Hernia Surgery and Recovery Advice
About two years ago, I experienced intense pain in my lower right abdomen during a walk. I feared appendicitis, but the pain eventually went away. Six months later, I noticed a lump in my groin and realized I had a hernia, something more than 25% of men will eventually experience. (I’ve seen some estimates as high as nearly 50%!) “露馅儿” (lou4 xian4 er) is one of my favorite Chinese phrases. It literally means “to leak/expose the stuffing/filling.” It’s generally used metaphorically to mean exposing a secret, like “spill the beans” or “let the cat out of the bag” in English. A hernia is the spilling of material that should remain inside the abdominal muscles, like the filling falling out of a dumpling. ...