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Chime in
@tyrone, I can relate, pre-surgery, and nervous. I suspect almost everyone feels similar before making such a decision.
Out of all places, I’ve found the video blogs and comments on hernia repair videos at YouTube tend to have a lot of success stories or casual reflections (and yes, I know YouTube is kind of a cesspool). Most are just short little blips about an experience with whatever types of hernia surgery from everyday people.
Below are actual patient post-surgery videos for inguinal hernias, which I’ve found to be quite helpful, and again, the comments have many others who have been through the same thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEo-pS2nHh0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6FBpHcEPCg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0fjKE3kmLM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3_aMpuAS6w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6YnZ5x5VPY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNxYNxlAx8E
Also, if you can stomach it, the actual operation videos of surgical procedures can be helpful to understand what’s going on, and again the comments can be sometimes helpful. I won’t link to any of those here because they’re fairly graphic and certainly won’t be viewable for everyone, but if you can stomach actual surgery videos, look for things like “Laparoscopic TEP Inguinal Hernia Repair” or “Open mesh hernia repair” – these are the two most common types of groin hernia repair and there are many, many videos online about them.
Reading medical studies can reveal an abundance of information which could help to make a data-driven decision. I find the long-term followup studies to be most helpful in this regard, at 1 year minimum and preferably 5 and 10 year followups.
http://archsurg.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1107390
Finally, there’s even an app for iPhone and Android that uses Q&A and statistical data to predict outcome of hernia surgery. Could be useful to some.