Toronto, ONLike thousands of women who had a transvaginal mesh implant for urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse, Mary trusted her doctor. “He said it was the best thing since sliced bread and it would fix everything,” says Mary. But she has been suffering horrific TVM side effects for more than two years.
“My doctor also told me that getting this mesh implanted would involve a simple day surgery,” she adds. “I had it for urinary incontinence because my bladder dropped after I had a hysterectomy. I figured, what’s not to like? After the surgery, they said I was ‘good to go’ so who would argue?”
As it turns out, what Mary’s doctor and the hospital staff told her couldn’t have been further from the truth. Mary had to wear a catheter for several weeks and she had to work during that time. “After that I had home care to help me self-catheterize, which I did every four hours for another three months,” Mary says. “I had a helluva time trying to convince my doctor to do a bladder ultrasound because I couldn’t pee, I felt ready to burst all the time. They found from the ultrasound results that I had a 48-oz. pop can of urine in my bladder!”
Still Mary’s doctor had no answers as to why she was suffering, and he definitely had no solution.
“I’ve been fighting for more than a year to get this transvaginal mesh removed,” says Mary, exasperated. “I saw a few other doctors, but as soon as I said that I had a TVT sling implanted, it was like I was put on a blacklist - nobody wanted to even address the thought of having it removed. In a sense I do know why: I think they are afraid of getting involved in a transvaginal mesh lawsuit.”
Mary finally found a surgeon in Toronto who agreed to take it out, but she has to endure several more months of suffering: surgery is scheduled at the end of this year. Meanwhile, she is taking Percocet for the pain and antibiotics for one infection after the other. All these meds are adding to her health issues.
“The pain killers work for a while until you get used to them,” she explains. “My pain management specialist is banging his head against the wall, not knowing what else to do. And I’m so close to losing my job from taking off so many sick days. Last year I took 12 weeks in total and already this year I have taken 21 days. Some days I just can’t crawl out of bed, it seems to intensify. It hurts even when I don’t move.”
Mary found the surgeon through a friend - she had her transvaginal mesh removed recently but Mary says she still has pain due to nerve damage. “My friend is feeling much better now that the mesh is removed; apparently it had wrapped around a nerve and that has caused irreparable damage. She can tolerate it now with pain management. But how long can that go on for?”
Mary has filed a TVM claim against the transvaginal mesh manufacturer. She is hopeful that Canadian TVM lawsuits will result in taking TVM off the market, both in Canada and the US. As of February 2013, three Canadian provinces, including Ontario, have court documents filed with the possibility of launching a class-action case representing hundreds of Canadian women.
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