"There were nights when I would just pray and hope that in the morning the pain would be gone."

Life Before

There were nights when I would just pray and hope that in the morning the pain would be gone. It was one of those pesky things that just kept getting worse and worse.

I had a previous hernia surgery back in 2010 with a different physician, and it wasn't long before I started experiencing some pain. It would kind of come and go and over the years, it had gotten worse and worse. 

I was telling my general doctor, Dr. Pickel, about the problems it was causing me. 

The pain had gotten so bad I was missing quite a bit of work. The only relief I could get was laying in bed. I felt like I was bedridden! 

That’s when he referred me to Dr. Gray. 

The Procedure

I met Dr. Gray and right away I felt very comfortable with him. 

It's not too often you feel that way when you meet a new physician. He was very knowledgeable about what was going on and obviously had a lot of experience with this with this type of issue. He diagnosed that I had a recurrent hernia in the area of the old hernia and I had also developed a second hernia. I learned that’s called a bilateral hernia. He recommended a robotic assisted operation where he goes in from the inside and places mesh all the way across the bottom to not only correct the recurrent hernia but repair the new hernia at the same time. He made me feel very comfortable with what he was going to do and he addressed all my concerns and worries. He took time to answer all the questions I had. He just made me feel very comfortable. He hoped that correcting the old hernia would help relieve some of that pain.

Life After

It worked! I was very happy with how the procedure turned out. 

I could tell just by looking that both hernias were addressed, they were no longer visible as bulges in my lower abdomen. However, I was still experiencing some pain in the right side from the old hernia. He decided it was necessary to remove the old mesh from the original hernia. He also did a neurectomy where he removed the nerves that were directly related. He felt it was wise to do that and explained how he would not need to do any further reinforcement after the mesh was removed, as this was covered by the previous robotic surgery.

I agreed to the second procedure because I was very happy with the job he had previously done. He was able to remove all the old mesh and take care of those nerves which took away all of the pain. 

It was life changing for me! 

For the first few days I was just generally numb all over from the anesthesia. As that wore off I realized that the pain is just not there anymore. It's been a few months and I'm not experiencing any pain at all in that area. I'm so grateful. I feel like I can't thank him enough.

I still feel like I can't thank him enough

I would refer him to anyone needing a general surgeon. I really would. He definitely has one happy patient here. I couldn't ask for anything better.

- Brent H., Fort Worth TX, Bilateral Hernia Surgery with Follow Up Repair Surgery