Greg - ahh, yes...my visit and diagnosis. When I arrived I first saw Dr. Leonhard, her husband, and he immediately recognized me from when I was in Munich back in February. We chatted for quite some length of time before Dr. UM saw me.
I explained to her what was going on with me and the low grade pain and ache I was now feeling on a consistent basis. She did her standard finger invagination of the scrotum (http://www.fotosearch.com/bigcomp.asp?path=LIF/LIF139/NU106003.jpg). This was, like always, unpleasant and a bit tender. She did not sense any new bulging on the operated right side, but she did, once again and without consulting my file, feel the very minor bulging that she diagnosed on my left side back in February (I did not get that side operated on, btw, because I have no pain there...yet - and I pray that I never do). I demonstrated for here the moves I do with my right leg to illicit the "puffy" and bulging sensations. She watched and listened. She then had me lie down on the make-shift examination table and proceeded with the ultrasound. She scanned many different areas, while showing me the results and concluded that there was no new bulge and that nothing had torn or come apart. Her feeling was that my nerve was coming back too full sensitivity and it was giving me a 'ghost' sensation of a bulge. After me pinpointing several areas around the groin that seemed to be very sensitive, she proceeded to hand evaluate those areas as well. The areas that were tender were all adductor regions, according to her. She thought that since I had decreased my exercise regimen quite a bit that the trauma from the surgery was causing the adductors to shorten up and get tense as a protection mechanism against further pain in the area; thus pulling a bit on the surgical area and probably adding to the pain I am feeling in the ilioinguinal nerve as it continues to heal. And as we all know, nerves take a long time to heal. She did point out that everybody heals at different rates and that it may take me up to a year to have full nerve resolution in that area. When I heard that I was somewhat skeptical. A year??? - to get rid of a ghost sensation. I was scratching my head on the inside without giving any visual indication of my skepticism. Her prescription was for me to continue with NSAIDS therapy and start taking larger doses of B12 - all of which I heard before the day after my surgery. She suggested that I re-energize myself in starting to exercise more again and wanted me to see a physiotherapist for deep tissue massage in and around the adductor region - this sounded more in tune with a PT friend of mine that said that my pain sound like scar infiltration of the nerve area and deep tissue would help to break up any possible scar tissue that was causing the nerve irritation.
So, what is my next move? I'm not sure yet. It wouldn't hurt to start the pills again, but I don't see that being a long-term solution. I will also start taking my Wobenyzms and Zyflamends again, in earnest. I haven't ruled out second opinions or corroborating scans to help me feel more at ease with what she thinks the problem is.
ARenko - yes, she is right. The plug is absolutely the worst. I have spent nearly a year researching my ass off on all types of hernia repairs and some repair moves are just horrible. From everything I have read, the Shouldice Hospital in Canada is the place to be for normal hernia surgery if one is looking to avoid having a foreign material implanted in the body. Pure-tissue repair is definitely the way to go. The only problem is that so many younger surgeons have not invested the time to learn the tried and true old-school techniques to hernia repair so they just learn the 'quick and slick' mesh repairs.