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Sunday, July 22, 2012

Day Eighty

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Hernia Recovery
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Today is the 2 1/2 month anniversary of my surgery and I'm still having problems with my right side. The stinging, burning pain simply won't go away. It hasn't gotten worse, but it hasn't improved. Driving is very painful and difficult to do for more than 10-15 minutes. Getting in and out of bed is painful and getting up from a deep sitting position(ie. a low couch) is difficult.

Why the stinging, burning pain? The following site may explain why: http://www.nphernia.com/pop.html

 While many patients have some prolonged post-operative discomfort after any surgery, which may last for several months before resolving, approximately 3-5% of such patients may develop chronic or persistent pain in the region of a surgical incision. This can also occur and be especially bothersome after inguinal hernia repair. Post-operative pain, after inguinal hernia surgery particularly, can develop from a variety of causes.

There are many causes for this persistent, post-operative inguinal hernia area pain, also called 'Inguinodynia' including, but certainly not limited to:

  • Nerve damage (directly at the time of surgery)
  • Nerve entrapment in scar tissue, mesh or sutures
  • Post-operative benign nerve tumors (Neuromas)
  • Scar Tissue itself or tissue damage
  • Misplaced Mesh (if used)
  • Contracted, scarified and hardened mesh plugs ("Meshomas")
  • Infection (usually noted early post-op.)
  • Recurrent (or Persistent) Hernia.
  • Constriction or Narrowing of the Internal Inguinal Ring around the spermatic cord
  • Periostitis-Inflammation of the outer membrane of the bone (pubic) due to the presence of permanent suture material inadvertently placed into this layer resulting in chronic inflammation and pain
  • Pain from Unrelated Causes, associated with neither the prior inguinal hernia nor its operative repair (i.e., Non-hernia musculoskeletal, Intra-abdominal, Intra-pelvic, Neurologic, Genitourinary, Infectious or Vascular origin etc.)
The exact cause of any individual patient's groin pain cannot be determined of course, nor can specific treatment be recommended without an examination. The diagnosis is a clinical one, and imaging studies such as X-rays, MRI or CT scans are often normal in these circumstances. Imaging studies in cases of persistent post-operative pain are however of value in excluding intra-abdominal or other unrelated causes for pain that is not associated with the prior hernia surgery.
<end of quote from http://www.nphernia.com/pop.html>

That said, it's possible that the stinging pain that I'm enduring is due to nerve damage. Interestingly, I had this same pain(albeit at a *MUCH* higher level) on my right side the day after surgery. Yet, I've NEVER had such pain on my left side. This tells me that the nerve damage may have been done at the time of the surgery!

Will the burning, stinging pain eventually go away? I hope so. My surgeon seems to think it will and told me that there was no nerve damage to the right side during surgery and that the pain is due to muscles, nerves and the mesh converging in a particular part of my groin; a place where this type of pain is common.

Is my surgeon right? Will the pain ever go away? Or, will I have to visit another surgeon to have my scar tissue and/or nerve damage repaired?

Only time will tell and I will post more meaningful updates as I learn more about this condition.

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Pulmonary Embolism Recovery
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Continuing with the Coumadin every day, at 4PM. No pain when I breath deep. Progress is good.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Two Months

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Hernia Recovery
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Today is the two month anniversary of my surgery and all is not well. My left side is almost completely healed. I feel no stinging, burning or pain when I move in most any direction. The only time it bothers me is whenever I take a long walk or do any exercise. It feels sore.

By contrast, my right side still hurts and hurts a LOT! The stinging, burning pain hasn't subsided and it magnifies whenever I sit in a car(behind the wheel or in the passenger's seat). The pain got so bad the other day that I jumped out of the passenger's side door while my wife was driving in heavy traffic. I had been sitting down for an hour and a half, on a drive between our home and a neighboring city, and I couldn't stand the pain any longer. I had to get up and walk around. That's how bad the pain was!

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Pulmonary Embolism Recovery
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Continuing with the Coumadin every day, at 4PM. No pain when I breath deep, which I've been doing while exercising and no pain when I sleep on my side. Progress is good.