Hernia surgery and chronic pain

[ennaye]

Hi,
I am very worried. My husband(age 75) has been advised open hernia surgery. After reading up on various forums, I find that many persons are left with chronic pain after surgery.
Anybody knows if that is the norm after this surgery?
What should be the course of action for us for I do not want to see him in pain.

If you or anbody you know has had this surgery , I will be grateful  if you could share your experiences.

[Nick7925]

I have had hernia surgery back in 2006 And been in chronic pain I found a link on YouTube that might have some hope for me and hopefully you guys to i have not had the surgery http://youtu.be/Y7jEhwJL_VY
http://youtu.be/ESfuRuqTmEs
I have not had this done but was wondering if anybody else has it done if it came out well

[greenxxxeyez]

how did the surgery turn out? im scared to have mine done ince it looks like its gonna be a big surgery since hernia so large it sticks out if it were alittle lower i would look like im pregnant. also, my doctor worned me already after surery i will be in the most pain of my life. however, i questioned that because i had a 22cm cancerious tumor and it burst in my stomach so if he wants to talk about pain that was terrible.

[ennaye]

Dear Dr Anitha,

We had the surgery last week. Apart from the discomfort caused by the pain ( taking pain killers for that), what has happened is that the scrotum has
become very big and is causing discomfort while sitting and while walking.
What could this be due to? Is it some fluid build up?
What is the treatment for this?
Please advise me. Very grateful for your time and advice.

[ennaye]

Thank you for your view.
We have been avoiding the surgery for a very long time. The hernia now is protruding quite a bit.
The doc says thatwe should not be taking anymore chances and should go in for surgery.
We depend on the docs as we ourselves do not have much knowledge or experience.
Please request you to pray for us.

[808mike]

My opinion is to not have the mesh used as hismrepair and to just have the repair done old school style by suturing the hernia up. There way to much complication w/ this type of repair and for him being 75 I would not take the risk!!

[ennaye]

Thank you very much for your reply. I found your post very reassuring.

We are going in for surgery on the 30Jan. Hope everything goes of well.

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

Unless there are complications it's unlikely that he may continue to have pain post surgery. The surgery is best performed as an elective surgery with all the adequate precautions, to prevent recurrence.

The precautions he will have to take will be, to first rule out if a diabetic or not. If he is one, then his blood sugars must be brought to euglycaemic levels. The second precaution would be to see that the wound does not become infected; otherwise it will give way. After surgery, he has to be precautious while bending down and lifting heavy weights. The aim of the surgery is wound strengthening, so that hernia does not occur again. If the gap is large, then a mesh may be used.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.