This was my fourth, and hopefully final surgery – EVER!

Disclaimers: Silly me, one of the things I left at home was my cell phone charger, so I’m on limited phone use at the moment. Also, since my first surgical hernia consultation I have been so busy that I have not done an update on the second.

Well, the second consult went well, and I scheduled a date with Dr. Vincent Reger at St. Vincent’s hospital for October 15. Quickly, Dr. Reger had a whole different approach to solving the hernia problem than Dr Tseng. He had a plan A, B and C, depending on the condition he finds upon entry.

A) No mesh – he would enter with a full incision, clean up scar tissue and hernia, then stretch the abdominal muscles together and stitch them up. Least invasive, least amount of material. He believes the muscle material will heal together

B) Thin strip of mesh – if muscles do not come together, or if they come together too tightly, or the quality of the muscle is too hard to work with, he would introduce mesh on the outside of the abdominal wall. Using little material, this would allow a looser muscle closure and use mesh to reinforce the closure.

C) Bridging – If the muscles will not come together, or the quality of muscle tissue is too poor and will not come together at all, the mesh would be used to bridge between the two sides.

The surgery date was yesterday:

Well, it was a roller coaster ride. Matt & I began the day at 5:30am and were out by 11:00pm! The facility was very nice, everything looked new. The nurses were very slow with any request, which I have come to expect in a hospital setting. The surgeon was energetic and quite darling, the anesthesiologist was delightful in his rainbow-colored cap. It is good to be first procedure of the day!

The plan was that I would be put under a twilight anesthesia, so I could witness parts of the procedure. Well, I don’t remember a dang thing, and I was kind of looking forward to that experience.

The procedure went smoothly, although the surgeon found the hernia hole larger than expected, and so had to move to “Plan B”, involving surgical mesh. In recovery, I told Matt, “You have four eyes,” He asked me how many nostrils he had. I said four. My eyes didn’t want to focus, nor want to stay open. I also had a bit of trouble keeping things down when I moved around, ie. getting to the bathroom & back.

So I slept through the afternoon and evening. After that, I felt that I could make the move home. I could finally keep my pain pills along with a couple of crackers down, so Matt & I arrived on my parents’ doorstep at 10:30pm. No more $750/day insurance copay, whew! Woke a few times with terrible pain and soreness, but was able to get on top of it with the assistance of prescription pain pills, and in the morning felt fine again. How quickly things can change!

Matt & I woke in the morning to my mom’s Swedish pancakes, and what HEAVEN!!!

Things are progressing well thus far. Thank you all for your thoughts!