Last October, I ended up in the emergency room with horrible abdominal pain. I ended up having appendicitis and gallstones. They performed emergency surgery and removed my appendix and gallbladder. I spent one night in the hospital.
In January, I started having discomfort and noticed a bulge to the side of the largest incision from my surgery. By early February, it had grown and was painful. My surgeon sent me for a CT and I was diagnosed with ventral incisional hernia.
I had a laparoscopy hernia repair with mesh at the end of February. It was the most painful thing I’ve ever endured. I’ve had two c-sections, been in a head on collision at 60 MPH, been tased and pepper sprayed (former LEO), and a foot surgery and I would rather have gone through all of them the same day then ever have to go through hernia surgery again!
The pain meds after did not work for me, so I literally felt everything for the first 48 hours. Immediately after surgery, it took almost 3 hours for them to find something to take the edge off for my husband to even be allowed to visit me.
My surgeon kept saying I’d hit a turning point, where I’d wake up and just feel better. It’s never happened. I constantly feel pain in that area. Any kind of movement just aggitates it. About 6 weeks post op, I came down with a cough. It lasted a good 5-6 weeks and I’m still not 100% over it. I used to be able to apply slight pressure to the area and it helped and now I’m finding I’m having to push much deeper to get any relief. I literally sneezed today and it brought me to tears.
I have an appointment on Thursday. I’ve reached out to the surgeon several times and he’s said big movements, coughs and sneezes will be painful for sometime. But I hurt ALL THE TIME. I literally feel like I’m being stabbed. I can’t do anything. I can’t get dressed without hurting. I can’t play with my kids. It’s changed how I do anything.
Has anyone had a similar experience? I’m terrified I’m going to have to have another surgery. It is starting to cause me a lot of aniexty. I just don’t think I can go through all that again. I’m just really scared of what the surgeon may say Thursday.