Get the Support You Need

Learn from thousands of users who have made their way through our courses. Need help getting started? Watch this short video.

today's top discussions:

logo

11 years and counting

Timbo637

2024-10-31 6:49 AM

Quit Smoking Community

logo

Feels like hell week all over!!

Timbo637

2024-10-30 9:38 AM

Quit Smoking Community

logo

Roller Coaster Withdrawal

Timbo637

2024-10-14 12:28 PM

Quit Smoking Community

logo

Smile....and don't shoot the messenger

Timbo637

2024-09-27 3:17 PM

Quit Smoking Community

This Month’s Leaders:

Most Supportive

Most Loved

Browse through 411.768 posts in 47.066 threads.

161,298 Members

Please welcome our newest members: Poul Ilsøe, Trina J Kriya, SG1501, Clam123, Blueeyez

Second Thoughts


10 years ago 0 2508 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Hi Ashley,
Thanks for the concern. I do appreciate it. I will try to answer your queston.
 
I have been out walking since 8 a.m. this morning in the sun and rain and the wind.
This is my way for attempting to relax a bit and clear my head so I can think clearly. Of course I was thinking about this decision and talking out loud to my partner about it during most of this activity. Rambling and playing devils advocate as I do in my head. Weighing the pro's and con's.
 
What If I wait to long What If I do it now and it ruins the quality of my life because I am in constant pain. We are both afraid for me having this surgery. We know that once it is done there is really no way of going back to the way I am now. Once you introduce a foreign substance like polypropylene into the body the body will want to reject it and there will be swelling and edema as my tissue grows through it. It will take months before I know if it is going to be something my body gets used to and it can always have to be done over and you can always get more hernias from every surgery. That is what the doctors tell me. This are not things I have made up in my own mind. These are facts and real possibilities. I will be altered and I will have to learn to live with the outcome if I have surgery.  People have had to have the mesh removed later and it is a awful operation sometimes is not possible.  If I do well that will be great but if I don't than it will be hell. If I do nothing my hernias will get larger in time. They say but no ones know at what rate that will happen and no one can tell me if I will do well after the surgery or not..
 
If I wait I may possibly get into a emergency situation and need emergency surgery because part of my intestine may become trapped in one of  the hernias and lose it's blood supply. No one know if that will ever happen to me and it may never happen in my life time. So as you can see there are many What If's and  Maybe and unanswered questions. That can not be answered by anyone.. So what it boils to is what am I willing to live with and what am I  more afraid of. Dying because I didn't have surgery or dying because I did or wishing to God that I could die and get it over with. Like many other people have said in their posts on line.
 
Or I can say you know what I am feeling pretty good right now and I want to enjoy this good period I am experiencing. I have waited a long time for it. It may last a week or two or maybe years. I may never get to were I need emergency anyway and I will have lived and enjoyed my life to the fullest while I had a chance to enjoy it..
 
This is what I know and how I feel.
I am still thinking about all of it..
 
Red..
 
Red..
 
10 years ago 0 11226 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
Hi Red,

This does sound like a really difficult desicion. It sounds like you have put a lot of thought into it and feel the best choice is to cancel the surgery. I think you sound very logical in how you are weighing out the pros and cons despite this being a very big, potentially emotional desision. I do have to say it made me a bit nervous when you said I could wait for an emergency situation. I am sure you have done all your research on this and know your choices but please be sure you search for alternative medical oppinions if you are at all concerned about what the right choice is - I know you know this but I feel I have to write it out for my own comfort.

Don't say you are rambling! This is a big deal and writing your way through it is an excellent, healthy coping mechanism. I am glad you are comfortable enough with us to share this. So how do you feeling knowing you are going to cancel? What are the thoughts going through your head now?
 
 
Ashley, Health Educator
10 years ago 0 2508 logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo logo 0
I have been thinking about the hernia  surgery that I scheduled for the end of December and am having second thoughts about having it done.They don't have authorization for the surgery yet but will have it by next week. So I still have time to change my mind. The scheduler said to give her a call if I need to reschedule my surgery or anything. My pre opt isn't till the 19th of this month.
There are some many what ifs and unknowns with this surgery. I have seen two surgeons and they both said that this surgery my not fix my pain and that I could have worse chronic pain after having this surgery. There are no guarantees of any kind. They are really not very positive about the outcome. The doctor is hard to talk to and this was my second meeting with him. When my name was called and my partner and I were walking down the corridor to a exam room our eyes meet with the doctors and his expression was one of angry and rage. My partner and I both noticed it. We said hello but he said nothing. When he came in the room his demeanor had changed some but he is very cold and I am a little scared of him. When I told him I was thinking that maybe it was time to do the surgery now. He hurried out and said he would start the paperwork and then came back..He didn't seem to want to talk once he though I wanted surgery, even though after he sat me down with a scheduler he was wandering around doing nothing. He asked about the kidney surgery I had when we were in the exam room though it was done in 2004 and seemed shocked that it was done in 2012. It was done at his clinic and hospital so he should have know this already. He even though my kidney was removed when it was not. So I showed him copy of the opt report that I had brought with me. I told I had emailed his nurse and asked her to correct the date that they had put in the history that the doctor had put down for that surgery.
 
Anyway the long and short of it is I am not comfortable with the doctor or doctors or the surgery yet really. I have a lot of thinking to on this before I can agree to go through with any of it.
 
I have been feeling better every day and this surgery could cause me to have a major setback both physically and mentally. Like the two surgeons and my primary doctor have said more than once there is no guarantee I will not  have increased chronic pain after surgery. The surgeon also said also I will not need narcotics when I go home but he is going to keep me in the hospital to make sure my pain is under control.. I am getting so many mixed messages from the doctors that it really leaves with a bad feeling and not knowing what to do. I had a appt with my primary doctor right after the appt with the surgeon and he said I would have a lot of pain after surgery and the surgeon must really be great if he thinks I would not need pain meds after surgery. The doctor said I want you to know that this is a painful surgery and you will be in a lot of pain after..
 
I think I will be calling them Monday and cancelling this. surgery. It is my choice and I can still wait until it becomes a emergency situation. Which may never happen..I am really do well right now and have to way the pros and cons of doing this surgery right now.
 
Sorry for the ramble but I am really scared right now..
Lifes Choices and Decisions are not always easy ones and we have to live with the choices we make and hope for the best. Right now I still have a choice so I do have some control this situation. This isn't as simple as picking out a new new pair or shoes or having a house remodled. Their is a human mind and body involved here..I wish I felt this doctors were mindful of that but I really don't think they see me as a living and breathing person.
 

Reading this thread: