Possible allergy to mesh sling? put on vesicare

5 months ago I had a mesh bladder sling put in. I've now had 3 UTI's in just over a month. I went to the DR. and he did a pelvic exam and said that tissue had grown over the mesh and there is no mesh showing which is good but I'm irritated at the sling site. He put me on vesicare to see if that helps. Has anyone had something similar happen? Has anyone taken vesicare?

seajewel--

I'm sorry you are still having issues with the mesh sling. Did you have more than one type of mesh put in when you had your original surgery? It makes me wonder because in an earlier post you mentioned you had 2 small external incisions. Those are often associated with a TOT or TVT (suburethral sling).

I had a TOT that has not given me problems--yet!--and a large anterior bladder sling that gave me ENDLESS problems of vaginal erosion. Yes, I had to get that larger sling removed. It was a nasty nightmare of several surgeries and awful 'in-office clippings' that hurt like the dickens.

I'm a little suspicious of your doctor telling you that 'tissue has grown over' your mesh. That sounds like you've already had mesh eroding/ exposed through, also. Else WHY would he say that? One of the signs for me was many UTI's. Oh yes, I'd rarely before ever had those and then suddenly, I had them ALL the time--ugh.

It may be time for a second opinion. I didn't get proper treatment--which meant total removal of my eroding sling--until I went to another doctor who had experience removing polypropylene mesh many times. What I learned was: don't let yourself be your first doctor's guinea pig and let things go on and on while you wait for him/her to decide what s/he is going to do about it. That's what I did and I regret it. I went on and on with many surgeries and pain for 2-1/2 years when it could have been done MUCH sooner & better by a more experienced doctor.

I hope you find the hope and help you need to resolve everything you need to. You can do a search for more info. here on the site by going to the blue rectangle at the top right of the page and searching for 'polypropylene' or 'mesh erosion' or something similar.

I went to my dr. and he cleared some stuff up for me. The tissue is right where it was supposed to be and the irritation was that the wound from the surgery hadn't healed as quickly as it should have. I think that's what the irritation is from. He said that he's checked for mesh erosion at every exam and he hasn't found any. I'm going to have a urodynamics test done in January because he thinks that with all of the repairs he did, the sling might be too tight and that's what is causing my bladder problems. We'll see. My dr. specializes in prolapse repairs and does this proceedure a lot and I do trust him. I like him better than the dr. that performed my hysterectomy and has more experience too. I'm hoping and praying that it won't require another surgery.

Has anyone else had the porcine mesh used? I'm anxious to find out all I can!

	Quote:
Originally Posted by seajewel I went to my dr. and he cleared some stuff up for me. The tissue is right where it was supposed to be and the irritation was that the wound from the surgery hadn't healed as quickly as it should have. I think that's what the irritation is from. He said that he's checked for mesh erosion at every exam and he hasn't found any. I'm going to have a urodynamics test done in January because he thinks that with all of the repairs he did, the sling might be too tight and that's what is causing my bladder problems. We'll see. My dr. specializes in prolapse repairs and does this proceedure a lot and I do trust him. I like him better than the dr. that performed my hysterectomy and has more experience too. I'm hoping and praying that it won't require another surgery.

How are you feeling now? I have had similar problems as you and possibly more, since I had it done in Aug 2009. It has ruined my life and I've been unable to do anything, including working again, having relations with my husband etc..Have you read other posts on here as well as topix.com and truthinmedicine.com? My Uro/gyn has done over 1000 surgeries and said I was the only one with complications, I find that hard to belive. He is denying I am having pain and other complications. He told me to have pelvic PT for my pain. I told him, how is pelvic PT going to help with chronic UTI? Ihaven't had UTI's in 7 yrs, and now I get them every other month since the mesh was inserted. Please search for mesh complications on this site as well as Google. Long story short, I am traveling to CA to have it removed but I live in AZ. There are hundreds of doctors that implant these but almost none that will remove it. Please do research for your benefit, don't waste time having all kinds of tests and procedures done and lose years of quality of life. Many women have suffered for years and years, in the end only thing that helped them was getting it removed. Unfortunately, I've lost faith in most doctors and can not trust them, I am learning to be an advocate for my own health. Too many doctors these days want to make money before putting paitient's health first....best wishes to you...

I have a urodynamics test at the beginning of March and the next day I'm going to be having a long talk with my Dr. I hope that we will be able to come to an acceptable course of action. I really hope that he will be able to take out the mesh. I have no desire to travel a really long distance in order to have surgery. I did it once and do not want to do it again. I'll keep ya'll updated. Thanks for the concern.

Seajewel--When you have that long talk with your Uro/gyn, ask him why he is using a product that was NOT approved by the FDA, instead only cleared under the 501(k). Ethicon did not do clinical trials before selling it to the doctors, instead they compared their product (TVT) to Boston Scientific's bladder sling, indicating TVT works just as good if not better, so FDA cleared it for sale. However within a year or so, Boston Scientific along with FDA RECALLED their product because too many women were having complications, if so, then commen sense thing to do is to recall the TVT sling as well but it was NOT recalled. Ask your doctor why there are so many lawsuits against Ethicon the makers of the TVT?

Even though there are thousands of women who have complained to the FDA, they only put the warning in 2008 saying it's rare but it isn't rare. However, when a hernia mesh that involves both men and women, only few men had to complain of complications and it was RECALLED.

I'm not trying to be a sexist, just stating the truth. When it's the women who is complaining, FDA is run by men and there is no enough oversight to handle the complaints properly. The sad truth is we have become THE Clinical Study without being compensated or with our consent--we are the guinea pigs!

They expect 1/3 of women having SUI, with the babyboomer population, doing this surgery on women will make a fortune for the device maker Ethicon, plus other makers and the Surgeons.

I hope your doctor will be one of the few doctors that will tell you the honest TRUTH, not the standard "you are the first patient I've seen with these complications" or "It will do more harm to remove the mesh" or "have pelvic PT and you should feel better" or "you must had nerve damage before" or " you better see a psychologist for being a hypochondriac" or "go see a pain specialist because it's not the mesh" or "it is proven with no adverse affects reported", even though there were no pre-market trial, only AFTER market trial by some other company and then they had to STOP the trial because too many women were having serious, life threatening complications.

I hear the longer it is in your body the worse it is so it's best to get it out ASAP. Believe me, I do not WANT to travel to have surgery, spend thousands of dollars to have this awful removal. I am dreading the recovery process because the implant was bad enough, imagine, pulling this mesh that is already integrated into my vaginal/bladder/pelvic tissue little by little out, it's not going to be a cake walk that's for sure. I rather spend my money going to California for a vacation but instead of our summer vacation, I have to use my money getting tortured even more, because I want to have some kind of normal life without pain, without living on narcotics and do not wish to spend almost 24/7 in my bed.

This device has caused devastation in my life and to my family, everyone is affected; my husband, my three children, my mom etc...

I am told some doctors did not even know it was not FDA approved. Did you know every time these device are implanted, the device salemen are in the OR room to see if the doctor is putting it in right and to collect their commission. It makes me sick to find out, some sales person out there is living it up making the big money, while us women suffer in pain and have to spend so much money to TRY to get back to the life we once had before this awful, horrible device was made to implanted to women.

I'm pretty sure, no women contributed to making this device. I said this before but I'd really like to see men have this device near their privates and see how they feel. Then when they complain, us women can tell them to go have PT or go seek Psych help. Sorry to go on and on but I can't help but be angry. I want my life back, my husband wants his wife back, my two daughters and 3 yr old son wants their mother back, my mom wants her "normal" daughter back...etc.

Many elderly women are having this procedure done as well, but many have other health problems as well, so if they complain to their doctors, I'm sure the elderly women are brushed off as being old and it's normal to have pain with age. My Grandma is 87 and still walks several miles a day, however, I am only 39 and can't even walk to the bathroom without needing narcotic painkillers, because of this terrible torturous mesh!

I sure hope you do heal on your own and do not need further surgery but if you are having issues, believe me and thousands of other women, the pain and the UTI's will not stop until the mesh is removed. Again, best of health to you always...

I just started taking Vesicare because of the same kind of doctor diagnosis. He was a jerk as well. Second opinion here I come. Maybe even Yoga and acupuncture.

[quote=gather;3398935]I just started taking Vesicare because of the same kind of doctor diagnosis. He was a jerk as well. Second opinion here I come. Maybe even Yoga and acupuncture.[/
Sorry to tell you but if you are having UTI's and pain from the TVT sling, then Yoga and Acupuncture will not help at all. Sadly, second opinion will not get you the true answers either, you need to talk to doctors who do not believe putting chemical derivative materials into human body. Most gyn, uro, or urogyn implants these all the time, so they will not tell the truth. I know I can't believe this is happening to us in the US, I thought guinea projects were only done by the Nazi's and communist countries. You will find unbiased information on the internet from other victims and other doctors who do not use the synthetic mesh. Real surgeons with experience can fix the incontinence without the synthetic mesh but it takes skill and time and the newer doctors do not want to spend the time to learn the skill. They can do twice as many of the mesh surgeries as older safe way, which means twice the money. Ultimately money comes before patient care. Very Sad.

Gather- my Dr. put me on Vesacare because of bladder spasms and urgency. I had been taking Ditropan for the same thing, he just wanted to change to a newer drug. But, it really slowed down everything and made me constipated! So, back to Ditropan. Another Dr. took me off of that too and I am doing fine. I often wonder if they medicate us because the y are getting kickbacks. I was taking Elmiron for 10 years until the Dr. took me off that and I am fine. It is also about $100 a month.The first uro never did diagnose the cystocele, he said I was taking all these meds because I was stressed. I'm glad to find a Dr. who cares for his patients. I am also doing Pelvic floor PT and there are a lot of yoga moves in it so good luck with yor yoga. It should stretch out those muscles that go up the back and sides to the pelvis.