59 minutes ago, elektrified said:

Quite possibly you misunderstood what you were told regarding price, by the sound of it.

 

Also, you can't pick and choose surgeons at government hospitals. You get who is assigned.

The only procedure that would cost that much is the use of the DaVinci robotic device. There are only a handful of surgeons in C.M. who are trained to use it and it does cost anywhere from 400,000-550,000 Baht in Thailand for robotic assisted surgery. The robot alone costs about 75 million Baht - hence the high cost. But I'm sure they would have given you other options as that type of hernia can be repaired a number of ways effectively. A friend recently had that exact repair done in the USA by a hernia surgeon who used the standard laparoscopic procedure. He was not offered the robot and the procedure went well and he was up and around in just a couple of days.

I had the 1st surgery/1st anesthesia of my life last Thursday - had a right inguinal hernia repaired in the US.

 

I was set to have it done a few weeks ago laparoscopically with mesh and ended up cancelling the day before, as I began to read the mesh horror stories online.

 

I decided instead to have it done without mesh - open.

It is almost impossible to find someone to do it without mesh.

I found someone who seems from my research to have the most experience doing this - he's had people from all over the US and the rest of the world fly in for the procedure including at least one person from Thailand.

 

Unfortunately he doesn't take insurance, and it cost 5 times what the insured version was to cost.

To me it was worth it in theory, and hopefully in reality.

 

I mention this in case anyone is interested in non-mesh repair - if anyone is interested I can post his info.

 

As one poster mentioned in this thread, mesh has become the standard for hernia repair.

That does not mean it is the best solution.

A search for "hernia mesh problems" will reveal many horror stories.

 

To me the risk of having a problem with it was not worth it.

 

When I was in his office Friday for a post op, there was a patient speaking to the receptionist - that he had most of his mesh removed by this doctor (from a previous op with a different dr.), he was now feeling less pain, and was about to go in to consult with the doctor re: having the rest removed if possible.