April 5, 2007, 12:00:00AM. By Jane Mundy

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Kilgore, TX: "For some time I had painful intercourse and something was irritating my husband," says Galene Haygood. "I finally saw a physician and he found a suture hanging from my vaginal wall -- it was a Panacryl suture."

"I had bladder surgery seven years ago and that's what makes this so freakish -- the amount of time that this suture has been in my body and never abosorbed," says Haygood. "My gynecologist didn't want to pull it out without tests -- he could hardly believe it could migrate like that."

Now I am worried that there might be more. My doctor said that it is likely that more sutures are going to penetrate the other side of my vaginal wall, which means that I will need surgery. They have to do an exploratory surgery at the place where I had previous surgery -- to see if any sutures are left. They think that most likely scar tissue has built around the sutures.

As well, I am having a horrible problem with incontinence and I think these un-absorbed sutures are a contributing factor. The whole area has caused soreness -- all these years. I kept thinking that something was wrong with me; it was hard to come to terms with this constant discomfort.

On a personal note, it was hurting me long before it hurt my husband. I was reluctant to have sex; I didn't tell him because I was embarrassed and humiliated; I didn't know what to say. Now he loses his erection because he is so afraid of hurting me! As you can imagine, this has really impacted our emotional and sexual relationship.

I am scheduled to have surgery in the next few months and I am dreading it. I am mainly concerned about the recuperation time -- it is a major inconvenience in our life and nobody wants to have surgery.

I am very angry at Ethicon, the makers of Panacryl sutures. I really wish it would happen to them. It is so easy to sit in an ivory tower and slip this one through -- very unethical.

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