2024 Transgluteal Surgery with Dr. Conway

[lyndagelpi]

Scheduled for surgery before the end of the month. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or advice for recovery. Hoping and praying this will end my 5 years of pain. My husband and I are flying in for the surgery and flying home a week later. Worried about bending restrictions, sitting, pain and scared I might ruin the surgical repair even if I follow Dr. Conway's directions. Can I sit on the toilet, can I take a shower, can I sleep in any position?

Any comments are greatly appreciated!

Happy Holidays!

[Violet M]

Hi Lynda,

Sorry, I don't know the precise answer to your questions since I had surgery from a different doctor, but I expect if you follow Dr. Conway's post-op instructions you should be fine. Hopefully some of his patients will respond to your questions.

Just from my own experience, I think the important thing is to take it easy and not overdo for the first few months and to avoid anything that increases the pain.

Wishing you the best with your surgery and recovery.

Violet

[lyndagelpi]

Thanks! I’ll take it easy but it’s not going to be “easy.” Always doing something all my life. Don’t know the meaning of relax.

Happy Holidays!

[Natedogg91]

Hi Lyndagelpi,

I wish you the best with your procedure and I hope you find some relief in it! I am a little over a year out from a transgluteal pudendal nerve decompression by Dr. Conway. I’ll fully admit he’s not the best with post-op care instructions. That being said, I would really try to avoid sitting as much as possible for the first two months. You can sit to use the toilet, you can shower just avoid scrubbing too much around the incisional site (just let soap and water run) and you can sleep in any position you want, however it may feel better to sleep on the unoperated side.

The recovery for many is typically a while. I started to really notice less differences in pain and better nerve function over 3-6 months out. When do you start sitting don’t be afraid to use pudendal neuralgia doughnut cushions to take pressure off the area. The nerve may be extra sensitive for a while after decompression. It’s very normal to get all sorts of weird electrical shocks and zings as the nerve heals. Hopefully this helps!

[lyndagelpi]

Yes thanks! Glad you are getting pain relief. Is it total after a year or just a percentage? How many years did you have pain before surgery?

[Natedogg91]

There’s not a good amount of data on outcomes :/. I think for a good majority of people they have less pain from the literature review I did if they truly had pudendal nerve entrapment. Once they’re healed from surgery - most are not completely pain free, but have significantly less pain with sitting. The hope is that nerve function is better too, for me it was affecting my sex life and bowel function. I’ve had decent improvements, but not total reversal of symptoms. If I sit for several hours at a time I still get quite irritated, but much less than I would have prior.

I would say just under 2 years before I had surgery and I had exhausted a good amount of conservative treatment prior to making that decision.

Conway usually quotes 2 years for maximal relief/nerve function return and I think that’s reasonable given peripheral nerve healing time takes a long time.

[Violet M]

I think for a good majority of people they have less pain from the literature review I did if they truly had pudendal nerve entrapment.

Excellent point, Nate. Taking the time to do proper diagnostics, and research the criteria for having a true nerve entrapment are important prior to having surgery. It's impossible to know with 100% certainty but history, clinical exam, symptoms, and response to treatments are all important.

Violet