Dr. Mommy

I had a hernia repair surgery performed in October of 1999. It was on my right side and it took MONTHS for them to diagnose the problem. I even had exploratory laproscopy surgery by my OB/GYN in the spring of that year looking for possible endometriosis (which I didn't have). In other words, I had needless surgery because no one could figure out what was causing my pain. My primary care doc told me it was all in my head (nice, huh?). My gyny thought it was cysts (we tried the pill) and then she recommended the laproscopy when that didn't work.

I finally saw a surgeon recommended by my SIL and he suspected the hernia (inguinal). We scheduled the surgery and when it was all over and he told me that he had repaired it (and it was A LOT bigger than he thought), I cried. It was such a relief to know that I wasn't going to be in pain any more. And that it wasn't all in my head.

In late winter of this year, I started having the same pain. I assumed that I had re-injured my hernia and I wanted the same surgeon to see me. He no longer performs that type of operation and I opted to see the surgeon his office recommended. My primary care doc (actually, his nurse practitioner) agreed with me when she examined me and I scheduled the appointment. The surgeon couldn't feel a lump but apparently that's common in women. However, he thought it was a brand new hernia because it's very unusual to re-injure that type of repair. The only other option - which is "common" but less likely - was that there was scar tissue from the old repair causing me pain. He recommended surgery - scheduled at my convenience. The idea was to repair what he thought was a femoral hernia near the same location using laproscopy.

Thursday morning I went in for the surgery. I was a bit anxious (read: scared shitless). I was afraid I wouldn't come home. I was afraid they wouldn't find anything. I was just frickin' scared. So when I got back to my recovery room and Mr. MOTH said, "There was no hernia." I may have cried. I felt like an idiot. Turns out it was scar tissue from the old repair. The surgeon removed the old mesh (after cutting away the scar tissue which was "like concrete"), replaced it with "new and improved" mesh, and stitched me up. It sucks, but hopefully I will again be pain-free someday soon (not YET, mind you, because surgery HURTS). In the end, I was right. It felt like exactly the same pain as before because it WAS the exact same pain - caused by a different problem but still in the same place.

I'm still processing all of this. I was expecting a much less intrusive operation with much less recovery time and instead I'm in the same boat as before...except this time I have 4 small children who need me to take care of them. {SIGH}