Illioinguinal nerve pain
Hello all, I searched through a few threads, but I wasn't quite sure if any quite matched what I wanted to post below:
In 2014 I had what should have been a routine laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair, 4 months in recovery I resumed physical activity as instructed. I noticed some pain still and continued for another month assuming it was my body getting used to the mesh. I returned for a for another consult, ultrasound was inconclusive, but during a physical exam the surgeon estimated that the interior mesh could have failed.
Early 2015 I have a second hernia repair, but an open repair this time around. The surgeon says during the first surgery they did not remove a large cord lipoma, so it was removed and they found the interior mesh appeared to be fine and placed a mesh on the outside. I slowly resume physical activity after about 6 months per the doctors instructions. At first everything seems to be perfectly fine, however after another 2-3 months I start to get a little pain and numbness in certain areas. I went through numerous CT scans, MRIs, and X-Rays before being referred to pain management in early 2016.
The pain and numbness during different exercises was slowly getting worse, I ran the gamut of treatments during this time; Amitriptyline, gabopentin, TENS therapy, nerve blockers with Pulsed RFA, and some acupuncture. During all of that I was attending some physical therapy with dry needling. None of the treatments seemed to lessen or address the issues, I was finally referred back to a surgeon to perform another surgery to address the issue.
Early 2017 they performed a second open surgery on the same site, the two surgeons mentioned that the second mesh had failed to adhere to the muscle wall and wrapped itself around the nerve bundle, they removed as much mesh from the muscle wall and nerve as they were able. I waited over 7 months to resume most physical activity and went into heavy PT to help strength my core and address some pain and inflammation. The further I got into PT the worse the pain ended up being. I saw another doctor from the surgery department who wanted to try a mixture of NSAID and steroids injected in the area, in the end this treatment also did little to address the pain, pressure, and inflammation.
I had several PT providers in different places try different treatments to try addressing the scar tissue, with limited success. Fast forward to about 2 years ago the pain started getting worse again, to the point where I've stopped most exercise outside of walking and things like bodyweight squats and pushups, but even those are starting to affect me and have drastically lowered quality of life, has been affecting my sex life with my wife, and possibly leading to poor sleep as well.
During the last few months I noticed shakiness and occasionally mild tingling on the back of my hands and tops of my feet. At first I attributed it to maybe caffeine intake or a side of effect of weight gain, however lately I've been noticing it sometimes happens when my nerve and surrounding area seems to be really fired up. So I thought I would maybe throw all that out there to see if anyone had any experiences with nerve issues on one nerve possibly affecting other nervous system things.
Lastly, I have received two more nerve blockers in the last 3 months on two different nerves so they could attempt to isolate the pain, but they haven't tried pulsed RFA again yet.
Cheers
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Hello @jroberts02, Welcome to Connect, I had a bi-lateral inguinal hernia surgery a few years ago but have been fortunate to not have any associate nerve pain following the recovery. I'm not sure if you saw these comments and discussions when you searched Connect so thought I would share them again while you wait for others with experience to respond - https://connect.mayoclinic.org/search/?search=ilioinguinal+nerve+pain.
I did find some research that might be helpful if you haven't already seen it.
-- Ilioinguinal Neuralgia: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538256/
You mentioned having physical therapy and I was wondering if that also included Myofascial Release Therapy which I've read can be helpful for ilioinguinal nerve pain. There is a discussion that you might find helpful on the topic.
-- Myofascial Release Therapy (MFR) for treating compression and pain:
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/
Have you tried MFR therapy?
My concern for you is that it seems there is something that appears to obviously need correction internally. That should remain the focus while also determining what might help you with the pain.
If you discover a means to lesson the pain that may be masking the issue don't give up on correcting the underlying cause.
You've taken quite a road, I wish you the best.
Thank you