@veronicat
The surgeon that did my prolapse surgery was Dr. Tomas Antonini at Central Texas Urogynecology in Austin, Texas. He did use mesh because my prolapse was a stage 4 and given the condition of my ligaments he did not believe that just repairing the ligaments would hold and I did not want to have to do it again in a couple of years. I was very afraid of the mesh but he showed it to me and showed me how it compared to the mesh you hear about on TV involving all the lawsuits. One other thing he did was a Urodynamic study which is a test that helps to anticipate if you will be incontinent once the repair is done. That is because when the bladder hangs down as it does in prolapse it makes it difficult to urinate due to gravity (urine can't flow up) and often masks underlying issues with incontinence. He found that I would likely have some incontinence issues and so he did some adjustments to help correct that as well. The surgery I had is called a Sacrocolcopexy with Hysterectomy. It was done with the DaVinci robot and I had a few little spots on my tummy where he went in but you can't really see them now at all. My surgery was Oct. 2017. The reason they do a Hysterectomy along with the prolapse repair is because the uterus is in the way of the area that needs to be addressed during the prolapse repair. The surgery is much cleaner, with less complications, and less time, if it is done this way.

Dr. Antonini was the second Urogynecologist I went to. The first one was very high pressure and when I did not schedule surgery on my first visit, he had his office continue to call me to try to "get me on his surgery schedule". I just did not feel good about the pressure even though he had a good reputation. Dr. Antonini was very patient. His wife is a gynecologist and he shares his office with her. I think he probably gets a woman's perspective on things whether he wants it or not. I found him very kind and comforting. He even let me stay in the hospital two nights because I told him I lived alone which I appreciated. I did come home with a catheter and you keep it for a week, but it was a small price to pay to get things taken care of properly. His office staff had some turnover not long after my surgery, which I think was for the best, because the only even slightly negative issue I had was with a few people on his staff who are now no longer there. I would highly recommend him. Please let me know if you have any additional questions as I know it is a bit of an intimidating process but I am so glad I did it. I suffered way too long with the prolapse.

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