[ssonic99]

Thank you. I can’t say with any certainty that my surgery was a failure. The local MRI doctor saw no recurrence and some scar tissue and that gives me some peace of mind. The scarring maybe where the residual discomfort is coming from for all I know. I feel much better than I did back in December. What is a complete failure is the follow through on Dr Tomas’s part to check on me, the patient, from surgery to complete recovery especially since I don’t live close to Florida. It was like pulling teeth just to get information to fill out an MRI script that my Chiropractor wrote up for me on my behalf.

The reason I mention the insurance thing is because I found an extraneous EOB statement with a fictitious surgery date where an insurance payment was apparently sent to Dr Tomas’s office in the amount equal to the payment I received through an individual claim I made on the real surgery date. Keep in mind his office does not accept insurance, but had my insurance information “on behalf of the anesthesiologists and lee island surgery center.” In suspicion, I sent emails to his financial person (Terry) who handles that stuff and received silence.

[ssonic99]

I am sad to report that I am officially being ignored by Dr Tomas’s office. I got the follow up MRI done back in April/May because of hernia recurrence concerns. The MRI was received by their office. I sent follow up emails to Dr Tomas’s assistant Esteban and I don’t receive replies after all that effort. I even copied BJ who is a patient liaison person on the most recent email. All I was looking for was that in his professional opinion as the surgeon who did the work whether everything still looked ok. It’s been 3 months and no response. Very suspicious. I’m not particularly concerned about my condition as much because there has been improvement in the last 3 months. However, the low level of professionalism just to put my final concerns away is remarkable and very concerning. There is a lot more to this hernia repair story that I’ve been holding back (thought to be a misunderstanding) that almost caused me to go home running for fear of my life mostly because of the anesthesiologist, but I may have to come out of the closet with this story and write multiple very factual reviews disclosing everything from start to finish. At this point I will offer the following advice. BJ or some other person will say they are collecting insurance info on behalf of the anesthesiologist and lee island surgery center (if you go there). Don’t give it to them. Let those two entities get the information by them calling you or you call them. I’ll leave it at that for now.

[ssonic99]

quote SickofPain!:

Dr Robert Tomas told me I had a hernia, but I did not. He claims he does the Desarda technique which uses no mesh, but a true Desrada uses dissolvable internal stitches. Tomas opened me up two separate times because he said he missed it the first time. Then he sewed up my oblique muscle so tight with PERMANENT STITCHES and I was in agony during the surgery. I could not take a deep breath for almost two years. I ended up having to search for a surgeon that would reverse what he did and remove those awful stitches. It was a brutal surgery because the stitches had shredded my muscle. I can finally breathe now. I went through 2 years of hell for nothing. I had no hernia. What he said was a hernia is still there.I got very sick from those stitches because my body was fighting them and it turned into big granulomas. You should see the mess they took out of me. It was awful. I am now scarred and deformed. My bikini days are gone!! I will always be weak now from all the damage that was done by those sutures cutting into my muscle.

Be careful. Ask a lot of questions

[USER=”2895″]SickofPain![/USER]

What kind of hernia did you have and when did you have it repaired by Dr Tomas if you don’t mind me asking?

[ssonic99]

Was looking at Operation Technique on his website where I found the long and short of his two books sold on Amazon. Says he uses PDSII no.1 or ‘0’ (Monofilament Polydioxanone violet, Ethicon) continuous sutures. These are absorbable as far as I know.

I searched for the book, Look Inside, on the kindle app and amazon and found the results for the two books under his name mentioned above. “Look inside” didn’t come up for some reason. Wherever it’s at, he’s probably reiterating the history again since history apparently dictates that at one time he did use non absorbable sutures in the repair technique.

While I don’t have access to that article in Hernia (2006) without paying for it, I was able to read the abstract. That (1-12 yr) follow-up study was performed on 860 patients with 920 inguinal hernias between August 1990 and December 2003. Sounds like he might have had a mixture of patients with and without absorbable sutures possibly as part of that study. It might explain the mixed messages. The end result of the study showed zero recurrences of 920 inguinal hernias. That’s a good thing.

I’ve viewed the MRI scans myself. While I am no expert, I don’t see any foreign bodies like sutures in those scans. They would stick out like a sore thumb. I had an appendectomy done 13 years ago. The surgeon at the time through open surgery used surgical staples (stainless steel) internally to close up the incision. These staples show up on x rays. I first noticed this when my Chiropractor sent me to radiology to have my spine x rayed to check my spinal alignment. Until that time, I never knew they were there until the x ray tech asked me what they were. Then we concluded that they were metal staples from that surgery. So now every time if I’m asked before any kind of radiology if I have any foreign metal body inside me, I check yes.

[ssonic99]

Wow! I never knew that at one time Dr. Desarda used non absorbable sutures. I read that publication because it really peaked my curiosity since I assumed absorbable sutures were always used. If you go to Dr Desarda’s website and read the history of the Desarda Repair, he mentions the publication from BMC Surgery back in 2002 and subsequently after that time the repair method improved to use absorbable sutures. It’s had other improvements since it’s origins that I never knew about. I’d post the link to the history, but I’m not sure of the forum rules. I found it by googling “History Desarda Repair”. Fascinating read.

[ssonic99]

He received the MRI CD and results on Friday May 31. I have not heard back from him at all this week. Looks like I’ll be making a phone call on Monday morning.

I definitely would not call my pain excruciating by a long shot. Just really annoying when I become physically active especially when lifting or have a large bowel movements. He said he used dissolvable sutures and that he was trained and mentored multiple times by Dr. Desarda from India. That’s on his website including explanation and pictures of his procedure. It’s just strange how my pain was a zero for about a month after about a 6 weeks recovery, then now this.

[ssonic99]

Thank you. Still waiting, but in the mean time, I must say there has been some improvement. I took the hernia truss off for an entire weekend and did not experience the symptoms previously discussed. Pain is a strange beast. This pain had gone on for 3 years before the hernia was finally diagnosed and I got it repaired. Outside of the muscle tissue still developing and scar tissue, could the nerves in that area developed a memory of this pain since it went on for so long?

[ssonic99]

Got the MRI results back and according to the radiologist doctor, he/she does not see a hernia. I’m in process of sending the MRI CD to Dr Tomas’s office for review.

[ssonic99]

[USER=”2826″]patient[/USER] I would definitely not deter you from a Descarda Repair. My situation is unique I think as far as my profession. My job is very intense. I don’t know your situation or the extent of your hernia or the health of your connective tissue. A Descarda Repair could be very well suited to your situation and nothing can substitute the opinion of a Doctor and getting imaging done. Get more than one opinion from doctors who are well versed in various forms of pure tissue repair. I was torn between Descarda and Shouldice. Descarda won out because of Dr Tomas’s online reputation and because my situation was rushed. I would have needed to lose another 15-20 lbs to qualify for a legitimate Shouldice Repair. That would have taken another 2 months with the diet I was on. My hernia was getting worse week by week noticeably plus in order to pass my DOT physical, I had to have a rapid plan of action to fix it.

[ssonic99]

My MRI is scheduled for this Monday. I will find out soon enough and post the results and hopefully find out soon what Dr. Tomas has to say about it. The good news is my situation and pain doesn’t feel like it’s getting worse.

[ssonic99]

I received a response from Dr. Tomas’s assistant. He gave my chiropractor instructions to fill out a script for an MRI. I have the script and in the process of scheduling a right groin MRI with contrast. He seemed to indicate that the MRI may give false results due to pseudo lesions and that the area is still healing, but still seems to think the pain I feel is normal until muscle tissue adjusts to my level of activity. Dr Towfigh, it feels similar to my original hernia, just that the pain hasn’t started going into my back yet and I can actually pin point the sore spot. The truss does help. I really hope it is not a recurrence. In the event that it is failed repair, is it still possible to have shouldice repair?

[ssonic99]

Dr Kaufman from Brick, NJ also mentioned something along those lines when I visited him last October 2018. Nothing about the high recurrence rate, just that it was a rehashed technique and suggested a phasix mesh as an alternative.

[ssonic99]

[h=3]Iliohypogastric nerve entrapment? Maybe?[/h]

[ssonic99]

Outside of any reports, my wife remembers Doctor Tomas telling her after the surgery was over that everything went well and that my muscle tissue was very healthy.

[ssonic99]

The pain builds up to the moment of defecation and slowly recedes after, but not completely. The area is always tender and painful to pressurized touch which is different. This pain is further exasperated with physical activity, especially lifting and long term standing. I’m assuming the fecal matter pressure builds up internally causing the pain to build. It’s even worse with a hardened bowel movement. The pain I would describe as a fatigue ache with a weakening feeling similar to what I had before surgery, but to a lesser degree. Before surgery I was forced to sit down with the pain and heaviness. No detectable or reducible bulge yet. That’s how the hernia started out last time and my family doctor told me for years I didn’t have hernia till one day I sneezed and out the bulge came with a popping sensation with almost every cough or sneeze. Location wise the pain is just above the genitalia to my right of the line of symmetry if you were to divide my body in half vertically. It’s very close to the bottom of the incision line just below where the healing ridge is fading.

I was told 6 to 8 weeks to return to work and received written clearance just over 6 weeks with graduated work duty for a couple of weeks. My work load was lighter than normal. Any serious heavy lifting was not done directly, but I used gravity assistance and a hand truck. I really did put the Superman cape away and I still have out of precaution.

My surgery was done at the Lee Health Hospital in Fort Myers, FL. Would they have the operative report? What do you mean by what was unusable during surgery?

[ssonic99]

This is what I’ve been thinking. I can’t find anybody who wrote reviews and journaled their Desarda Repair recovery online that talked about this kind of pain with varying bowel movements months after surgery. I sent an email out Dr Tomas’s assistant and patient liaison inquiring about this, this morning. Being that it’s Sunday, I probably will not hear anything until tomorrow at the earliest. I’m here in NJ, but basically would need a script for the scan. I hope it’s not a recurrence. I don’t have another $3,500 plus travel expenses to do it again. Actually his price increased this year I think to $3,750. My insurance only reimbursed me a little over $800 since he is cash payment only.