[Hockey Dad]

So I’ll weigh in based on my own experiences.

I did the “watchful waiting” (or procrastinated) for about 10 years after getting a hernia when I was running marathons. My reasons were due to having 3 newborn/young sons in that time frame, a hectic travel schedule, and couldn’t figure out how to work in the downtime around repair surgery. MY PCP all along kept saying, just do it- he was right!

At first I couldn’t justify surgery as it didn’t really bother me, except once in a blue moon. Over time of course it got larger and the discomfort became worse and more frequent. It finally got to the point where I’d had enough and it was impacting my quality of life. I had a buddy who had a mesh repair with complications, I was frankly sacred

Through my most recent relocation, I had moved to the Bay area and by chance I found Dr William Brown. At my consult, I was able to ask all the questions any informed buyer could and we determined a tissue repair was the way for me to go.
Did it hurt, yep for about two weeks. But that 2 weeks was a cake walk compared to the daily discomfort of letting it go. Now 6 months post-op, I had no idea how much pain I was actually in for the last decade.

My advice is don’t wait. The older you get the longer the recovery and the larger it will be. Its OK to scared, even terrified. Shop for the most experienced hernia MD you can find, ask all the questions, and feel as comfortable with it as you can be.