Anyone here ever have hernia surgery? Mesh or no mesh?

[panader0]

I don't get it. I worked as a bricklayer for 40 plus years, also drywall,
concrete, carpentry etc. I retire and then get a hernia. It just popped up
about a month ago and has grown a bit. I loathe hospitals, etc.
Two guys I know had issues with the mesh after their hernia surgeries.
There is even an ad on the TV about suing if you had problems with mesh.
Any advice?

[emmaverybo]

1. This--Canadian because here, FDA pushes medical devices, surgical techniques that have turned

out to be disastrous and hospitals and doctors listened to them.

This article does explain the potential serious complications with mesh. Try a forum on your type of surgery. You will get more horror stories than good ones, naturally, but factoring for the tendency to report the bad rather than the good, you can get an idea...I got some good tips on recovery from googling forums when I had surgery.

https://www.shouldice.com/natural-tissue-vs-mesh-hernia-repair-surgery.html

[panader0]

4. Thanks for the article.

I'm leaning natural tissue repair--no mesh.

[emmaverybo]

8. Good. I am no expert on that surgery, but have run into some real negative reports on mesh when

there are complications. Good wishes!

[CountAllVotes]

2. I had an inguinal hernia in 2009

It was repaired with mesh.

I had 3 abdominal surgeries that year and they "missed" the hernia.

It was a rough surgery.

Lots of pain problems to this day.

It was strangling my intestines and it was either get it fixed ASAP or it was going to turn into an ASAP surgery real soon so no choice.

Best of luck w/it.

[rurallib]

3. I had a belly button hernia repaired 5 years ago with mesh

as quick as I could after I got Medicare.

Have had absolutely no problems since. No pain, no nothing.
At the time I had my surgery I had not heard all the controversy on mesh and followed the doctor's recommendation.

Edit to add - I exercise daily which includes crunches - FWIW.

[lark]

5. When my husband had hernia surgery 5 years ago, he requested no mesh.

However, 2 days before the surgery he helped our daughter and her husband move and tore the hernia so that mesh had to be used. He's not had one minute of trouble with his, but the mesh part is small so that might have had something to do with his good results.

[woodsprite]

6. I had an umbilical hernia, larger than a half dollar, that was causing lots of pain

although I thought the pain was from a bad gall bladder. The surgeon said I'd be surprised how good I felt after the surgery because it would relieve 80-85% of my pain (the other WAS from my gall bladder that needed to come out). He did an outpatient laparoscopic procedure for the hernia on a Monday, said it was bigger than the estimate on the ultrasound. He did use some type of mesh. He was totally right about the pain relief. He performed a laparoscopic gall bladder removal the following Monday.

That was over 10 yrs ago, and haven't had a problem.

[pwb]

7. Sitting here recovering from one right now.

Had it done at the Veterans Administration. Umbilical hernia and they used a robot with Mesh. I started my third day of recovery today and it still hurts but not unbearable.
I am almost 70 and could have lived with it but it looked so weird and hurt when my little dog jumped on it. Took me about a year to finally decide to have it done. I can get back to you in a few days if you like to give you an update?

[Shrek]

9. Three inguinal, 1 right 2 left

Had mesh on the last two and never had any issues.

The third one went so well that i never even took my pain meds post-op and felt nearly normal after only a couple of days.