Your road to hernia recovery has been bumpy, with a faulty mesh implant causing unpleasant symptoms. Considering every 9 out of 10 hernia surgerys use mesh for repair, and considering that there have been thousands of hernia mesh lawsuits, it may give you pause if you are experiencing hernia symptoms.
Add to the discomforting thought of experiencing yet again defective mesh, there’s the reluctance of many people to get surgery these days because of the coronavirus pandemic. But if you do indeed have another hernia, how do you know when it requires surgery? After all, you can have a hernia and not even know it. Hernias can sometimes be asymptomatic; your doctor can diagnose one during a routine physical.
If you know you have another hernia but haven’t yet seen a doctor, the best course of action is to get evaluated. These days, medical offices are taking every precaution to protect staff and patients from coronavirus.
Another reason to see a doctor is because if it’s deemed that you should get another surgery, the procedure may be better than the one you had previously. This is especially true if the last hernia you experienced was several years ago. Nowadays, within just a few days after a hernia operation, you can get back to doing most of the things you were doing before, with the exception of vigorous exercise, which will take you one to two months to resume.
But if you aren’t experiencing symptoms, it will be your call to decide if you want to get the surgery. A decade or two ago, doctors would more than often recommend hernia surgery even without symptoms. Doctors did this for good reason. The thinking back then was that a strangulated hernia could occur, which is when the intestines can get stuck in the hernia. Strangulated hernia can be fatal. But in later years, it was found that mild hernia symptoms were associated with a very remote likelihood of developing a strangulated hernia.
If you have an asymptomatic hernia, wait it out. However, if you develop even mild symptoms, consult your doctor immediately. An overwhelming majority of people with symptomatic hernias will require surgery. If you do experience symptoms, the younger you are when the surgery takes place, the better your health outcome. Older people are more likely to have comorbidity factors and experience complications from surgery. So the sooner the surgeon can nip the hernia in the bud, the better.
Keep in mind that if you’re having recurrent hernia operation, even with the advances in hernia surgery technology, it may be a more complicated procedure than your first surgery. Recurrent hernias are notoriously more difficult to repair. With recurrent hernia surgery, you don’t want a fresh-faced kid out of medical school performing the operation; you want someone with decades of experience.
