Yeah that’s likely true, as I’ve led a life of high adventure, but it wasn’t constant pain 24/7 or anything, usually just when I got out of bed in the morning/night or tried to move too fast. It also probably wouldn’t have been as bad had I not tried to shoot out of bed to save my kid from absolutely nothing two days after I had been cut open. Anyway, it was only for two or three weeks. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it totally sucked and there was a lot of woe-is-me at the time, but I’ve been hurt before, and worse. I knew it would get better. Nothing I could have done either way. <shrug>
Any time you have surgery there’s a chance things aren’t going to go flawlessly. I accepted that when I agreed to go under. Had to get it fixed. They don’t go away on their own, they just get worse over time.
Sorry, here in the DC area there’s a commercial that runs every 15 minutes for a mesh class action that lists the website. Now I can’t remember it. Google ‘hernia mesh lawsuit.’
They released me from surgery the same day. The surgeon used robots to coordinate four different entry points, little punctures I bare notice. That’s all I know.
I threw up in the car for a while, then in the house for a while. My wife contacted the doctor who phoned in some anti-nausea medicine. It slightly daunted the nausea. After that I basically threw up off and on for three days until the doctor could see me again. He told me that he had to kill my intestinal bacteria with a powerful antibiotic but sometimes ‘bad’ bacteria survive. He gave me more antibiotics. That would have been a good time to ask more questions but I had to throw up really badly and he seemed to be so confident that yogurt and the pills would fix the problem.
Other than that I’ve never had a problem with the hernia. The doctor fixed the problem I asked him to fix. I went to the lawsuit website because of the other problems and felt like I got off easy.
Inguinal repair about 12 years ago with mesh. No problems. Getting out my waterbed was tough for a while but, other than that, unremarkable.
In and out the same day and I think I missed work for a week, maybe a little more. You don’t realize how much you use your abs for until you get cut open. Maybe a month before I was 100% but I don’t recall exactly.
I don’t want to get into the details of my medical problems because you really don’t want to know, but I’m pretty much stuck with a certain surgeon. He’s supposed to be good.
Last visit he sent me off to several specialists to get clearance for the surgery. At that visit, I asked about the mesh, and he told me it was my choice. I saw him again last week and told him I’d decided against the mesh. Now he’s very pro-mesh and is assuring me that it’s much better than it used to be. :rolleyes:
I hate it when doctors change their story.
He also told me that the incision would be about ten times the size I probably expected. :eek:
But I have to have this surgery, even if it kills me. The quality of my life has deteriorated beyond what is bearable.
Good luck, ioioio. Let us know how it goes. I agree with whoever it was upthread who said a surgeon’s skills are usually unrelated to his/her (terrible) people skills.
Seconded. Good luck & keep us posted. We’re rootin’ for ya.
I have a friend and neighbor in a similar boat: a semi-successful surgery that’s resulted in a bad and deteriorating situation. Nobody else wants to do warrantee service on the bad situation, and the original well-respected doc says going in there again is at best a 50/50 proposition on helping or hurting. Increasingly she seems to have little choice other than try again with fingers crossed.
In the fighter biz we had a saying for some especially crappy scenarios: sometimes you gotta risk suicide to avoid being killed. I hope this doesn’t play out that way for you or for her.