TVT mesh bladder sling questions from new member

Hello everyone,
I am new to the site and am scheduled for the davinci total hysterectomy and the TVT bladder sling on Nov 12.
After reading through all of the posts I am a lot more comfortable with the hysterectomy portion of the surgery. However... I am very concerned about the mesh bladder sling. Has anyone ever had good success with this product? Does the outcome depend on the skill of the surgeon?
I have severe fibromyalgia which makes my body hypersensitive to everything and am not sure how this will effect me after the surgery. Are there any other fibro sufferers on here that can give me some advice?
Also, I am almost convinced that I do not want the TVT mesh placed in my body. There are so many bad stories about this product it makes me wonder why it is still being used! Has anyone on here had a good outcome with this product? Are there other ways to support the bladder? What has been the experience with these alternative proceedures?
I am sorry for the last minute questions but my surgery is getting close and I am getting scared!
Please reply as soon as you can!
Thank you all for being here for me,
Deb

debyjo,

Hi and welcome

I had the tvt sling put in a little over 3 months ago. You are wise to do all your research before this or any surgery. I personally have not had any major issues wth the sling so far , but have had a few minor ones. I suffered from stress and urge incontinence before the surgery. My stress incontinence was pretty bad. I have had a close to perfect end result on that one. I seem to retain a bit of urine in my urethra and need to double void. As long as I do that I have no leaking. Even if I forget to do it the leak is not often and very, very small. I have only noticed it getting better as time moves forward. My urge part has also improved, but I do take Enablex for that problem. Currently my one exit incision wound is infected, but it is looking much better since I am on antibiotics. I have a friend who also had it done over a year ago and she has had no complications at all.

That all being said there are women that unfortunately have had problems with their sling. In my opinion it is up to you and how your incontinence is affecting your quality of life. Mine was pretty bad. I knew the risks, I took them and so far I have no regrets.

I would say there are more positive success stories than there are failures, HOWEVER if you are in that small group where you have complications then percentages do not matter. Know all the risks.

Think it through , do your research and then decide. You need to be comfortable in your choice, it is a big one. Good luck to you! K

Hi Deb
I had a TVT with my vaginal hysterectomy and repairs and I have fibromyalgia, which I have been managing well and conservatively for many years. The TVT is doing its job - I can jump and sneeze without a thought and I have no issues with the mesh, which was actually checked out thoroughly by my urogynaecologist last week.

I am recovering from the surgery relatively slowly, with a few patches that are still unhealed (clipped out by the urogyn on Tuesday last week - seem to feel better somehow) and troublesome bladder sensitivity which has emerged post-op, or perhaps has failed to go away. I think my bladder might also have been involved at times when my fibromyalgia was very active, but was not identified as such, as some of these symptoms are not entirely new to me. It is all beginning to settle now. The most useful thing I have done is to work with a physiotherapist who is a pelvic floor specialist. She has said it would have been useful to see me before the surgery as well, so if you are in a position to do this it might be useful to you too.

My general fibromyalgia symptoms have become a bit more prominent post-op. The main reason is that I manage the soft tissue problems by being very active and it has been difficult to get back to this level. I'm now making good progress on this. My brain is still a bit foggy, but I think that is lifting as well.

The only women who had surgery at the same time who are still on the website are the ones who are also having complications or a slow recovery for whatever reason. The upside of this is that I've got people to talk to who know what I'm managaing.

Please feel free to ask any questions you think I can usefully answer for you.

J

Hi Deb,
I'm Amie, and I had my surgery Feb 24,09. I WAS SCARED TO DEATH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I, like you, did my homework. I'm an ex OR nurse and probably knew more than I should as an "informed" patient. I was 53 at the time of the surgery, and wasted a miserable year flip-flopping whether to go thru with the surgery or not.. Wrong or right, the time had come to make a decision to go thru with the surgery or be content to wet myself (urge AND stress incontinence), and contend with using sanitary napkins for my periods, as tampons were out of the question any longer due to prolapsed uterus. I bled sometimes very little and sometimes the floodgates were wide open. I had complete pelvic organ prolapse. My main complaint was uncontrolled loss of urine. My surgeon was wonderful to draw pictures and spell the procedure out for me. I had: LATVH, BSO, cystocle and rectocele repair (A+P repairs were with mesh also) TVT bladder sling, and an old midline scar revision- no tummy tuck, tho. My sling and mesh reinforcements are made of a material from a pig, called Plevicol or Pelvicol. I recovered in the hospital 4 full days. I could not urinate on my own until the 6th day post-op, and thank Jesus my bowels had been so prepped that there was no BM for post-op 10 days. I followed my surgeon's directions to the letter. I'm happy to report that I AM feeling wonderful and NO-NO-NO!!!! trouble with the mesh sling and reinforcements. Not losing a drop of urine unless I want to. If I had to make 1 complaint it would be that I can continue to release some urine in a semi-standing position hovering over the toilet- dr says that will continue to get better with time. Sometimes I'm not patient to sit long enough when relieving myself. I'm happy to say that my thigh muscles and quads are amazingly strengthened now! Public toilet pee-ing is a cinch. It's an easy trade off for me if I have to semi stand to urinate vs/ the unpleasant leakage I had prior to surgery. One thing I think I really should mention is that my surgeon is a female and she told me how important the use of vaginal estrogen cream would be to my healing and body's acceptance to the grafts. I use Premarin Vaginal Cream, 2mg inserted 2x/wk. I do hope this helps relieve some of your fear. I wish I had had the surgery the year before, when I was first diagnosed. The prolapse only got worse. My surgeon also told me the longer I waited the less success there would be with the grafts. I do also take oral estrogen daily. I personally know women that had this surgery unsuccessfully------- they were never told to use the vaginal estrogen. I love my surgeon. Do NOT BE AFRAID TO ASK QUESTIONS!!! DO NOT GO THRU WITH THIS IF YOU ARE NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED WITH THE EXPLANATION AND CARE PLAN FOR YOUR FUTURE!!! There are many surgeons out there. They're providing you a service. Kinda like a hairdresser. Some are better than others- some are more willing to go the extra mile. There are no guarantees, either. Let me know if I can answer any questions. I offer my experience to the best of my ability.
~Amie

Hi there. I had a LAVH with A&P repairs, along with the TVT-O sling. I had to have my sling removed 3 weeks ago - it actually caused incontenence, multiple UTIs, pain in my groin and left legs, etc. I am feeling much better now that it's out! Please know that the mesh products do help many women. I happen to be very petite and muscular -there is some research that states the tvt-o is not recommended for women with my body type. I also have multiple allergies so it is no surprise that my body just simply didn't like it. Do you research and trust your gut!

Wishing you health!

I had the TVT sling and a prolift procedure. While I'm having a bad reaction to the prolift mesh, the TVT sling is not causing problems. It has, however, not solved my incontinence. It just didn't work for me. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work. Good luck, though.