hernia stories?

[anga]

My father has been on PD for about 5 months and on friday he sneezed and his scrotum swelled to the size of a grapefruit.  We took him to the hospital only because it completely freaked me out.  He had x-rays, cat scan and ultrasound and no hernia was visible.  Our nephrologist claims that there HAS to be a hernia and the surgeon claims there is no hernia and that was that.  Our neph got us a second opinion for this friday and my dad is currently on hemo.  Has anyone been through this?  I'm not sure if the surgeon is going to do exploratory surgery to look for the source of the leak - if there is one - or what he plans to do.  I am just praying he'll be able to go back to PD since he didn't do well on hemo at all.  If you have any similar experiences can you tell me about them?  I am feeling so discouraged, he was doing so well and getting some semblence of normalcy back in his life and now I'm so scared that he won't be able to go back to PD.  Any info you can offer i'd appreciate.  thank you kyannie

[peleroja]

I developed a hernia on PD, which I didn't even know I had.  It waited until my 15 day Hawaiian cruise to make itself known by becoming infected and giving me peritonitis.  They had to remove my PD catheter and I am temporarily on hemo.  Although my friend never had a hernia on PD, they had to remove her catheter 4 times and put her back on a permacath.  It certainly looks like one can go back to PD (which I am hoping to do).

[pelagia]

Try going to the "home page" (use link above) and searching on hernia or scrotum.  There has been some discussion of this or a very similar  issue within the last few months.

[anga]

thanks guys, i did so some searches and got some valuable information but i guess i just want to hear that it is possible to go back to pd.  my dad was doing so well, it has become my fear that he won't be able to go back to it.  peliroja, i have been reading some of your posts for a while and you actually gave me some good advice on going to pd so thanks for that and your hernia story.  by the way how did the hernia surgery itself go and how long of a recovery time?

[Jessmomto3]

It must be different for children.  Logan is on hernia #2.  The first was repaired in Dec.  The second is scheduled for repair in the 4th of March.  He will continue on PD and just lower his fill volume for 2 weeks after his surgery.  At some points with his first his scrotum would swell to about the size of a tangerine.  Pretty big though for an under 1 year old.