I made a few posts recently about a suspected insicional hernia. Spent over a month going back and forth with various surgeons, GIs, tests, etc to try to determine between the pain being scar tissue or a hernia.
We finally got to see one of the original CR surgeons from Mt Sinai that did my Jpouch surgeries.
He confirmed that there is a large defect in the abdominal wall along the midline insicion and it requires repair.
He is planning to do an open repair with a disolvable mesh attached inside the abdominal wall, closing the muscle wall and then a permenant mesh over the muscle wall. He plans to cover a very large area, going over the stoma site and well above and below the defect to prevent any future hernias.
He's estimating a 3 hour procedure with 4-5 days in the hospital and a drain. The recovery will be 6 weeks of no lifting and 6 weeks of light activity before I can return to work.
Anyone have experience with this type of repair?
He also suggested doing pain control via an epidural rather then a PCA morphine drip. From some of the things I've read, I think I'm going to opt for the PCA since I used that with my previous 3 surgeries.
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