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Surgery VS Watchful Waiting
Thank you, Dr. Szotek for the thorough response. A few follow up questions and comments:
1. When you refer to the “patient’s anatomy/neurogenic in nature†are you meaning that there are sort of ‘phantom pain pathways’ caused by the hernia – that can remain after the hernia is fixed?
2. I certainly understand and feel the effects of standing for hours but by ‘intermittent’, I was meaning a few weeks of discomfort followed by a few weeks of almost no pain. I’m trying to understand the mechanics of this! I do pilates and yoga and wonder if there is any correlation between exercise and degree of pain – or if it’s more random. This may be a dumb question but if pain is caused by tissue in the hole (?), is it possible that exercise can keep it out of the hole?
3. Does strangulation only involve bowel (or maybe bladder?) – or can a piece of fat dangerously strangulate? When diagnosed 8 months ago, my hernia was only 6mm – not sure what it is now. One surgeon I met with believes that a hernia that size (and with no bulge) barely qualifies as a hernia and that performing surgery on me would be almost unethical. Elsewhere I read that ALL hernias in women should be operated on. Do you agree with this and, if so, is it because it’s possible that femoral hernias (which are more dangerous) can be mistaken for inguinal hernias?
Thanks!