Inguinal Hernia Mesh Failure, Sx Months On

In corsidering possble surgery for a failed mesh repair three four months from now, I went to see a surgeon last month. I had a hand examination, and an ultrasound. He told me I may need surgery, but not right now (watch and wait in other words). 

My hernia has been easy to live with for the most part, but too much physical activity can cause pain. I stick to light yoga to keep muscles toned. I'm more flexible after the mesh failure than before- the mesh was pretty painful and made me quite rigid when bending down to pick something up. 

During vactation, the pain totally went away for about a month, and (aside from the mesh) any bulge disappeared as well. Most of the hernia also retracted from the scrotum, and has remained retracted. So it's not true that hernias can only get worse in time, though I have no opinion on whether they can heal or not. For almost everyone, I think not. The point is, I've expeirenced great improvement, and things have not gotten worse. As long as they stay like this, I'm not getting surgery. But I will get checked again in a few months. There is no doubt that I had to change my physical lifestyle drastically to live with a hernia. That's just how things are. It wasn't any better when the mesh was in place with all that pain. So take it easy is the way for me. Good thing I'm a teacher. 

Finally, here's a line from Wikipedia: "Emergency surgery for incarceration and strangulation carry much higher risk than planned, "elective" procedures. However, the risk of incarceration is low, evaluated at 0.2% per year.[5] On the other hand, surgical intervention has a significant risk of causing inguinodynia, and this is why minimally symptomatic patients are advised to watchful waiting." and "Groin hernias that do not cause symptoms in males do not need to be repaired. Repair, however, is generally recommended in females due to the higher rate of femoral hernias which have more complications."

Well, obviously I have symptoms in terms of pain, and I believe it to be a result of inflamation and swelling when the area is stressed, not actual growth of the hernia (although that could be happening so slowly I'm just not noticing), but surgery- from my experience- just means even worse pain. And bowel strangulation rates are so low that I'm not even going to give that one thought. Chances of complications from surgery, however, are very high. At the strangulation rate my chances of cancer are greater per year.

People, we all die sometime or something. Why are we so afraid of death? You think if you keep going back to surgery again and again for every thing you have you'll live forever? I've scoured the Net and boy, is it hard to find folks who advocate a watch and wait approach to this particular type of hernia. Everyone wants a quick fix or they're scared they're going to die. The worst advice I've heard is 'get the surgery done before your insurance runs out.' Wow. 

Well, I'm just telling my experience and trying to offer here what I think is a sane approach to the extremely common inguinal hernia. I've opted for surgery, and it didn't work. If I get surgery again, stats say that it will fail again are 50%. But I've never actually heard of anyone dying from this type of hernia yet. Maybe others had. We are fragile, mortal creatures. Love life and live as long you can, but live bravely.

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