Susan's surgery at UCSF with Dr. Hu on 19 and 22 March, 2013

[susancook]

You have a bikini line scar, too? I know the doctor said when he was stitching me together that the tissues were just falling apart and tearing. He said I ended up with about half the normal amount of suturing under the skin. He did a running stitch to hold the skin together. It kind of upsets me because no matter how "in shape" I get my abdominals (I had a six-pack) by the time my son was 3, "it" was still there. It sits right where many underwear want to sit. I try not to get underwear that sit there, but they are hard to find. It looks horrid on profile on all of my x-rays. Maybe I'm too vain. It doesn't matter how thin I am, either. I'm too thin right now. It's not AS bad, but it's still there. But, I can say my son was worth it!

Problem with underwear in the wrong place? Go commando! ;+]

[susancook]

Uncomfortable day as fluid is building up on the R side of my wound. Occasional severe pain at the tendon in lower R area in the crease next to my crotch upon moving in certain positions. The whole area of skin is numb, so I burned my lower abd slightly with hot water bottle.

My incision is closed with sutures and glue. He must have really been enthusiastic with the glue application as my pubic hair is glued together at numerous places!

Susan

[golfnut]

I am so sorry you had a rough day on the 30th. You still managed to add humor to your post. I hope you are feeling better!

[loves to skate]

Hi Susan,
Glad to hear your abdominal surgery is over with. I guess recovery is not much fun. Healing thoughts and cyber "Hugs" coming your way.
Sally

[susancook]

I just finished sending a healing thought to Sally, and I found that she sent me a nice note! Thanks!

My R groin hurts with any movement of my R leg. It is difficult to get in and out of bed, car, chair, you name it. I watched the Portland Trailblazers on TV and one of the players was out of action after a "groin injury". I thought about sending him a get well card and commiserate. At least he might think it was funny that an old 67 year old women who is 5'2" had the same problem that he did as a 7 foot, 20 something year old. I was going am wearing an abdominal truss, a la girdle (you older ladies who were in their teens and 20's in the 60s and 70s know what I am talking about!). It really keeps me tucked in. I noticed that my R side is bulging a little bit....and Dr. Jamison's nurse said, "Well, how much is it bulging?" Have you ever tried to quantify a bulge? I did my best and she informed me that the doctor was in surgery on Thursday and had a full patient schedule on Friday, but could see me on Monday afternoon. I informed her that I was quite unhappy with her recommendation, and she finally said, when I repeated my lack of satisfaction with her suggestion, "Well, I'll put you on the cancellation list for Friday". Call me a dissatisfied patient! So, I will stand guard by my phone on Friday morning. Maybe someone will get cold feet about seeing the surgeon as early as tomorrow and cancel early. I surely hope that the fluid in not another hernia, but fluid backup. Can't believe that I hope for fluid backup, but that's to be expected given that my drain was abruptly pulled when it was consistently draining 80ccs a day on the R side.

I am ready to be well and done with surgery.... I bet that Sally is singing the same chorus!

Susan and her abdominal truss

[susancook]

Bad start to the day.....

Woke up and tried to get out of bed to go to the bathroom....instant pain inR groin and took me 10 minutes to get back in bed....
Finally up, took my morning meds, heated up my hot pack....could not lie down in bed due to R groin pain, so was half in bed and half out of bed but had my heating pad
MD office opened at 0900, called in. Nurse Sue said finally, "Maybe you could go to your PCP?" Then, "Maybe the ER?"
I told her that that neither would work because the doc would see me and say, "You need to go back to your surgeon".
So, she called the surgeon who said that his 0800 gallbladder did not show up, so I needed to be here by 0945 as his next surgery was at 10:30.
We hurried and I arrived at his office at 0946 clutching my hot pack on my groin (it wasn't a pretty sight!)
After I finally crawled on his exam table with a small scream, he did and ultrasound, said that there was no fluid and decided that the diagnosis was femoral nerve compression, and decided to do a femoral nerve block. He quickly drew up Lidocaine, Marcaine...and some kind of steroid and he started injecting away in my groin. Groin is numb, so little feeling.
Amazing! I could get off the table without pain.
So, right now I am OK. He wants me to increase my Gabapentin dramatically and apply lidocaine patches.
Asked about the abdominal binder. He said that it was just for comfort and did not help to prevent future hernias.
Bummer, I don't believe him, so I will wear it for the placebo effect.
Onward!
Susan and her abdominal binder....
I asked Dr. Jamison what surgery he was going to do this morning and he said, "just a hernia, nothing like yours. I am still recovering from yours!" Interesting.....

[susancook]

The relief from the femoral injection lasted 12 hours. Called Dr. Jamison's office again. He will do another injection today. Hope that this one lasts longer. He also really upped my Gabapentin. Yikes, sleep time! I will get through this like I have everything else. Just another adventure in life as I try to get better!

My 1+ year appointment for my spinal fusion with Dr. Hu is May 5th. Looking forward to some feedback and hopefully reassurance that I am going the right direction.

Patience, Susan.....patience.

Susan and her abdominal truss

[mabeckoff]

Hope life gets better

Melissa

[susancook]

Saw the general surgeon, had another injection which was "long acting". He said that he had never seen such a femoral nerve pain. Lucky me! Hope that I am finally done with this! Had blisters on my abdomen like an allergic response. Surgeon put a tagaderm patch on the blisters. Patience, patience, patience.
Susan

[rohrer01]

Susan,
Is your femoral nerve being pinched? If so, by what?

I had two occasions several years back where I had back pain and not enough pain meds. I was out of town for one of them. My daughter noticed something on my back. When I looked in the mirror using another mirror, I had red hives down my spinous processes for a good 10" - 12" in my lower thoracic all the way down the lumbar area. It kind of freaked me out a little bit. My family really freaked and wanted me to go the the Mayo Hospital since we were in Rochester, MN at the time. I didn't want to go because I knew I'd have to fight with my insurance to get them to pay. One of the red hives was larger than a silver dollar. Then, about a month later it happened again, at home this time. So I went to my doctor. He said he'd seen it before where people have nerve pain. The skin will actually break out in hives or turn very red and even blister (NOT shingles) along the nerve pathway, even if there isn't any pain in that exact area. I just told him, "Well, at least you know I'm not faking!" What's strange about it is that I wasn't in off the charts pain when it happened. Apparently my brain thought so. He upped my pain meds and it's never happened since.

I know that there is a tolerance build up from opioid medications. But for some reason, with me at least, the tolerance seems to be to the drowsy and disorientation effects and not so much the pain relieving effect. Although I'm on a LOT more pain meds than I used to be, I'm also getting older and my pain is increasing as the degeneration occurs. I usually take my pain meds on a regular basis whether I'm in pain or not. I've found that if I don't, it gets ahead of me and that's when I get into trouble.

So, Susan, the whole point of this post is because I wonder if you are having a similar reaction. Where were your blisters?

I hope you feel better and can get that femoral nerve pain under control PERMANENTLY.

Take Care and be careful.
(((HUGS)))

[rohrer01]

Problem with underwear in the wrong place? Go commando! ;+]

Back to the bikini scar issue because I just saw this. My puffiness is ABOVE the scar, not below. I don't know why for that brief moment of posting about it I thought it was below. That would be impossible as my pubic bone is there. The scar is very low. I can not go commando, EVER. It's probably a mental thing with me. I have to feel covered. I've been able to find some low rise bikini underwear that sit right where the puffiness is. It seems to push it in and make that area of my tummy flatter. They are just hard to find because I'm very picky and they have to fit just right. Sorry for the TMI out there. But I think this forum is chalk FULL of TMI's just by its very nature. LOL

[babyboomer16]

Checking on you!

Susan, how are you doing since your last post. You were having groin pain! It all sounds so much harder of a recovery than I thought you would be dealing with. Darn!!! Are you still wearing the corset? It would at least seem to secure where they fixed the hernia. I hope your back is doing alright with all else that's going on. I need to have two surgeries that have nothing to do with my spine. And I am not looking forward to them at all! It will just set me back as far as my strength. Ones a histerectomy and ones for my twisted foot. But anyway, my point, I guess is that these are things that have to be attended to whether we have had a huge back surgery or not. Of course I know yours was due to the surgery. I hope things are going better and you are on your way to feeling much better soon. I know things seem crappy now, but hang in there. You seem to always pull through~~ and you will this time too. One day at a time my spinal friend.
Warmest thoughts of you~~~~~Linda

[susancook]

Susan,
Is your femoral nerve being pinched? If so, by what?

I had two occasions several years back where I had back pain and not enough pain meds. I was out of town for one of them. My daughter noticed something on my back. When I looked in the mirror using another mirror, I had red hives down my spinous processes for a good 10" - 12" in my lower thoracic all the way down the lumbar area. It kind of freaked me out a little bit. My family really freaked and wanted me to go the the Mayo Hospital since we were in Rochester, MN at the time. I didn't want to go because I knew I'd have to fight with my insurance to get them to pay. One of the red hives was larger than a silver dollar. Then, about a month later it happened again, at home this time. So I went to my doctor. He said he'd seen it before where people have nerve pain. The skin will actually break out in hives or turn very red and even blister (NOT shingles) along the nerve pathway, even if there isn't any pain in that exact area. I just told him, "Well, at least you know I'm not faking!" What's strange about it is that I wasn't in off the charts pain when it happened. Apparently my brain thought so. He upped my pain meds and it's never happened since.

I know that there is a tolerance build up from opioid medications. But for some reason, with me at least, the tolerance seems to be to the drowsy and disorientation effects and not so much the pain relieving effect. Although I'm on a LOT more pain meds than I used to be, I'm also getting older and my pain is increasing as the degeneration occurs. I usually take my pain meds on a regular basis whether I'm in pain or not. I've found that if I don't, it gets ahead of me and that's when I get into trouble.

So, Susan, the whole point of this post is because I wonder if you are having a similar reaction. Where were your blisters?

I hope you feel better and can get that femoral nerve pain under control PERMANENTLY.

Take Care and be careful.
(((HUGS)))

Rohrer: the surgeon does not know who my femoral nerve is being pinched. ????maybe he says that he tacked down the mesh too close to the nerve and it is tugging on the nerve.

The blisters are probably from burns that I received from using a heated pad on my numb lower abdomen and thus burning it! The good news is that I had very little feeling in my lower abdomen, thus did not sense how hot the heating pad was.

I stopped the Dilaudid post operatively for only a week.. I did not take anything for the second week and now I take NSAIDs on recommendation of my surgeon.

Thanks for your kind words. The groin pain has not improved much.

Susan

[mabeckoff]

Susan, how are you doing since your last post. You were having groin pain! It all sounds so much harder of a recovery than I thought you would be dealing with. Darn!!! Are you still wearing the corset? It would at least seem to secure where they fixed the hernia. I hope your back is doing alright with all else that's going on. I need to have two surgeries that have nothing to do with my spine. And I am not looking forward to them at all! It will just set me back as far as my strength. Ones a histerectomy and ones for my twisted foot. But anyway, my point, I guess is that these are things that have to be attended to whether we have had a huge back surgery or not. Of course I know yours was due to the surgery. I hope things are going better and you are on your way to feeling much better soon. I know things seem crappy now, but hang in there. You seem to always pull through~~ and you will this time too. One day at a time my spinal friend.
Warmest thoughts of you~~~~~Linda

What is wrong with your foot?

Melissa

[PeggyS]

Susan - you've had such a time of 'issues'! Your positive attitude, with a sense of humor sets a good example for us, but I sure wish things would settle down for you! Sending healing prayers your way!