Diagnosed with indirect inguinal hernia, and previously, gastritis, lots of questions

So I was recently diagnosed with indirect inguinal hernia. First off, a little about me. I'm early 40's Asian, and I consider myself very fit, as I've been running marathons and usually log in 2000+ miles a year. I get regular health screenings (cholesterol / blood pressure / glucose) and those numbers usually come back perfectly normal. My problem began a few weeks ago after what I thought was a routine workout at the gym, and the next day it felt like I strained my groin. The pain didn't go away after a couple weeks, so I went to a clinic. I told the doctor that though I felt pain, I couldn't pinpoint exactly where it was, only that it was to the right of my groin. After doing some tests to make sure it was not muscular, the doctor felt around and had me cough, and after that he determined I had an indirect inguinal hernia, albeit a very small one, right around where I said my pain was located. I have no visible bumps, and personally, I'm not able to feel the location of the hernia, so I'm trusting that the doctor is competent and knows what he felt.

He told me to go back to see him after a week (last week) to see if it gets better on its own, and it actually did, to the point where I felt totally fine. But this week, I've bounced around from "I can feel it but it doesn't hurt" to "uncomfortable / sore". Today has been worse than the other days, as I've actually had to stop mid-run because I felt like the hernia was getting worse.

Here's where it gets complicated. Back in April, I had intense heartburn and stomach pains, and after a bunch of tests and eventually getting an endoscopy, it was determined I had mild gastritis (if what I had was "mild", I don't want to know what full blown gastritis feels like). Eventually, after weeks of taking Nexium, my symptoms mostly disappeared. (Incidentally, initially I took Prilosec, which didn't alleviate the pain at all). Since then, I would still get occasional days of my stomach not feeling quite right, but I never got the burning throat sensation again, until tonight. Just an hour ago (and hours after the aforementioned run), I had a wave of nausea and burning throat. I couldn't eat dinner as I felt I couldn't hold anything down. In other words, it felt exactly like my gastritis from April.

So here's all my questions:

1) Is there a possibility that the inguinal hernia and gastritis are related, or are compounding / conflating each other? I want to say it's too much of a coincidence that my gastritis is striking back just as my hernia symptoms are getting worse. But I acknowledge it really could be just a coincidence.

2) My doctor was hoping that the hernia symptoms would go away on its own (and it actually did for a week), but he did acknowledge that surgery would be a possibility. Everything I read online is that hernias can't repair itself. Is this true? Once you have a hernia, unless you get surgery, will you always have that hernia?

3) Regarding surgery, he seemed to suggest that because it's quite small, most likely a surgeon would suggest a laparoscopic surgery with simple stitching (ie no mesh). Does this sound right to you? After hours of reading online, I can't determine whether the mesh or no mesh approach is better (depending on which article you read, they're both superior to the other). What say you?

4) I'm going to ask for a referral for a surgeon, but I want to know what questions should I be asking the surgeon? What are the signs that he will take good care of me, and what are the red flags?

5) How likely is it the doctor misdiagnosed my indirect inguinal hernia, and that it's actually something else completely different? 

6) My doctor also said that smaller hernias like mine are also more at risk for strangulation. From what I read online, it's quite serious, but what I'm unsure about is how great is this risk? And also, what are the definitive symptoms that I may have it? They say "acute pain", but not where. At the sight of the hernia? Elsewhere? Could (and this is me being paranoid), the symptoms I'm feeling now that I think are gastritis-related be actually nothing to do with gastritis but everything to do with the hernia?

7) Can indirect inguinal hernia pain radiate outward, to, say, inner thigh? I'm feeling a bit of soreness there right now, and I don't know if it's to do with my hernia or simply due to running (ie, typical soreness).I may also just be feeling general weakness due to gastritis, but I really don't know.

Thanks in advance for any answers!

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