BBQ non-stop. I also had pizza a few nights. I should have stayed there a month. I walked around a lot after surgery but nothing crazy.

I have friends who have had mesh and others who have had no mesh repairs. I also read many cases including those on these forums. The consistency in the stories are interesting. Open tissue no mesh – More challenging early on ( even up to the 1st year ) then issues fade to nothing. Mesh – No issues early on then varying degrees of issues ( including debilitating ) after the 1st year.

I will double down on Dr. Kang. He doesn’t cherry pick patients to generate skewed numbers that don’t reflect the results of the population. He is well respected by former patients and other specialized doctors in his field like Dr. Yunis. He has successful completed no mesh repairs in probably the widest variety of patients not seen since the introduction of mesh.

[Watchful]

Other than your case, I also haven’t seen any “100% back to normal like the hernia and surgery never happened” cases. There always seem to be at least some minor issues. My dad is a good example. Successful tissue repair, but with some minor discomfort that never went away completely. Unfortunately, the hernia recurred eventually, possibly because he’s overweight.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 6 months ago by  Watchful.

[MarkT]

“…have yet to find anyone with a tissue repair who is back 100 to normal”

Really?