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hernia repair
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anybody had inguinal hernia repair
with mesh?
without mesh?

Did it work at all?
You still have pain?
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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with mesh 11 months ago... so far so good
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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laproscopic - with mesh
both sides
about 9 years ago
all is well (knock on wood)
no pain/no issues
able to run very soon after procedure
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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I had one around 9 years ago. Left side.

Mesh or no mesh? Well that's a bit strange, I'll explain.

It healed up fine for the most part but in a follow up visit to the doc I mentioned that sometimes I can
feel the mesh. He said that he didn't use mesh. I reminded him that he told me prior to the surgery
that he was going to. He then told me, "well I decided not to". So that was a minor WTF moment for me.

At any rate it's fine now, no problems, mesh or no mesh.

Find out what it is in life that you don't do well, then don't
do that thing.
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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I've had a bilateral inguinal repair. Both with marlex mesh, no issues at all. I was sore for about 4-5 days, but not incapacitated, never even took the Percocet, just Ibuprofen a couple times a day. I was advised to push the limits of my pain threshold every day through stretching and walking/jogging. This was to reduce the chances of a heavy scar tissue buildup. My body let me know when to stop, it actually worked out quite well, back to normal in 2-weeks like it never happened. That was almost 10-years ago now and still never an issue.

_________________________
I got nothing.
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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I have had hernia repairs four times over the past 20 or so years.

First time - One side, open surgery with mesh
Second time - One side, open surgery with mesh
Third time - One side, laparoscopic, with mesh
Fourth time - Both sides, open surgery with mesh, Doc told me, "You've got LOTS of scar tissue in there, you need to take it easy for SIX weeks." Just got past the six weeks a couple of weeks ago and started riding again.

FWIW,
Greg

If you are a Canuck that engages in gratuitous bashing of the US, you are probably on my Iggy List. So, save your self a bunch of typing a response unless you also feel the need to gratuitously bash me. If so, have fun.
"Don't underestimate Joe's ability to f___ things up" - Barack Obama, 2020
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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Procedure in '94. They used mesh. Been good ever since, no issues. As I recall the first week of recovery after the procedure SUCKED.
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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Mesh is the standard for a "low tension" repair. Recurrence rates without mesh were much higher thus mesh being the standard now. Both open and laparoscopic are good. Laparoscopic gets you back earlier and has less post op pain. Recurrence rates with lap repair may be slightly higher but not much. There are a couple different types of laparoscopic repairs but I think the pre-peritoneal approach is the most common of the two. lap would be a great option for an athlete although if you have a surgeon you're happy with who doesn't do them the open repair is not a down grade by any means.

If you have an inguinal hernia and are an athlete you should get it repaired. It will not heal on it's own and will likely get bigger over time. Soon you'll have bowel filling your scrotum - who want's that?
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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Had it on a Weds in Feb of this year (one side, lapro w/mesh) with a super fast recovery. The following Weds I did my first run and 2 days later ran a an 8k race at a just slightly slower pace than I normally would. My doc said he has had patients play tennis the next day. I wouldn't have been able to but it was definitely a quick and easy recovery. Very little discomfort. I don't think I even used the pain meds other than the night of the surgery. Good luck.
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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I'm due up for mine shortly. Had it done once @ 18 mos... and now +50 years later.

Question for everyone:

Are you back to full-on, no-compromise core work as well?
I just can't get my head around ever doing crunches again, as if I'm going to bring on another bout of it.


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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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Gasgas wrote:
anybody had inguinal hernia repair
with mesh?
without mesh?

Did it work at all?
You still have pain?

Bilateral in January of this year. Both sides with mesh. No aches or sudden sharp pains since June. Biked 660 miles in 6 days in July with no issues. All is good.
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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Literally had it done Monday of last week, so just under 2 weeks ago.

I pushed it a little in the first week back and regretted it, but have been resting much more this week and feel better every day.

Tuesday, which will be 2 weeks, I see my surgeon and will see if I can resume light jogging and light spinning with full swimming.

Will update on the Surgeon's response and how soon full activity is resumed.

It was right side, 2 inch cut in the middle and mesh was used. I have been, and started on day 2, doing a fair amount of walking.

-----------------------------------------------------------
"Chrissie wins because she trains really f'ing hard and races really f'ing hard and was blessed with a huge f'ing motor" Jordan Rapp
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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I have had two inguinal hernia repairs. First on the left then on the right. Both with mesh. It hurt a few days. But in a week you will start to feel much better. Take it easy as the MD will advise. I was cycling in 4 weeks. Running in about 6 weeks. Swimming hurt the worst. I'm so glad it is behind me. I don't lift heavy things like I used to anymore. For a little while I knew where the mesh was. I could feel it when bent over. Now 2 1/2 years and 5 years later I don't notice it at all. I've done 3 IMs since and I'm better than before.
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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Had laproscopic with mesh done in July. Recovery went much better than expected. I was walking the day after, jogging/walking after 5 days or so. Swimming lightly after a week (mostly waiting for the small incisions to heal) and I was riding on the trainer after a week (not in aero!). No core work at all for a month and no lifting anything over 10 pounds or so (more a problem for me at work). Surgeon told me to ease into everything and if it hurts, stop. Feel great now and was back to full training load after 8 weeks. No pain at all since, a couple times I had a "twinge" lifting something heavy at work after a month or so but that was it.
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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The first week is the worst if its open surgery. But within a month you'll be feeling okay.

I had open no mesh surgery in April 2011. Was able to complete a 10k obstacle course race 6 weeks later. I took it easy at that race, but mentally it was really important for me to show myself that I wasn't totally incapacitated. Did an olympic triathlon 2.5 months later without any problem. But it took another month or so before I could even consider sit-ups.

Cosmetically, I still have a scar and my lower abdomen isn't flat despite a regular regime of about 400 sit-ups per day. Its just how the abdomen healed. :-(

Pain is largely gone, but occasionally it'll hurt for a few minutes or days. Always goes away.
Last edited by: nychel: Nov 14, 13 19:59
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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My wife has had 3 such hernia repairs.

First one at a local hospital. It failed (can't remember why)
Second one failed because the mesh was too small and there were too few staples around the edges, so the load on each staple meant she ripped the staples out. The mesh came through the hernia and you could clearly feel the mesh under the skin. Freaky to say the least.

The last one was done at the world renowned Sholdice Clinic in Toronto Canada. Hernias is all they do!

It's been a rip roaring success, Fast recovery, complete recovery and not a single issue in the 18 years since she had it done.

Get it done, but if you can, get it done at the Sholdice Clinic. They are fantastic.

The first 2 she had about 4-5 weeks of bedrest for recovery. The last one, she was up the next day on the exercycle and doing light aerobics. The activity promotes blood (and therefore healing) at the wound site. She was back to work in about 4 days I think it was.

Sholdice is fantastic.

TriDork

"Happiness is a myth. All you can hope for is to get laid once in a while, drunk once in a while and to eat chocolate every day"
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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i had one open surgery with mesh 8 years ago. Back to normal 6 weeks after. The surgery was done on a Friday and I expected to be on the couch 1-2 days ended up on the couch for 3 days with a catheter, due to swelling of prostate preventing normal urination. Catheter hurt 10x worse than hernia surgery......
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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I had it last February. I think the hernia first popped up a few months before, but I had to wait until more of it was protruding. Eventually it got to the point where it was annoying and often a bit painful, so they gave me the go-ahead for surgery.

Got open with mesh, local anesthetic. The procedure felt kind of gross, but nothing horrible. The next three days after sucked, though- completely incapacitated. I honestly felt like something had gone really wrong with the procedure and that I was infected on the inside or my body was rejecting the mesh or something. Surgery was Friday, though, so I was ok enough by the time work came. By ok enough, I mean I still hobbled everywhere, and had to teach sitting down.

For training, I was able to swim again about two weeks later, after the stitches fully dissolved or whatever and the bandages removed. VERY easy swimming, though. I couldn't run or bike for another 3-4 weeks, IIRC, but that also had to do with a bone spur issue in my ankle- a whole other issue at the time. Last off season wasn't too great.

I got the surgery on my right side, and continue to have weird numbness/tingling on the inside of my right thigh, right beside the ol' sac, for quite a while after. Apparently it's a very normal thing, but I was alarmed by it for a while. It's come back recently, but I'm completely used to it now, no issue at all. That said, I hope I don't have any more hernia adventures.
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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Dr. William Meyers is the man for this. Going under his knife shortly
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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Never had a hernia myself but I have done hernia repairs since 1986. In the early 80's none of the repairs were done with mesh. We had a high recurrence rate (15%?). They hurt a lot more because we pulled muscle down over the defect and stitched it there. When I first started as a resident, patients stayed 3 to 5 days in the hospital and were 6 to 8 weeks off work!

Since the early 90's I've been doing the external no-tension mesh repair. It was a huge improvement over the "Bassini" type repairs. Everybody wants to attribute chronic post op pain to the mesh but we had chronic pain before we used mesh. My bias is that most of the anti-mesh sentiment originates from the legal and liability industry. Lawyers fish for unhappy patients with bad outcomes using "the mesh" as bait.

I did laparoscopic repairs for about 5 years in the 90's but wasn't that impressed. They're more expensive. They use a lot more equipment making them financially less feasible in an outpatient surgery center. I had a higher recurrence rate with them and patients did not seem to go back to work any sooner (especially those with workers comp injuries who sometimes have secondary gain in long recoveries). I treated one patient with laparoscopic complications (from Saint Elsewhere) who developed a bowel obstruction and intra-abdominal infection. Maybe the laparoscopic approach is needlessly complicating a simple, straightforward, inexpensive, time tested approach with an excellent success rate and low complication profile?
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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I had a double hernia repair as a kid in the late sixties. No laproscopic or mesh repair available back then. I've never had an issue in all those years.
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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Platelet Therapy 6 weeks ago. It wasn't that bad. But I could feel the pinch. It's now gone, pretty cool.
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Re: hernia repair [Gasgas] [ In reply to ]
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I had a left inguinal hernia repair (laproscopic/mesh) 6 weeks ago. The worst part of the surgery was honestly peeing post-catheter for the first 2-3 days. I got up and walked the neighborhood with my wife 2 days post-surgery. Surgery was on a Wednesday and I was back at work on Tuesday (Monday was a holiday otherwise I would have gone back then).

I didn't do any exercising other than walking up until my 2-week post op appointment. I was hoping to get released to get back at it but the doc really wanted me to take it easy for the next 4 weeks (total of 6 weeks). I've got my 6-week post op appointment coming up and expect to get back at it fully after that.

In the past 4 weeks I have done a few light bike trainer rides and one light jog on the treadmill. I have lost a ton of fitness in the past 6 weeks. My HR's on the bike trainer are through the roof compared to just before the surgery. I'm hoping that fitness comes back relatively quickly. My next big goal is IMCHOO so I've got plenty of time. Didn't want to push it too early and jeopardize that race. As a wise friend told me, no workout right now is going to benefit you much at IMCHOO but doing too much too fast could certainly hurt IMCHOO.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions.
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Re: hernia repair [mileswimr] [ In reply to ]
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Agree 100%. Also been doing repairs since '86. Live in Atlanta area and felt I was "forced" to provide this as an option in the early 90's. After about 5 years felt longer recovery and higher recurrence rates. Believe recurrence rates are now equal to "tension-free" repair with traditional repair with mesh. But, rarely do laparoscopic unless recurrent in appropriate patients.

I allow my patients to get back running/biking slowly immediately after surgery, swimming after 1 week follow up. Have had several patients I did with laparoscope in early 90's come back 10-15 years with hernia on other side. Did with open method and ALL said open was quicker recovery..
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Re: hernia repair [rph60] [ In reply to ]
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Remarkably quick return to run & bike, as well as swim! What if any restrictions do you give patients? Just avoid pain?
rph60 wrote:
... rarely do laparoscopic unless recurrent in appropriate patients. I allow my patients to get back running/biking slowly immediately after surgery, swimming after 1 week follow up.
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