WasInTN
Forum Replies Created
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4 Days Post-Op (Laparoscopic Hernia Repair)
Congratulations.
Quick question. Does Dr. Ramshaw travel to all these states to do surgeries? I thought he works in FL only. You mentioned KY. I am in KY and would like to know if he comes to KY to do surgeries.
Knoxville is about 6 hours drive from where I live.
Thanks
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Having a Difficult Time Deciding
Stephen
I was told of my IH in around 2008 and I gave no attention to it. I continued my usual life till 2013 when the bulge started interfering my life. It was around May/June 2014 I took action and went to Dr. Goodyear of PA. He has over 200 surgeries and is known as an expert. I was rolled in at 10 and walked out at 1. Since then no pain no feeling of mesh no nothing. I am happy I went to him. His mesh is ultrapro and worked for me and many of his patients are happy. So in a nutshell I played 6 years of wait and watch game.Having said that, mesh is not 200% pain free foe everyone. Remember the age old adage – God cures you, doctors take your money? It happens in 1% of those people unfortunately. So I would not worry about surgery problems if my surgeon is good. Choose your surgeon wisely. If you want to know how to choose wisely, watch the Indiana Jones movie where the IJ (Ford) was told “Your friend has chosen poorly, and you have chosen wisely.” Just kidding. Surgeon skill is UTMOST important in IH surgery. Period. Which area of USA do you live?
This you may want to not read but I will say it. No offense at all. If I were at your age, I will gladly walk into surgery room and if that ends up with my death, I will be more than happy, than no surgery and stay in nursing home till age 95 and be under geriatric care. You have nothing to lose. Do you? I am not saying that you lived long but at 75, why bother waiting? Choose a good surgeon and go for it. If you get good results, yes you can play 20 years golf and if you do not, you have nothing to lose. That’s my personal opinion.
Dr. pszotek, funny story about missing 5 years of golf. Wish I will able to stand erect by that age of 93 🙂
Best, BTW I posted my experience, how to take care of yourself during surgery etc on this forum that used to appear on top of the posts but now I do not find them. You may want to search with my handle name.
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surgeon with <1% recurrence, chronic pain rate?
Neil
Next time when you ask such information, please provide where you live, and what are your preferences (like looking for male or female surgeons). Without that people usually cannot give you any details.Are you in Africa or China or in Papa New Guinea islands? If you are in USA which state? There are good surgeons coast to coast and are you willing to travel? If so how far? Do you have a particular type of insurance that needs pre-certification? Or does your insurance work outside the state where you reside? If insurance does not pay for it or if you do not have insurance are you going to pay from your pocket? If so are you limited by a dollar amount? How long do you have the hernia? Does it need surgery quickly or did your PCP say you can watch and wait?
If you give more details you will get more information. Having said that I went to Dr. Goodyear in PA but I live in KY. I am happy with his technique. So are others. Some people who live in CA and DC travel to him too. Drs. Towfigh, Chen and many others in CA are well known. Dr Ramshaw in Florida is famous for mesh clean up and corrections. So is Dr. Tomas in FL who does no mesh surgeries.
So give more details and you will get more information to the point.
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Help With Hernia Pain
Brady
From what you wrote – I guessed your location correctly. 🙂 My hunch is that you HAVE TO MOVE OUT OF TX for a good surgeon. Stop seeing your VA and military guys. They screwed you up enough.It will now cost money to go to FL (RamShaw) or CA (Chen, Towfigh) or Dr. Goodyear (PA). Assume about $5K is not your money and get your health back. If I were you I will go to Ramshaw in FL and talk to him about no insurance payment that you can arrange someway.
AND I WILL NEVER go back to the guy who says you lose your leg. No way.
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Help With Hernia Pain
Just forgot to add…
Without consulting second, third, fourth or even a fifth medical opinion, (Even if that amounts to separating from military for work), do NOT EVER ALLOW any doctor to cut of testicle or legs from your body.NEVER DO THAT.
First you need at least 3 or 4 EXPERT surgeons to agree (not just one fresh off the boat MD or a GENERAL SURGEON who advertises himself as an expert surgeon) about it before you go for another surgery.
Do talk to Dr. Goodyear and Dr. Ramshaw. Dr. G can call you back on phone for free consultation and I did that with him. But about Dr. Ramshaw I do nto know if he would do phone calls. But he is a VEERY highly spoken of surgeon.
I also heard there is another surgeon in CA (name sounds like a Chinese name like Yun or Yen) who is very good.
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Help With Hernia Pain
Brady_Wakefield
Sorry to hear your story. You should do two things at this point. You did not provide location of your US Stay. So it is hard to know where you are but for some reason I believe you are in TX – Airborne field told me that but I am of course wrong.1. I am not sure as a veteran you can do this or not, but file complaint on the surgeons. They both seem rookies to me and tell the VA or the hospital what happened. Or even to the upper bosses to the level of Colonel and Sgt Mjr.
2. Seek a surgeon (examples Dr. Goodyear in PA or Dr Ramshaw in FL) and get this straightened out. Those are the best in field of hernia surgery. If you are in CA do talk to Dr. Towfigh.
And at age 27 you really do not deserve it. With opinions of Dr Goodyear or Dr. Ramshaw you should be able to get your life back and possible bar the surgeons who did this to you, to not repeat those surgeries on others or better yet, bar them from medical profession (unlikely since the bosses will side with the surgeons). But you will have better life.
If nobody wants to pay for it, do use crowd funding, facebook and all kinds of things and do go to a better surgeon. Money comes and goes but your life once goes, cannot come back easily.
And finally do come back and tell us how this was resolved. All the best.
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Inguinal hernia got big quickly
See here about NPHI mesh.
http://hernia.tripod.com/meshsyst2.html. Entire FAQ is at http://www.nphernia.com/faqs2.html
They also have FAQ and all details of how mesh is held in place and what is tension free technique. During 2009 or 2008 my PCP during the yearly physical told me that I had hernia and needed to be careful – kind of watch and wait. I ignored and went as usual. But by 2014 there was a small bump and it started growing bigger. More than bump part, I was in pain during bowel movement or during walk/run and eating. Particular worse pains came when I ate in buffet dinners (too much loading) and when I ate cheesy stuff that caused indigestion. I had to be very very careful while lifting stuff even if that was a gallon milk can.
Then I learned from NPHI discussion board ( http://www.network54.com/Forum/557220/ ) that hernia can be hereditary. My father had it and died with it without ever going to surgery. My brother had it for over 20 years and never went to surgery. He was suffering bad. He went to surgery after I had mine and lamented that he should have gone 20 years before to not lose the quality years of his life. He had surgery both sides and is very happy now.
Any case after seeing all these details and choosing non-mesh repair with Dr. Tomas of Florida I decided that since this is hereditary non-mesh is not suitable to me. Since if I use non-mesh, due to weaker genes I can get a recurrence. That made me chose Dr. Goodyear of NPHI. I cancelled Dr. Tomas appointment and sent my papers to NPHI and asked for a phone interview and Dr. G called me to answer all my questions. He was very easy to talk to and very friendly.
On July 30th I went to PA, met Dr. G on July 31st 9 AM and he examined me for 15 minutes, answered all my questions (I wrote them on paper) and made me feel at ease. I was rolled in to surgery at 10:30 (All these were set up on phone first before going to PA). While Dr. G was talking to me about surgery they added some anesthesia via nasal cannula (sp?). Next thing I know was my family pushing me to wake up in post surgery area. I walked out after 1 hour observation. That was it. I slept like a baby.
Two years after surgery, no pain, nothing. Everything is good. My main worries before were two things. 1) Due to surgery what if I had some block of Urinary tract? I read on Google that some people can have this and they insert a tube through penis to pull urine out. Cannot even imagine the pain and suffering. 2) What if the mesh reacts and causes clot that can travel to lungs or brain?
Dr. G answers were these 1) why would you worry about urinary tract if you never had any such problems? This surgery would not even touch anything with urinary tract. This answer did *not* put me at ease but after surgery when they rolled me out they gave me cookies and soda. Within 5 minutes I asked nurse to walk me to bathroom. It was ONLY THEN I recognized that I asked the question to Dr G and smiled to myself. There was free flow and never any obstruction. 2) the mesh is outside the blood stream and will not cause any regular blood contact to cause clots. So the question is irrelevant.
Other minor worry was – would the mesh be rejected due to reaction from body? yes it is possible in a very small percent of people who are allergic to surgical gloves, plastic blah blah. I have never had any allergies in my life. So why bother?
What made me to choose surgery? – I was in pain and decided that either I die on surgery table or get this cured. I was not interested to live with pain on a daily basis and let not the pain control my life. During one of those indigestion episodes (after eating cheesy pizza, and mind you I never ever have indigestion since I am vegetarian and eat good fiber stuff), I had to hold my hernia before any bowel movement happened. That made me decide I go for surgery as well.
Oh BTW I went to a local surgeon with all these same questions and the guy answered OK but I was not convinced to put my man parts in his hands. May be he is good but when I asked him the mesh name, he cannot recall and was scratching his head. Another surgeon who did surgery to my colleague did not do good job and the colleague said not to go to him. All roads then pointed to PA and NPHI. I am happy I went to Dr. G
Any more questions?
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Keep yourself motivated.
English 101 anyone? or Hernia talk 101, may be. 🙂
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Recovery after hernia open surgery
I would say start slow and take it easy. At 4 weeks/1 month the would might have healed 80% but there is no real need to go 100% full fledge sports. 2 months would be good idea.
If I were you, I would do the basic things like stretching, brisk walking and may be some jog. Once that feels good I will go to Cricket and running between the wickets. If you are a fast bowler take it easy, give it two months. Listen to your body and give it rest when it needs. Do not overdo it.
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Inguinal hernia got big quickly
Seeker
I would want to make sure that you have no indigestion. No forcing while emptying bowels and while sitting on toilet seat. If required, drinks LOTS of liquids (not strong protein shakes) and to have a smooth bowel movement.No heavy exercise, no lifting – no, not even the milk can. And if possible do this (slowly) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarvangasana and if you cannot, that is fine too. Have stress free life. Everything will be OK.
Yes Hernia can grow from one day to the next quickly depending on what you do. Do you have IH both sides or one side only? You also did not say you are male or female (Or I missed it).
One word for now R-E-L-A-X. Go easy with everything. BTW by eating less nobody died but by eating more definitely people got some diseases and died. So there is really no worry. 🙂
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Post surgery thoughts
BeenThere
Thanks. One of the things I learned over years is that when you ask the insurance, the hospital or the primary care physician, what they refer you to depends on who they know. Hospital tries to fill up gaps for surgeons and promote them (and vice versa). Insurance does exactly the same. They refer you to anyone on their list (Aka network) and the list is the exact same thing you see on the website. A PCP referring to a surgeon is Scratch-my-back-and-I-will-scratch-yours type stuff. A dentist told me 5 years ago that I had a lesion on tongue that urgently needed to be checked and a referral to so and so oral surgeon was given. I asked if it could be cancer or what? Dentist says yes it could be and that’s why it should be checked.I ignored her since that so called lesion has been in my mouth since age 6 or whatever. In my third of fourth visit the oral surgeon name changed for recommendation and I asked why. No answer. After 5 years I never went to the oral surgeon and she keeps telling me I needed to still go. In one of those cleaning visits in her dental practice I met another dentist this time who said he could not even find any lesion. Huh? So that’s how it goes. After 5 years if I had cancer it should have progressed to stage 5 by now. LOL. It is all about money. Insurance never worries if you are feeling good or bad. Their business is to make money. If you are well, they say “yeah we told you.” and if you feel worse, “yeah sometimes it happens.” You are one in a million. Who cares? It is not their pain to suffer.
There are some grocery shops like Chinese and Mexican stuff sellers. If you go and ask the owner if such and such vegetable is fresh or when it came to shop, he would say “Oh it came right today, take it and it tastes the best.” That alone is a red flag. He is trying to get rid of that stuff.
Talk to people, did you ask for a reference from one of the patients who had surgery with this very doctor who operated on you? General surgeon is different from specialist hernia surgeon.
I often regret spending more money. For example if I spend 55 cents on bananas at Kroger and I find they are 44 cents in Aldi I beat myself for wasting money but when I went to Dr. Goodyear I spent money for plane tickets, hotel and all and NEVER REGRETTED it. Luckily I found that Dr. G is a specialist Hernia surgeon and has the skill. He never needed a Google search or scratch on his head to answer my questions. He has them right off his bat.
Before going to him I met two local guys here and my PCP all of whom confirmed that I had IH. I also knew since I had trouble during bowel movement and a bump was showing up. I did not like the local surgeon; but may be was good. I do not know. When I did not feel confident I decided not to go to him.
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Post-Op Recovery: What to Expect
Every surgeon has to record the surgery and put in archive as what is called “Surgery report.” Be sure to ask for a copy after surgery is done and it should contain everything about how the surgery was done in minute details including the mesh used, blood lost etc.. I am not sure if it contains “Everything” the surgeon did and if he screwed up anything but usually it has details of what mesh was put in and how everything went.
As I said time and again, no question is silly to ask. If you do not ask you won’t get any answers. Write your questions on paper and take them to surgeon and he will (have to) answer them before you are wheeled into surgery. You can even ask what kind of anesthesia will be given and how long you will be knocked out, if you should eat/not eat before and after surgery. In short you can ask anything and everything about surgery and possible problems etc. And be ready to walk away from that surgeon if he cannot provide answers right then and there. You should get answer in the exam room not after he leaves room and googles and comes back. If he tells he does not really know the type of mesh or who makes the mesh and where it is made “surgery ready,” you have a red flag to walk away.
Yes also ask if you can talk to any of his patients who had this kind of surgery. Is the surgeon a “general surgeon” or specialist in hernias? How many hernia surgeries, in particular the IH surgeries, did the surgeon do in the last 3 months?
When I asked Dr. Goodyear his answers was “I do these surgeries daily two or three.:” Even after meeting Dr. G and asking all questions, 20 min before the surgery I asked the hospital nurse how many of these surgeries Dr. G does in that PA hospital, she said “oh, so many, we do not even count.” Look for a IH surgeon than settle for a general surgeon who claims he knows how to do it.
It is like taking your car to meineke repair shop for major engine repair than taking it to the Honda Engine specialist. Yes the specialist will charge more money and will take more time but you have the assurance of the Honda brand and the warranty. I am *not* saying that Meineke is bad but if you feel that assurance with Meineke, go ahead with them. Having said this, yes even Honda dealership can screw up things sometimes. But we have to do our homework before we open our pants and let the surgeon cut the sensitive parts. Unfortunately IH surgery is not like any surgery on your little finger to let go if things go wrong later.
Be well, do your homework, choose a good surgeon and be happy. If you do not know how to choose, watch the Indiana Jones movie on how to choose the correct cup to drink the holy grail and get the compliment – you have chosen wisely. 🙂 All the best and Godspeed!
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Post-Op Recovery: What to Expect
No Problem at all. I went through surgery and had million questions like you. I walked through it and it was great for people on North Penn Hernia Institute website to share what they went through. I benefited greatly and am giving it back. Thank the Lord for their share. All I did was type my experience.
Do update here when you are done. It would help everyone greatly. If you are asking me why you should update after surgery here, it is because when traced back to Adam and Eve we are all related. So I am your 10th cousin’s 15th nephew’s grandson’s great granddad’s 4th great grandson. Hey do not even try to figure that out. LOL.
Wish you fast recovery and Godspeed.
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ejaculation pain after surgery
Excuse my ignorance and audacity to ask this but you tried to self satisfy or have sex just 17 days after surgery? Erection should happen NEXT day after surgery if nerves are intact and surgeon is good but having sex in 17 days? Simply because you have an erection does not indicate a wide open invitation to have sex or self satisfy.
The best would be to wait 6 full weeks until everything heals. Having sex or self satisfaction after 17 days is stupid and foolish. And if you are hurt yes why not? If I were the surgeon, I would lose my temper on you for this act. 17 days is too early. The Standard rule is 6 weeks. Yeah, do not tell me what other people did and what Google is showing. SIX WEEKS. Period.
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Post-Op Recovery: What to Expect
I have something to say since I went through IH surgery in PA with Dr. Goodyear and stayed in the hotel for 4 days. BTW I flew from KY to PA and back with family (2 kids and wife). Here we go.
I posted “POST SURGERY THOUGHTS” on this board which Dr. Towfigh put on top of the discussions (thanks to her). Do read it. You will NOT become a superman within 6 months – no, there is superman only in cartoons and movies.
1. I returned to work after 2 weeks and yes I am in desk job – software development. BUT I got up every one hour and walked around. It was a weak and slow walk but no matter GET UP EVERY ONE HOUR and walk around – that’s what Dr. Goodyear told me. The day after surgery onwards, the advice given to me was “Keep walking” and I kept walking till legs ached. So I went to work in 2 weeks BUT my advice is to wait 3 WEEKS. So you feel much better. But up to 6-8 weeks, depending on what Dr. Ramshaw says you should keep walking so the mesh will jell better with your tissue.
2. for 30 minute gentle yoga you will need to wait 6 weeks and depending on how good the tissue heals. Surgical cut and tissue heal differently in each person. It can take up to 8 weeks. My suggestion – 8 weeks till you are able to jog on the roads. If you are able to jog and walk briskly on the roads THEN ONLY attempt the yoga bending and all. Yes I saw you said the word “Gentle.” But for God’s sake remember you are going to have surgery. So give some respect to the surgical cut and be careful. You never know what/how internal tissues react with your “GENTLE” yoga. Listen to your body and give it time to heal. You have nothing to lose. 2 weeks POST SURGERY IS ***NOT*** the time to do exercise and diet even if you are an Olympic Gold Medalist and are in twenties. They can wait. Let the body come to terms with the surgery and heal itself. Yes, it takes time.
3.I have done the post surgery check up by Dr. Goodyear. YES IT IS VERY VERY IMPORTANT. I had surgery Thursday and travelled back to KY on Monday. Dr. Goodyear gave me OK on Monday to go home. Surgeon had better clear you before you travel. It is better to spend $200 on hotel for 5 days than travel next day or later and spend 20 days in ER. What do you think? I heard Ramshaw is a great surgeon. Listen to him. He knows the best time for you to travel. Some can travel earlier, some later and some at some other time. Again each case is different depending on age, past problems blah blah. No two people recover the same way. Each of the X billion people on earth are created randomly. Wish I have the algorithm God uses to create this big random numbers. Ha.
3a. I guess pillows and linens are provided by hotel and there are not necessary but if you cannot tolerate hotel pillows bring your own. Tell the hotel to give you a ground level room so you do not have to walk up and down (or you can use elevator). But inform the hotel that you are in town for surgery and may need some help, just in case. They will help too. My hotel helped in getting me food, groceries etc. Make sure you and your guys that come with you know at least two pharmacies nearby (if one closes or does not have the stuff you need you need a back up store), a grocery store, a dollar tree for sundry stuff and also a Walmart. Make sure your insurance covers everything. Take confirmation numbers from them for everything you are preapproved. Sometimes they can retract and say so and so not covered and you did not tell us and lie that way. Insurance people are in the business to MAKE money, not for your welfare. That is the final truth. If they do reimburse you later, KEEP ALL RECEIPTS.
3b. Take a laxative (the good old Milk of Magnesia for Example) for first week and slowly wean off of it. First week you will have pain – sometimes bad pain from surgical cut. Dr will give Oxycontin or such medicine to curb it. DO TAKE IT. FOLLOW DR ORDERS here. NO USE trying your great wisdom of how good you are with pain management and what a superman you are. I know this for sure since I went through it. ICE is your best friend. Get a dozen zip lock bags (Didn’t I say Dollar Tree?) and fill them up with ICE and keep using it on surgical site whenever you need. It will melt in 20 min and you will need one again. So keep two or three nearby. If you have a fridge in hotel room you are in great luck. Ask Dr. if you can and should walk. Dr. Goodyear told me to walk – however painful, keep walking. At the middle of the night I would wake up, put ICE and walk slowly around the room and corridors. It hurts, yea so what, walk walk walk walk walk. ASK DR IF YOU CAN WALK.
3c. Movies yes, but DO NOT WATCH comedies. If you laugh you will experience pain in stomach/IH area. No no, no to “dumb and dumber” and any Jim Carey type movies or even cry baby movies. Good to see something like “A Walk in the Clouds (Keenu Reeves)” or such easy going stuff. If you are sports fan, January could be NFL stuff and all. We watched “property brothers” on HGTV. It was easy and no tense movements.
3d. First one week it will be easy to fall asleep on bed on back and you will not be able to sleep on sides or belly. Waking up is another matter. You will need someone to push you up since your belly will hurt if you try to wake up yourself. My kids pushed me slowly on the back to put me on my feet. Since you will always sleep on back, expect some back pain. Make sure your bed is good. Not too soft or not too stiff. If you have that tilting bed with a remote, go for it.
3e. Food should be easily digestible. Lots of yogurt, and light stuff that make bowel movement easy. Make sure you have no constipation of ANY KIND. Yes you may be a great meat eater but I would limit hard to digest foods for 2 weeks. No spicy stuff too. Give a break to your body and stomach. People have never died by eating less but do hurt themselves by eating more. Bananas, and smoothies help too. If you can carry mixie with you, you can make your own smoothies in hotel room. Add different fruits to make different stuff and avoid boredom.
3f. Wear loose clothing and comfortable shoes/sox. Whatever underwear fits, the band should be above the surgical cut and your body will tell you which one is good and which one is not. I wore loose track pants (which you see on NBA pre-game when the players shoot hoops) that can be pulled out easily. Wear fresh clothes every single day and keep changing them every day. If Dr is OK with shower, take shower everyday. It makes you feel fresh. I took shower everyday since surgical wound was covered up nicely and Dr.Goodyear said it was fine.
4.Post depression – I never had any in PA but after I came back to KY, After a week or two I was still feeling some pain here and some pain there and started feeling I may never run or jog or do yoga. But I just pushed myself to avoid the thoughts and kept walking. Within 6 weeks I was able to jog and was normal. I even put a bet with my kid that I could never run/jog and was very happy to lose the bet :-). Keep a positive attitude. If you have some iPad, books, use them.
I do not know if you are male or female but if you are male, one or two days after surgery the testicles will swell due to accumulated blood but will become normal in 4 or 5 days. No need to do anything. Just put ICE wherever you feel like.
Take good care of yourself and post your progress here. It is good for other people to know. Also I would ask that you post your experience with Dr. Ramshaw. I have heard good things about him but not sure really how great one feels after a surgery in his hands.
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Pain Diary
To Tomlinson and Paul
What I would do if I were in your shoes.
1. Find out what exactly can relieve the pain. Surgery? Medication? Therapy?
2. Find out the correct surgeon by talking to people – anyone and everyone who knows and who can talk. And find *THAT* surgeon who can fix and talk to him, his patients and everyone around to see if he is THAT surgeon you need.
3. Find the costs in total and add 20% for sundries
4. Report matter to local TV, CNN and everywhere on how you were cheated, how your insurance is denying treatment and why your pain was not going away and how you are right in the middle of painful hell. I will even release a you tube video with tears rolling down my face.
5. Get solid proof before going to surgery table that this surgeon can confirm my pain *and* relieve me of it – at least to a witness or on audio or someway to produce it in court.
6. Once I found the surgeon that could fix and the costs, if I need money badly I will go to crowd funding websites, bitterly write these details and ask for funding from public. This step I will do along with (4) above. People are very generous and will support.
7. Continue to push buttons till you get relief – complain bitterly to the FDA, medical communities, local news papers, write long letters to insurance companies and even put a CC to public.
8. Washington Post has a column that does the “solved medical mysteries” series. I will email her and talk to the post too to find more details.Push every button I have in my brain as idea and then pray to God. In one sentence “I will go all out.”
Paul – if you are UK you have to find a different news paper I think but Washington post is most likely to accept your case too if you get relief.
BTW people are using crowd funding for going to other countries for volunteering and they are funded well. I am sure people will fund the surgery if it is that prohibitively expensive. But make sure you find **THAT*** correct surgeon to get you fixed. Once you go through the surgery, you cannot complain a second time. Remember that point.
Have I done this before? I did this for my Microwave that was dead. It may seem trivial but it worked for me.
An Over the Range Microwave was purchased in Menards (home depo like shop) It died after 10 months abruptly. Calling the shop revealed that counter top microwaves can be returned but OTRs are NOT returnable. Please contact the manufacturer. Manufacturer has 800 number that nobody answers and an email that nobody responds. So I email again and again and now put CC to the local TV (fox TV) lady who investigates such things. I found that from watching Fox TV. So now that the TV is in, for info, the email has been replied by the manufacturer. Sorry that the microwave died, we can send a repairman. He comes and says he cannot fix. Great, now email back to the guy. Okie dokie we will give the money back and he sends me a check. To my horror the check bounced at bank and now bank charges me $35 for bounced check. Excellent. Now I go back to Fox TV lady and then this guy at Microwave manufacturer with an additional complaint. Oh, did it bounce? if you give me your bank account I will transfer money directly to your bank. Ha ha not so fast. I never give bank account to 800 numbers and faceless guys who send bouncing checks. I email him now – send me money order and include the bounce fee or I am going back to Fox TV (did I say unwanted publicity?). By evening when I go home I have the money order and the case is closed. Total time to solve the problem – FOUR months. Cost of Microwave? $99.
No, I am not saying that IH surgery is this easy but at least you can try. Crowd funding is no more a joke. It is very real and people really help. Also I will use Facebook, twitter and everything under the sun. If the surgeon is good one you can even arrange for a payment plan with him. Most good surgeons agree for a payment plan. Even hospitals do. Nothing is frozen in cryogenic temperatures.
BTW this is what “I will do” but please feel free to trash this idea since you may or may not have interest in this kind. I wish you all the best.
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Post surgery thoughts
I went to Dr. G after almost 3 months of see-saw discussions. I originally wanted to go to Dr. Tomas of FL for non-mesh and fixed an appointment with him but after considering all things I thought Dr. G is the right surgeon with right knowledge. My decision was correct and I have been happy with his work/skill/knowledge.
Wise? Me? You do not know anything. I am driven by “F-E-A-R.” Every single thing is fear for my life. I do not know how I became like this but fear drives me. I am also miserly according to whoever knows me. To spend one cent less I go from shop to shop and save money. So to select Dr. G I was on Google for 3 months, emailed and bombarded everyone I knew about surgeries (until they said “STOP”) and decided. I also assumed that once I woke up from surgical table I would be forever in pain – like the Google pages said. So for a fear driven chicken like me it was a gamble. I even wished I died on the table and never came back for reasons I won’t put here. I spoke to both Drs. Tomas and Goodyear over phone before going and talked non-stop to people I know – locally, on internet, on NPHI discussion board and everywhere else including colleagues. I visited the local surgeon and his office twice but did not like to get this IH repaired here. My family said I should do it here locally but I said No. It is not their IH to suffer. Is it? Pain cannot be transferred like a bank account or few dollars unfortunately or fortunately. I might even have very little pain threshold.
I agree everything is connected to Dollars but that’s how life is. Also you said something about surgeon putting everything on table. Think of the time it takes and in general would you be able to do it for every patient? If you do, some patients are alarmed and frightened by the details. Should you frighten them? Medical ethics may have some other things with what Surgeons learn. If a surgeon is trying to make you fear, you should probably seek a second opinion. If you are NOT feeling comfortable to open pants to a surgeon you should never go to him in the first case. Yes, talk, write, email, read and do all possible things and select one.
I am neither wise not foolish but an average Joe. I did what I thought was best and took risk with Dr. G. It turned good for me. Luckily Dr. G has good rating, good name for these surgeries and my insurance has covered him. For going from my place to PA I paid from pocket.
If nerves grow back naturally Chrisopher Reeve would have never been in wheel chair for rest of this life. If the nerve implants work perfect as they claim there would not be a single quadriplegic in the society. Some may work and some may work for some people and some may never work. My rule of life is this – Surgeon is like YOU. He eats Pizza, watches football and even goes to movies and takes kids to swimming classes. If you do salesman work, or auto repair, he does surgery. That’s the only difference. So believe him to the extent he is believable. Anything beyond that, attach a red flag and investigate further.
Luckily after Internet we have much more information at hands now than a few decades ago.
I have been happy so far. If tomorrow the mesh goes awry and causes me trouble, I will be the first one to come here and complain non-stop (until Dr. Towfigh throws me out) 🙂 God bless.
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Post surgery thoughts
Two quick things about this – in response to the above post by “Mesh” handle.
1. Nobody on the face of earth can force you to have surgery – not your dad, mom, kids or your surgeon or the POTUS or even the SCOTUS. It is COMPLETELY your own choice. Against your wishes even a barber cannot cut your hair. At least that is what the rules are in the USA. It is illegal to commit suicide but VERY LEGAL to eat fat and full of Cholesterol foods and die of heart attack. Agree? So to have surgery or not, to have mesh or not is completely your choice.
Having said the above here is the second one
2. Can you hold and wait? 99% of the good doctors and surgeons NEVER want to cut you up for ANYTHING. A good surgeon wants to FIX your stuff; so your life will be better. But if you go to a surgeon and ask him to cut you up since YOU FEEL something inside, he will not agree until HE IS CONVINCED that cutting up is GOOD for you. Many years ago I went to a surgeon for another problem and he refused to cut and told me “Remember, anything that comes to you naturally is gone for good once it is gone and can never regain the same condition but we may be able to fix something.” It is like wearing eye glasses. Remember your vision at age 10 without glasses? You can wear glasses and restore your vision to 99.9% after myopia but you will never have that 100% natural vision that you had once.
Again having said that, my dad waited all his life and died with the hernia. He was told that he was to be careful; and he never really had to lift anything heavy in life. So he was fine till his death at 66. My brother waited 20+ years and had hernia both sides and finally had surgery one year ago. Was he lucky to live without surgery and no entrapment? May be but a few months before surgery he refused even to lift a small backpack since he felt those pains heavily. After surgery he lamented how he lost his 20 years with this stupid IH and could have gone for surgery much earlier. I waited from my first diagnosis by my PCP in 2007 to 2014 when the bump developed and was giving me trouble.
Should YOU WAIT? read the first point again. Your body, your health and your choice. My PCP actually said “watchful waiting” and not lift anything heavy. In his words “be careful.” But I ignored his advice assuming I was a superman. Growth of IH proved that I am a STUPID IDIOTIC mortal after all.
If you wait, can the IH be trapped and may force you to go to ER? The answer is “Nobody knows.” It is so because every case is different. If you know what the word “chaos” is, you know what I mean. If not, may I suggest you watch Jurrasic Park movie where Malcom the mathematician explains what chaos is? How strong is your pelvic floor? How good are your genes and many other factors come in. Even the surgeon who puts mesh in your body can only hope (depending on the historic facts that whenever the surgeon did it earlier, it went OK) that things go well. It is like driving a car on highway. Most people go fine but isn’t it dangerous on highway and can one die? Yes sir it is dangerous if you or the other driver is drunk or doze off. And yes every day people die on highways.
So should you stop driving? Same analogy works here too. I had a mesh and my life looks better than before. I spent money and beleived Dr. Goodyear to do nice work. He did great work. Whatever worked for me – watchful waiting, mesh may or may not work for you. What to do? Believe your gut or instincts and if you are a believer of God, do believe in Him too.
Final straw or nail in the coffin is this – everyone dies. Some die of accidents, some of heart attack, some of anxiety and some of surgeon’s faults and some of simple hernias. So do not worry. If one is dying today, those living need not be happy that they are alive because the living people now will die later. Too blunt; huh? Sorry about that.
Best of luck
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Positive Cough impulse but negative ultrasound
Paul
See this link. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/testicular-cancer/basics/tests-diagnosis/con-20043068Immediately after ultrasound there must be at least one more test to make sure you had cancer. Sorry about this constant arguing but I am trying to say that one step process you followed was really bad. Should not you go to second opinion? Or even third?
Any case let us discuss what is ahead. While I had IH, for 4 to 5 years I had nothing – no pain no pressure nothing. But as I started jogging, playing basketball in the driveway etc, a bulge developed near the base of penis (about 4, 5″ above) and it started to grow. I knew at this stage that the IH has progressed and needed cut.
Pain was not regular but it came and went. When sleeping no pain. I also made sure I had good and easy bowel movement daily but when I had a pizza or something like that (high fat), I had to force a bit. It was then I had some kind of block But when holding the IH with hand I could push a bit and had clear bowel movement. Also I never had any major stomach problems related to digestion. Always had my bowel movement every morning and no trouble at all.
So the IH pain was like pinching pain at the bulge when I was sitting long and driving. Also while sitting on toilet seat. I did not feel any groin pain or pain down the legs/hips etc. I tried to use some exercises on the Google and you tube but frankly they were of no use.
I am not medical guy but I think you may have some other problem coupled with “watch out” IH it means the other problem might be messing up with the IH you may have (smaller and can probably wait). That’s my guess.
Does your problem aggravate with some foods, some special movements, some kind of lifting etc? My first IH was diagnosed by my doctor back in 2008 when he asked me to cough and tested. He said I had it and needed to be careful. I ignored that doctor. By 2014 I could not ignore anymore due to the bulge. So I waited 6 years. My brother waited 20+ and had surgery on both sides. My dad had it all his life and never lifted heavy stuff and passed away with it.
So watchful waiting worked for my dad. For me for 6 years and for my brother for 20+ but my brother recently lamented “What a waste of time! I waited 20 years and destroyed quality of my life!”
Please update your condition when you can.
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Positive Cough impulse but negative ultrasound
Paul,
I am not a medical professional but I see there seems to be too many loose ends in your story. No doctor will recommend surgery after one simple ultrasound of the testes. Cancer is usually diagnosed with multiple scans/tests. One ultrasound to confirm cancer that warranted surgery and removal of your testicle? Sounds too fishy to me. If it really happened have you heard about words “biopsy,” “blood test?” Biopsy is done on a LIVING tissue to confirm cancer. Ultrasound cannot confirm cancer. It may show some growth or water in testicle but cancer? hmmmm… it could have been a hydrocele due to the lifting which usually happens in males.You probably have some other problem and you need to find out what it is. I am not sure when you said you are in UK whether you are in Europian country or some university of Kansas or such. But wherever you are, the doctor royally (if UK call it Kingly because the system still has that royal stuff, just kidding) screwed up the diagnosis that removed your testicle.
Time to rethink about the doctor who is attending on you. How on earth did you agree to go under knife without second medical opinion and blood tests? You said 2 years ago. Google would have helped you and if it didn’t at least one of your friends or relatives should have. You went to doctor, had ultrasound, found cancer and testicle gone in a jiffy? Oh oh, something seriously needs to be considered.
Read the sentence you typed here.. ” I developed pain in my left groin and testicle radiating down my left leg. After visiting my doctor he sent me off to have an ultrasound which showed testicular cancer in the right testicle and no abnormalities in the left side. I had surgery to remove the testicle which came back negative for cancer (ouch). ”
You had pain on left and it was caused by cancer on right?
I will have the doctor, scanning facilities and guys in court right away.
Having said that, please check with other specialists what exactly is causing your problem. Could be it another location hernia or inflammation?