WasInTN
Forum Replies Created
-
Post surgery thoughts
quote :WasInTN“If in future something goes really wrong”…… It’s the Mesh!!
JG
With this kind of mental block I cannot argue anything. If you so wish it is *THE MESH* so be it. Are you a medical professional? Have you seen this kind of mesh problems over your career for dozens and hundreds of times? How do you conclude that everything that goes inside your body is ONLY because of mesh? Is there a sure shot way to find out? If you do have such a thing, please do all of us a favor. Send your details to FDA and they will take some action.
Au Revoir
-
Black & Blue from Inguinal Hernia
DAND
Did your surgeon say that the black and blue will disappear after a week? If not, that is a red signal. So do ask what will happen to this black and blue and how long it will last.Robotic surgery? What does that mean? Will he switch on some computer arms and go out of the room and come back when all lights are back on? or is he using a robotic arm to do this? How many such surgeries did he do like these before and can you talk to one of those patients and get feedback?
Rule of thumb – second day after surgery during your night sleep when the bladder fills up slowly you should feel an erection. This proves that the nerves are intact and all is well. I felt one and asked Dr. G if that was a bad thing. He said, “no, it was a good thing.” First day only you will feel exhausted from pain, cut and the anesthesia. Dr. G asked me to walk and keep walking for the mesh to merge well. I walked in mall and in hotel room whenever I woke up from my sleep. I could not walk faster but no matter how sloe keep walking. I walked till my legs ached. It helps a lot.
My advice – write all your questions from A to Z and talk to your surgeon (and those patients). If your surgeon thinks that you are asking too many questions and wasting his time, find another surgeon. No good surgeon – who really feels your pain and wants to help you – should feel that way. Good luck and please update your status.
-
Post surgery thoughts
quote :WasInTNNicely written and I agree with everything you mentioned but for me, and others the question of utmost importance is should one have a petroleum based foreign material implanted into their body (Mesh) that may cause more of in issue than they had with their original issue, a hernia? Outside of complications arising from physicality that disrupts one’s hernia repair, (recurrence), most major issues that result from a mesh based repair is do to the mesh.
To have mesh or not to have mesh that is the question?
A surgeons skill and common sense on behalf of the patient is certainly essential for a good outcome.
JG
I do *not* agree that most issues occur due to mesh in mesh based repair. There are a dozen things that can go wrong. Among them are
1. Skill of surgeon (I put this as 1 since it matters THE MOST). If you chose a wrong surgeon (aka hammer in hand in my example) it could be troubling. Once the surgeon opens the IH area, ASK FIRST if (s)he knows how to fix unexpected things that can go wrong. Suppose the surgeon cuts up and finds that the hernia is large, extending to some nerve blah blah which was not expected, would he still fix or would he close up and say sorry I could not fix it? You know surgery is not like taking a MRI test where you find the test very claustrophobic and walk out without doing it and without losing anything (I did this once). So I chose Dr. Goodyear since I read reviews, talked to people emailed and bombarded a gazillion questions to each email I could find and asked one local surgeon in KY and another Urologist in KY about these things.
2. Do you have any allergy to certain things like latex, plastic etc? Better find those before you go for surgery. It is hard but better late than never and suffer later. No question is too small or too silly to ask. If you do not ask it is NOT THE DUTY OF surgeon to let you know ahead. Surgeon would even assume you have no allergies.
3. If surgery went wrong and you ended up in pain, how would you prove it is due to mesh? No surgeon will admit it. Unless another surgeon opens the wound and tells you that the original surgeon royally screwed up you won’t know. Even if at all the second surgeon tells you, would you be willing to sue the first surgeon and will the second surgeon come to court and give testimony? It is a VERY long shot and would not work. Even if he does that, lawyer can screw this up by asking, how would you prove that the first surgeon really did not put sutures correctly and what makes you think that the mesh did not move blah blah and you know how an attorney can twist and turn everything in a court room (and why so many doctors – particularly in NV state – give up their practice due to lawyers). LOL. I have heard that an obgyn was sued 22 years after delivering a baby since baby (now a man) developed some problem which was connected remotely to how the baby was delivered. How does that sound? Would the obgyn even remember what tools she used 22 years ago? This is like suing McDonald for selling food cheap (and arguing that’s why I became obese.)
4. Not all foreign material will cause trouble in body. There are people who live with bone implants (rod inside leg or elsewhere) and there are people who live with heart valves. These materials do come in contact with blood flow and need anti clot drugs rest of their lives or most of their lives. Compared to that this mesh is NOT directly in contact with the blood flow. So mesh is not everything that is a problem. But it is possible and the misconception of mesh is really somewhat exaggerated IMO.
5.We tend to blame mesh because we know it is a foreign body but if the surgeon is good, how are the other people doing OK? Well mesh may have some problems in some people who are allergic but did they test all these before surgery? I have heard that there were some cases of putting plastic mosquito net as mesh in India and the patient was fine.
6. Dasarda worked for some people and they are happy too and even I wanted to get that done but after talking to people I decided not to go for it. The reason is that the Dasarda technique borrows tissue from another location and attaches it for IH as repair tissue. Since my IH is in family occurring to my dad, brother uncle etc, a friend asked me to consider this – it appears I am genetic to this disorder, so if I get this Dasarda done, the pelvic floor is likely to break elsewhere due to the genetic weakness. I agreed since it looked good point to me.
7. Before going to Dr. G in PA I spoke to him on phone and my biggest worry was this – would there be blocked bladder and would I be NOT able to go to bathroom? My worry came because I read on Internet that in some cases the guys could not pee due to blocked tissue or whatever. Dr. G asked me on phone if I had ever any issues with bladder. I had none. So his question was “why would you worry?” Immediately after surgery within 10 min (they gave me cookies and soda to drink after my morning fast) I went to bathroom and while coming back it hit me how silly I felt about the bladder problem. I never had any problems.
8. I wrote all my silly questions or whatever (sometimes repeatedly) and asked Dr. G all those. He was more than happy to answer every single question and that too with authority. I felt comfortable to put my sensitive parts in his hands since he does these surgeries every single day – at least 2 or 3 per day. He is not a “general surgeon,” mind you but a hernia specialist.
Remember one thing. IH is because of HOLE IN PELVIC FLOOR. If a surgeon can fix it with medication, he will be more than happy to do it. It is simply not possible to fix that way. And Surgeon is NOT FORCING You to have surgery to make money. It is YOUR CHOICE. Surgery should IMPROVE YOUR qualify of life not surgeon’s bank balance. If you think you believe all these will happen, opt for surgery. but if you think that you can live with pain and never want to have surgery, so be it. My father never had surgery and never lifted heavy stuff after he was told of the IH. He died with it and never complained since his IH never progressed badly. My brother suffered for it over 25 years and could not even lift a milk can (refused to lift). I was told to be careful (watchful waiting in 2008) and waited till 2014 and had surgery. Once I had surgery (only on the right side) and recovered my brother had surgery (both sides) and lamented later “How I screwed my 25 years and suffered!!). He is fine now and has no complaints. I am OK doing well.
And to quote Indiana Jones in his movie series, “Choose Wisely” from which cup you want to drink to eternal life. the guy there with long sword will tell you if you have “chosen wisely” or “chosen poorly.” 🙂
Finally Internet is a great thing to get information but overloading that info into your brain can sometimes be dangerous. I did overload all this info and then decided to close everything and went to Dr. G. I am very happy I went to him. So far no worries. If in future something goes really wrong, so be it, I will take it up as God throws it to me.
Thanks
-
Black & Blue from Inguinal Hernia
In the first week after surgery, the scrotum swells a bit due to accumulated blood and the surgical would can cause some color change of skin. If you are fair skinned (aka WHITE), you will probably see a lot of color. But everything goes away within one week if surgery went well.
For dark skinned people the change may not be very noticeable. Compared to the wound pain for one week, the color change is nothing. Wound pain can be tackled well with a good prescription medicine that the surgeon gives.
In two weeks everything will be fine – if surgeon is like Dr. Goodyear (my IH was done by DR G)
-
Training in Radiology
Great Question !
Many moons ago I went to a PCP with pains in stomach. He asked me to go for all tests and blood tests showed high Bilurubin (sp?) of 8.0. He suspected I had either gallstones or Hepatitis B. He even asked me if I had sex with some lady who might have transmitted Hep B to me. LOL. Further ultrasound told that the gallsstones were the cause, but no blockage. Small stones being formed and getting out. His advice was to stop eating fat foods (pizza like) and such. Within one year of stopping those foods the blood levels came back normal and I was doing great. Even now I remove the cheesy layer when eating Pizza.
Question I asked him here was – did he read the radiologist report or saw the films from Ultrasound? I asked him straight on his face. He was a great guy and told me he did see the films and everything looked good. So yeah, I would ask the surgeon if he knew how to read the film and gather info from it. No offense in asking. An experienced neurologist once told my wife (seeing a plain x-ray) that she had a slipped disk in neck and needed physical therapy. Much later another neurologist wanted her to have MRI and decide what was wrong with neck. He later said he saw the films of MRI and told us “it is not bad at all.” So any case, the question must be asked. It is our responsibility ask.
But like others said not everybody knows how to read the films.
-
Scar Tissue – One year after IH Surgery
Dr. Towfigh
I think what you explained is exactly correct. I have hard area just below the surgical cut. Not deep too but I can sense the hardness when I press it. My PCP said it was keloid and I assumed it was.Thanks a lot
-
Transparency in pricing for surgery
Dr Towfigh
The following thing I am posting has some bias, a LOT of frustration and anger caused by people in the medical field. Here you go.When a patient comes to your office, hospital or anywhere (s)he expects a uniform rate of charge. But what happens in these situations is that t if the patient has insurance, he pays co-pay, dr bills insurance exhorbitant amount ($450 to $700 for office visit) and he may get paid 75% of the billed amount. If the patient has no insurance then charge is $200 or so. Why is this difference? The general talk is that, “insurance is paying, why you worry?” I tell you why we worry. When insurance pays a lot, you get a lot and all looks dandy, right? The answer is NO because next year the insurance rates are up and the employee pays more. Q for you in medical community – why cannot you charge the same amount in both cases? The general public thinking is that, the medical community charges differently due to two reasons 1) fear of lawyers 2) greed to get more money. Period. I know for a fact that my dental office charges both my ins companies and even asks me to pay co-pay. When they got more money once due to double billing, I asked them and they refused to return the money to insurance. I plan to report them to these companies sooner or later.
Now coming back to exhorbitant prices – an MRI costs about $3K to $4K and insurance really pays 90% of this amount. Why is an MRI so expensive? I know for a fact that MRI in any other country costs less than $250, even with a contrast. The hospitals bill exhorbitantly for drugs too. For example tylenolr tablet is $20 when given in the after surgery waiting room for a patient. Ridiculous, isn’t it? Same for anesthesia medicines, his price and hospital even bills for disposables – gauze pieces, needles and so on. Many of the patients do not even have an idea that they have to request an itemized bill. Why do they do it? GREED, to answer in short. I was on phone with a famous hospital when my son was born and was requesting, begging them to give a disount and do you want to know their answer? “Even if you die, we do not care, we must be paid.”
When you are healthy, have money and feel good you always talk from high horse and feel invincible. Huh? One day all these health administrators, physicians who are so greedy get cancer and die like roadside dogs too. What they forget is the pain of the patient. Why does this happen? Why is there no single price for everything? We can discuss this till the end of the world, why rules cause problems, state laws, federal laws etc etc. but the bottom line is, there is no rule. Medical community can bill a physical appointment as any other visit and bill differently or bill an injection administration as surgery and get more money from patient. These things have happened to me and both insurance and medical community just wank to milk the common man.
Unformatunately the wealthy have no problems, the poor have no options. It is the middle class like us who get the whip! Great.
Sorry for the bad language but you asked and I gave you a frank answer.
-
future of inguinal repair and PT
quote :Honesty is a hard thing to come by these days, especially by surgeons who have a conflict of interest. To make money they have to perform surgery but sometimes it may not be in your best interest. How sad.Not all surgeons are like this. For example when I met Dr. Goodyear last year, he was doing 3 or 4 surgeries a day and at this age, I do not think he needs to work at all but he does. He can retire very happily. From what I see in the insurance statement they paid him very minimum amount for surgery whereas hospital got more dough (for nothing). This is the main reason not all surgeons are the same.
I met a local surgeon but that guy was scratching his head and beard when I asked him the material the mesh is made of. Mind you, this local surgeon was referred to me by an office colleague. I did not like to put my sensitive area in a surgeon’s hands who does not even know what the mesh is made up of! But just reading the details of Dr. Goodyear I went straight to him after talking on the phone. I met him for 15 min before surgery, had it fixed in 1 hour and walked out. Yes the local surgeon said I can walk out too but you can see how much he knows even after you talk to him for 30 min.
BTW how did you decide which surgeon to go to? Referrals from friends? Did you check about his rating? Talked to anyone about that surgeon? All I can tell you is, surgeon usually may NOT be at fault. After an alien material is put in body (which is a gaurded and closed environment) NOBODY on the face of earth can tell you how YOUR BODY reacts to it. All they can do is, “majority of people is doing good, so should you.” It is a generic conclusion. Thats why they say “Each case is different.” How do you know surgeon messed it up? How do you know what is happening in your body? Find details and fix your problem aand then with all results you have the right to throw dust on anyone you like. Till then I would not conclude so easily.
Yes there are people who do surgeries for money but the one I met is NOT the one who does for money. Thats 100% sure.
-
future of inguinal repair and PT
Groundfaller
I sense a lot of disgust and negative thinking in you. Beleive me I can think (and usuaully do) worse than you but over the years (due to age?) I decided that negative thinking is taking me nowhere. You, IMHO are concentrating on the problem. Instead, shift your idea to find a solution. Yes the surgery was done and no matter how hard you try you will never be the same like when you were 17 years old. That fact you must accept. Life is NEVER smooth to ANYONE. It always and regularly throws curveballs that hit us hard where it hurts most. But if all you want to do is to rue about what already happened, you are —- in the words of Joel Osteen (Caution: I am not preaching, I am not a christian but just like Joel)“You are pulling up the chair, with popcorn and recollecting all the movie that happened before again and again and making yourself miserable.”
From your posts we all know how bad your condition is. YES it is bad BUT If you want to get better, you must stop rueing and ACT. Find a way. Is money your problem? Is pain your problem? Talk to the doctor who you trust, explain about the money problem and make a payment arrangement or do something. Posting here, and on NHPI and everywhere on internet is NOT a solution for you. It may help others but what about you? Or even ask for money from public help/local church/cloud funding/even your bank for a loan or whatever it takes. People are usually helpful and pitch in.
I have gone through much worse but ultimately you are the one in hole and have to find a way to get out. If you are interested to stay in the hole with popcorn, chair and watch the old movie repeatedly, go ahead. It is your life. In the words of a famous monk, “If you want to be happy nobody can make you unhappy and if you want to be unhappy, nobody can make you happy.” But please recognize that after a couple of repeated posts from you people get bored and will stop commenting or helping.
Decide to be happy, find a solution, fix it and move on. And move on you must. May be after all this you can write a book that will help a million people. Think about that. Best of luck
-
future of inguinal repair and PT
[quote] WasInTN]
The well known, excellently caring and super humane Dr. James Goodyear of North Penn Hernia Institute. Google for more details about him. Every patient gave him a rating of 5/5 and even my insurance (BCBS) gave a rating of 5/5. I give him a rating of 10/5.
-
future of inguinal repair and PT
groundfaller
Quick dumba$$ question to you. (Excuse my ignorance)1. Before surgery did you find details of how good is your surgeon? What are the surgeon’s ratings? Patient reviews? How many specific hernia surgeries did he do? (Not ventral, and other hernias but the type you had). Is he a general surgeon who does hernias, cuts, bones and all those? I would not go to a general surgeon who claims he can ALSO DO hernia surgeries.
2. Did/do you have any allergies for mesh material (I do not have any allergies so I assume mesh would not cause me any).
3. Did you feel like superman immediately after surgery and started your rigorous biking/exercize less than 2 or 3 weeks after surgery?IMAO (A = arrogant) surgery *IS* surgery. It is like wearing eye glasses. You can see well after wearing glasses but it will NEVER be the same like not having to wear one. A famous surgeon once told me – once the body loses the natural thing, it can be fixed but will NEVER be the same. Even now though I have no pains I do not lift heavy stuff. Those days are gone. I do not want to risk getting hernia on my other side since who knows, what may cause it. The proven thing I know is, I had hernia and weak pelvic floor and it is in my family genes. So be it and I accept it. I had my superman days when I was in 20s and 30s. I am good for my age and can run, jog and do other things but will NEVER be the one I used to be in my 20s. Period.
Lastly I want to mention this. Even the surgeon who did work on your hernia cannot be faulted, if he did the job. For two reasons are 1) nobody can give you a gurantee of how the mesh would behave once inserted. It is completely different from person to person. Did your mesh migrate? Did it have a hole? My surgeon said there is less than 1% chance for recurrence on surgery side but there is 18% chance for hernia on the other side (non-surgical side). If you go to a mesh removal surgeon he may or may not agree that mesh was causing the problem because there are so many factors involved – allergies, mesh material, migration, shrinking, your own body reactions to an outside material, you name it. It is hard to pinpoint one thing.
Unfortunately there is no foolproof method to diagnose a hernia before surgery and problems after surgery. Thats the bane of all this.
Before concluding, have you considered resting the surgery area for over 6 months to see how the recovery happens? I understand that outdoor activities are great for you and may be a necessity but does rest help? You can probably start a note on daily basis of what activities cause pain, what does not and how the day to day rest/activities are helping/troubling.
And did you talk to your original surgeon again and what does he say now? If he says it is all in your head, he really did not know what hernia surgery is. That much everyone can say.
-
future of inguinal repair and PT
Groundfaller
From the posts here I could not grasp if you already had surgery or planning to have. I have to admit I did not read it fully but will share my experience here.Around 2007 I found that I had inguinal hernia on right side and my PCP said I should be careful – not dangerous at that time but it can grow. I ignored his advice. During my 2013 overseas trip I had no pain but before flying my PCP again said I should be careful. As dumb as Lloyd Christmas in ‘dumb and dumber’ movie I ignored it again. Back in the USA I jogged, ran and even played Basketball. I noticed a bulge then in the area just above the base of penis and below the belly button. It was painful. However hard I tried to hold it, caress it or do whatever , the pain remained. If I had to use slightest force during my bowel movements, it was like hell. This was till July 2014. By then hernia was dictating my life on what I should eat, if I should walk, and whether I can talk louder or laugh heartily. No kidding. I felt miserable.
I went to two local surgeons and both confirmed it was hernia on a scale of 5/10, 10 being the stragulated case that needed ER. The second surgeon appeared keen to cut my sensitive area and ready to operate but when I asked questions about what material the mesh is made of etc he was scratching his head. When he walked his pants had no belt and I did not feel he was good enough to touch my sensitive areas. I wanted someone who could speak with authority on what he planned to do. I choose a famous surgeon far way from my home and went to him. Glad I went to him. He saw me at 9 AM and surgery was over by 12 NOON and I walked out (yes walked out) with my family at 1 PM. Two weeks of home stay and walking regularly and I was back to work. Post surgery the surgeon advised me to keep walking. I kept walking whenever possible – including at midnight when I woke up.
After surgery my digestion improved, my hernia pains are gone and I am hale and hearty. The surgeon did a super job with just a 3″ cut. Now after 5 months I have some hardness at the cut area since scar tissue is still healing and I found that it heals differently in different people. I have some itch when I walk/run but no restrictions. I am good.
I also did exercizes before going to the surgeon assuming that I can avoid the surgery. Nah, it does not work. Not for me. There are some stories on Internet that somebody got cured without surgery and all but I do not beleive them anymore because the hernia is a defect already in the pelvic floor and should be corrected – surgically. By eating less, stopping breakfast and all those things will not cure the already formed defect. Body cannot obviously repair itself in some case. this is not something a broken bone which can probably repair itself.
As for diagnosis, there is really no foolproof method to find you have a hernia. The fingers of the best surgeon when placed under your pubic area and when you cough he can find that. Having said that he can find does not mean he will say surgery is an urgent thing for you. If anyone with hernia wants to postpone surgery I understand that part but from my experience I can tell you that it was waste of time to postpone surgery. The hernia will only grow. It is the intestine coming down the weakened layer of your tissue.
I also wanted to do a Desarda method in FL but backed off because hernia is our genes. My dad had it and never had surgery and my brother had it and got surgery. So without mesh if I had surgery probably my genes would have made the hernia re-appear. No good. I did not want to take a risk of recurrence.
In the end, you are RIGHT. The skill of surgeon matters a LOT. That was the reason I choose this surgeon. He did hundreds of surgeries and is doing them on daily basis even now. He uses an innovative method of mesh. Super friendly guy and excellent surgeon.
I can go on and on. BTW I am not a medical professional. So all this is my personal bragging ONLY.
-
Business and Economy
Do you have anything for Hernia if both bride and groom or either one has it? I would have to say “get lost” if you do not. Thank you !!
-
Scar Tissue Healing
quote :One can try Serratiopeptidase in such situations in oral formulation.Sir what do you call this in layman language? 🙂
-
Scar Tissue Healing
Dr Towfigh
Many thanks for the quick reply. Can you give some names of these Over the Counter balms? I sometimes try the Hydrocortisone but it is not much helpful.