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Hernia mesh hurts

Old 08-11-20, 10:58 PM
  #26  
Kristiana
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Originally Posted by Balanced Rock
I had a triple hernia repair 12 years ago. Last March, after upping my riding intensity, my left inguinal mesh tore and started causing pain. It took months to diagnose. My GP insisted it was a pulled muscle, give it six weeks, then give it more time. He is no longer my GP.

A surgeon finally diagnosed it. By that time you could feel the mesh through my abdomen. It had torn loose of its moorings and was rubbing against muscle and skin. I haven’t been able to ride since March. It gets painful after just a few minutes. Sex causes pain the next day, so I haven’t given that up.

Anyway, I see the surgeon tomorrow to set a date for removal and repair. He warned there could be complications with scar tissue. Of course waiting any longer will just create more scar tissue.

My advice to anyone considering hernia repair is to do it the way that worked for decades before mesh was invented. Tell the doc no mesh. It isn’t needed. Sutures are just fine. Sutures don’t shred inside you like a cheap screen door.
When your mesh tore and started causing pain, was it continuous or just during riding? Did it come and go at first, like a gradually progression? I ask because I had surgery 16 years ago and still feel occasional pain. Toward the end of riding 150 the other day it got A LOT worse. I've done the same ride many times with no issues. Next day the pain was gone though. I am certain it's the mesh as I've had a similar discomfort during other strenuous workouts, but never this bad. Others are saying occasional discomfort is normal. Obviously yours isn't. I'm hoping mine is. I've run twice since then at high intensity with just a small bit of discomfort. I too wish I had opted for the sutures. I liked the idea of faster recovery with the mesh, but 16 years ago I didn't do a fraction of what I do now, and another surgery at this point is not ideal.
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Old 08-12-20, 12:39 AM
  #27  
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I posted last October about seeing a surgeon to repair a torn hernia mesh. I finally had the operation a few weeks ago. It was postponed from March due to Coronavirus. The old mesh wasn't torn. It was rolled up like one of those fruit leathers. It had broken loose from the 14 tacks that were holding it in place. It wasn't holding the hernia in either, and it was rubbing everything. The repair was done with sutures, no more mesh. One of my nerves was wrapped up in scar tissue. It was cut, making part of my leg numb, supposedly permanently.

I'm recovering now, riding a stationary bike once or twice a week at the surgeon's suggestion. The operation was performed with the DiVinci robot. Recovery is much easier than the first hernia operation years ago. While the surgeon was removing the old mesh he also examined the two other mesh hernia repairs I had. Both were in good shape.

As to the original symptoms, some pain started intermittently, usually the next day after a ride. It progressed so that eventually I felt mild pain while riding, then pretty much after any exertion including walking. I eventually had to quit riding completely. The first surgeon I visited started me on steroid injections, which reduced the onset and amount of pain but didn't solve the problem completely. I spent about six months getting four injections. That made life tolerable, but in the end it only put off the inevitable surgery needed to remove a truly messed up mesh.

Looking forward to a full recovery and getting back in the saddle.
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Old 08-14-20, 11:53 AM
  #28  
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Originally Posted by Kristiana
When your mesh tore and started causing pain, was it continuous or just during riding? Did it come and go at first, like a gradually progression? I ask because I had surgery 16 years ago and still feel occasional pain. Toward the end of riding 150 the other day it got A LOT worse. I've done the same ride many times with no issues. Next day the pain was gone though. I am certain it's the mesh as I've had a similar discomfort during other strenuous workouts, but never this bad. Others are saying occasional discomfort is normal. Obviously yours isn't. I'm hoping mine is. I've run twice since then at high intensity with just a small bit of discomfort. I too wish I had opted for the sutures. I liked the idea of faster recovery with the mesh, but 16 years ago I didn't do a fraction of what I do now, and another surgery at this point is not ideal.
As to the original symptoms, yes it was a gradual progression. The pain started intermittently, usually the next day after a ride. I knew I had a serious problem when I went for a 30 mile gravel + street ride and had to call for an Uber on the way back. It was just too painful to complete the ride. It did progress gradually, so that in the beginning I felt mild pain after shorter rides, then months later there was pain after any exertion including walking. I eventually had to quit riding completely.

It went 18 months from first pain to surgery, including a four month Covid delay for all elective surgeries. The first surgeon I visited started me on steroid injections, which reduced the onset and amount of pain but didn't solve the problem completely. I spent about six months getting four injections. That made life tolerable, but in the end it only put off the inevitable surgery needed to remove a truly messed up mesh.

Initially my personal doctor sent me for x-rays. They came back fine, which tells me what a boob he and the x-ray consultant were. He insisted I had a pulled muscle, but you can’t see a folded up mesh on an x-ray. He eventually got fed up with me and referred me to a hernia surgery specialist. That’s when things started to get better, though it took two months to get the appointment. The hernia doc is a busy guy.


My mesh was rolled up like a cannoli. It had detached from most of the tacks holding it in place. Scar tissue grew around it. None of this was visible with an x-ray. It was a 3 1/2 hour operation to get everything untangled. This operation was MUCH less painful than the original operation 12 years ago. They used the Da Vinci surgery robot which makes very small incisions. I’m quite pleased I got it done. The pain was really interfering with my life.

Best wishes to you. I hope you can get it fixed by a surgeon with a lot of mesh removal experience. While I did get it replaced with sutures, modern meshes are more like Velcro with fewer failures. They no longer use all the tacks. Have it replaced with the method best suited to your situation. I told my surgeon that I had a preference for sutures, but left the final decision to him. They won’t know until they’re in there. Good luck.

Last edited by Balanced Rock; 08-14-20 at 12:00 PM.
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Old 08-15-20, 05:52 PM
  #29  
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Originally Posted by Balanced Rock
As to the original symptoms, yes it was a gradual progression. The pain started intermittently, usually the next day after a ride. I knew I had a serious problem when I went for a 30 mile gravel + street ride and had to call for an Uber on the way back. It was just too painful to complete the ride. It did progress gradually, so that in the beginning I felt mild pain after shorter rides, then months later there was pain after any exertion including walking. I eventually had to quit riding completely.

It went 18 months from first pain to surgery, including a four month Covid delay for all elective surgeries. The first surgeon I visited started me on steroid injections, which reduced the onset and amount of pain but didn't solve the problem completely. I spent about six months getting four injections. That made life tolerable, but in the end it only put off the inevitable surgery needed to remove a truly messed up mesh.

Initially my personal doctor sent me for x-rays. They came back fine, which tells me what a boob he and the x-ray consultant were. He insisted I had a pulled muscle, but you can’t see a folded up mesh on an x-ray. He eventually got fed up with me and referred me to a hernia surgery specialist. That’s when things started to get better, though it took two months to get the appointment. The hernia doc is a busy guy.


My mesh was rolled up like a cannoli. It had detached from most of the tacks holding it in place. Scar tissue grew around it. None of this was visible with an x-ray. It was a 3 1/2 hour operation to get everything untangled. This operation was MUCH less painful than the original operation 12 years ago. They used the Da Vinci surgery robot which makes very small incisions. I’m quite pleased I got it done. The pain was really interfering with my life.

Best wishes to you. I hope you can get it fixed by a surgeon with a lot of mesh removal experience. While I did get it replaced with sutures, modern meshes are more like Velcro with fewer failures. They no longer use all the tacks. Have it replaced with the method best suited to your situation. I told my surgeon that I had a preference for sutures, but left the final decision to him. They won’t know until they’re in there. Good luck.
What an ordeal! Glad to hear surgery went well though. It gives me a bit of hope. I am bypassing seeing a PCP as I don't need a referral for the hernia doc. I found one who the regular hernia docs send their difficult repairs to, so hopefully he knows what he is doing. Hope your recovery is quick and you get back to riding soon. Thanks for your reply!
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Old 02-03-21, 10:31 PM
  #30  
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Back into weight lifting and at times I feel the hernia repair area. I don’t want to rip open my guts again but I want to lift. Less weights more reps but heavy enough to get somewhere. I do hex bar deadlifts for legs and back and dumbbell squats and that strains the hernia area the most. Upper body movements not so much. Trying not to be paranoid about it but I don’t want to be careless. It has been more than 5 years so the repair should be solid. I started to ride fairly soon after the surgery and no problems since. Adding weights back in twice a week to keep some muscle on my carcass.
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Old 02-03-21, 11:18 PM
  #31  
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Timely bump. I had my second last Thursday. Mesh again, this time other side and femoral. Roughly the same procedure but my, how things have changed! Radically more pleasant. Even fun. No more freezing in that thin 1/2 dress. Oh, yeah, you still wear it but I got a tube of warm air to run under it. The anesthetics are better. Faster out, much cleaner wake-up and feelings after. Whole procedure was near painless. (Zero while I was out.) After the surgery medications wore off, I took three aspirins over the next two nights. Nothing else, not even scotch. I've slept well, other than sleeping "watches" of two hours each. (Under orders to walk around every 2 hours.) Reminds me of sailing offshore. I used to spend 20-30 minutes in bed regularly before falling asleep. Not now. I sleep almost all of my watch!

I did get a scare two nights ago. A lot of bright red discoloring around one of the three tiny incisions. I was concerned enough that I drove across town today to see one of the clinic's nurses. She took one look and said it looked really healthy! Just bruising from inserting those patch tools through the tire casing to insert the boot from the inside. Yes a little hard on the casing at that place! Then I realized the doc was manipulating 8" of tool inside my gut from the outside. Yeah, that muscle wall (casing) might have some objections! Was warned that I will probably watch those colors change a lot and probably spread down. OK. (A very slo-mo hallucination. Will the colors in this trip go dark? Blue? Green?)

Oh, in this bike analogy - three casing holes to 1) inflate the tire - blow up my abdomen with CO2, 2) insert the camera and light for the Garmin on the handlebars and 3) the hole for the tools to apply the boot. After the surgery, the doc was unable to roll me up like an inner tube and couldn't quite squeeze out all the gas. Thankfully it was CO2 which absorbs into the tissue faster than air, just like CO2 inflated tires go flat faster. (I didn't get to see this, but I think the doc lifted the handlebars out of the stem and laid them across my thighs so she could see the Garmin while she worked. Forgot to ask when she came by post-op.)

Edit: COVID, I did this last winter right at the start of COVID. Small and I could tuck my gut back in easily but I mentioned it at my tele-physical and got a referral Went last August to have it seen. Well the doc could barely feel it and wasn't at her cross-town home base so she couldn't MRI me. December it made a real step to bigger. Still manageble. She saw me again. Agreed it wasn't urgent, but it was femoral and could become serious. We agreed doing it outpatient and bypassing the ambulance ride and hospital stay in COVID made sense and she put me down as a priority. Next day "got a cancellation. Next week. Want it?"

Last edited by 79pmooney; 02-03-21 at 11:26 PM.
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Old 02-04-21, 12:02 AM
  #32  
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Originally Posted by 79pmooney
Timely bump. I had my second last Thursday. Mesh again, this time other side and femoral. Roughly the same procedure but my, how things have changed! Radically more pleasant. Even fun. No more freezing in that thin 1/2 dress. Oh, yeah, you still wear it but I got a tube of warm air to run under it. The anesthetics are better. Faster out, much cleaner wake-up and feelings after. Whole procedure was near painless. (Zero while I was out.) After the surgery medications wore off, I took three aspirins over the next two nights. Nothing else, not even scotch. I've slept well, other than sleeping "watches" of two hours each. (Under orders to walk around every 2 hours.) Reminds me of sailing offshore. I used to spend 20-30 minutes in bed regularly before falling asleep. Not now. I sleep almost all of my watch!

I did get a scare two nights ago. A lot of bright red discoloring around one of the three tiny incisions. I was concerned enough that I drove across town today to see one of the clinic's nurses. She took one look and said it looked really healthy! Just bruising from inserting those patch tools through the tire casing to insert the boot from the inside. Yes a little hard on the casing at that place! Then I realized the doc was manipulating 8" of tool inside my gut from the outside. Yeah, that muscle wall (casing) might have some objections! Was warned that I will probably watch those colors change a lot and probably spread down. OK. (A very slo-mo hallucination. Will the colors in this trip go dark? Blue? Green?)

Oh, in this bike analogy - three casing holes to 1) inflate the tire - blow up my abdomen with CO2, 2) insert the camera and light for the Garmin on the handlebars and 3) the hole for the tools to apply the boot. After the surgery, the doc was unable to roll me up like an inner tube and couldn't quite squeeze out all the gas. Thankfully it was CO2 which absorbs into the tissue faster than air, just like CO2 inflated tires go flat faster. (I didn't get to see this, but I think the doc lifted the handlebars out of the stem and laid them across my thighs so she could see the Garmin while she worked. Forgot to ask when she came by post-op.)

Edit: COVID, I did this last winter right at the start of COVID. Small and I could tuck my gut back in easily but I mentioned it at my tele-physical and got a referral Went last August to have it seen. Well the doc could barely feel it and wasn't at her cross-town home base so she couldn't MRI me. December it made a real step to bigger. Still manageble. She saw me again. Agreed it wasn't urgent, but it was femoral and could become serious. We agreed doing it outpatient and bypassing the ambulance ride and hospital stay in COVID made sense and she put me down as a priority. Next day "got a cancellation. Next week. Want it?"
Yup I had 3 puncture holes sealed with surgical glue. I had a CO2 bloated belly for a few days. Surgeon said it’s like patching a car tire with the patch inside the tear.
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Old 02-06-21, 07:29 AM
  #33  
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Had double hernia repair around 30 years ago. I ride on and off road. Trails I ride have always had some fairly hard climbs. I've never felt any irritation from the repair(s). Guess I'm lucky.
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Old 08-13-21, 09:20 AM
  #34  
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I had a right side inguinal repair without mesh, using what's called the Desarda technique, about 10 years ago. They basically use some of your own tissue/fascia to pull over and patch it as they would w mesh. I was freaked out by the mesh horror stories so I was determined to avoid it (but I know a few friends who have had no prob). The repair has been great, that side feels as solid and normal as before the hernia.
I also have had a small one on the left side since then (not even visible, unlike the right side which you could see poking out), that I've chosen to just live with--it only bugs me every few years--and never from cycling, including mountain biking and hard gravel climbing. Last time I tweaked it was from literally just sitting in a chair and coughing! Then after a few days or so it settles down and I forget about it. It's been this way for 10 years and hasn't gotten worse, and I'm pretty convinced that cycling has only served to strengthen that whole area. So, at 61, fingers crossed I can carry on this way and not feel I need to go under the knife for that one too. If I do I'll get the same mesh-free technique done for sure--more and more docs are doing it apparently.

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Old 08-13-21, 10:40 AM
  #35  
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Done 11 years ago, and I've never had the slightest problem.
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Old 08-13-21, 12:53 PM
  #36  
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Originally Posted by 79pmooney
She took one look and said it looked really healthy! Just bruising from inserting those patch tools through the tire casing to insert the boot from the inside.
Very funny tale! Glad to hear all is well.

My mesh repair was July 2020. Full recovery took about a year, I was up and riding but there was always some pain the next day until this July. For the first couple of months I was lucky to pedal at 55 rpm for 15 minutes. Before the operation I couldn’t pedal at all, so it was a vast improvement!

All is well now. Best wishes to you and everyone with a hernia issue.
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Old 08-24-21, 02:01 PM
  #37  
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Double Hernia mesh robotic repair June 29th, 2021, almost 2 months post-op. I was referred by a doctor buddy who just had umbilical hernia done, and was happy. Out patient, first week was slow going, off work. Took a gentle bike ride during the 3rd week out, and am back to hills, and my regular 27 mile loop, with some minor soreness at the left side site (larger defect). Watching what I carry, as I play music for a hobby, but on real gigs. No heavy amps! I also swim without any trouble. I figure it will be next spring to feel totally back to normal, (whatever that is), probably some minor aches down there. The left side pain became severe in the months before surgery. I never felt any protrusion of the intestine, and it still hurt like the dickens after intense hill rides. Each week feels better thankfully. I hope the repair holds!
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Old 08-25-21, 07:50 AM
  #38  
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You went back to,the hills too soon. Just had the surgery a month ago. Per the doc no hills for 6 weeks and no strenuous rides (read: real hills) for weeks after. You're not considered fully recovered for 6 months. Sucks, but I want to be here next year so I'm on the flats till the doc gives clearance.
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Old 08-25-21, 08:23 PM
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Yeah, I will go easy until next spring. Swimming, and rides on flats. Thanks. (my doc is a bike rider, and did not put any restrictions on me after my 2 week check, other than heavy lifting). I'll be more cautious.
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Old 09-15-21, 09:55 PM
  #40  
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Had 3 areas where my guts were protruding triple mesh lol. 6 years ago but the patch held. But I can still feel it when I lift something heavy or ride many bike miles. Dull pain nothing alarming but was told to expect that and that isn’t damage. But yeah I can still feel it at times ..
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