Posted by Viro on June 4, 2009, 8:24 pm
216.8.154.X
In April of '08 I had surgery for a left inguinal hernia. I thought everything went well....up until 4 months or so after I started noticing a slight tingling pain behind the incision which progressed to the inflamed testicle feeling which progressed to shooting pains down my left leg that turned into this pulling type pain like a had a small weight on my inner left thigh until finally one day I sneezed and felt the bulge on the left side (which now exists with a deep cough or even a hard laugh).
Through that pain transition I visited my GP who sent me for an ultrasound which didn't show anything. So I waited longer to see if the pain would subside now that winter set in and I wasn't doing much physically but it didn't seem to matter much. I went back to my GP who sent me back to the surgeon who did the repair and to look at why my bowel movements are starting to change.
Anyways, finally 6 months after (I live in Ontario, Canada....seeing a specialized doctor is rather difficult...especially when your appointment is cancelled twice) I go in to see him.
I explain the following:
1.) Bulge when coughing/sneezing/laughing
2.) Shooting pains that I had as well as a pain that shoots back between the legs and um, to the behind.
3.) Pain around the incision. Sometimes I get some numbing, other times I feel like there is presssue.
4.) Activites like climbing stairs frequently or shifting directings while walking lead to the inner thigh getting irritated and get the shooting pain that sometimes radiates from near the incision down through leg.
5.) Poor bowel movements.
His first course of treatment is anti inflamatories for a couple of weeks to see if that helps. If the ultrasound that my GP had me get was negative for the hernia then he didn't feel the need for another one (my GP never sent him the results so he wasn't aware I had one done, intitially he wanted me to get one but after finding out I had one 6 or whatever months ago he opted not to).
I made it perfectly clear that at age 31 and with a 20 month old boy and another boy in the oven I don't want to be in pain like this for the rest of my life so to speak and not be able to wrestle with the boys for fear of hurting myself some more.
He was very sympathetic to that comment and reiterated trying the anti inflammatories first and then we may have to look at a pain specialist.
After all that I was a little dissappointed, especially since the examination today didn't lead him to thing anything was overly wrong (he couldn't feel a hernia).
I'm just curious if anyone else has had to 'deal with the pain' so to speak or any suggestions I might bring up with him next time. I did mention to him how some of the pains I describe above seem like a sports hernia given the leg pain now involved (and there is a slight discomfort squeezing the legs together)....but that really didn't seem to matter.
I was pain free for a few months following the surgery and now I'm getting frustrated because I don't want to be stuck on some drug or see a 'pain specialist' to manage it if I don't know what 'it' is.
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