One morning three years ago I looked down while getting in the shower and noticed a bulge in my lower abdomen, about the size of a golf ball. Uh oh. My doctor informed me it was “just” an inguinal hernia, nothing to be concerned about. As long as it wasn’t giving me any problems I could put off having it surgically repaired.

So I’ve lived with the little guy for the last few years. About a year ago I started wearing a truss because being on my feet all day left me feeling a little achey “down there.” I thought about surgery from time to time but kept putting it off on the theory that if you can avoid surgery — any surgery — you should. But having a hernia seemed like an “old guy” thing to me. I’m not ready to be an old guy.

I finally got tired of looking at — and thinking about — the thing and went to see a surgeon who specializes in laparoscopic repair. Had it down this morning and was “under” for less than an hour. Three small incisions starting at the belly button and working down.

A little nausea from the anesthetic and some some soreness but an amazingly simple procedure. Should have had it done when it first showed up. Watch this space for post-op updates.

UPDATE: (October 2, 2018) Little soreness, moving slowly. Rented a car rather than try to drive the truck (manual brakes and steering).

This article appeared on the Washington Post website in January of this year. It’s far and away the best (most useful) thing I’ve read about pneumonia. Couple of excerpts:

One reason is that the detritus from an infection of the lung is hard to clear. Antibiotics kill the bacteria, but all the weaponry your body produced to fight the bacteria — mucus, essentially, or sputum, as it’s called once you cough it up — is left behind. […] Cough is a primary way to clear the gunk. That’s why doctors advise pneumonia patients not to take cough suppressants. You want to get that stuff out.

The energy drain (your body fighting the infection) burns calories and proteins. When illness dampens appetite, that can exacerbate fatigue and weakness. He advises: “Eat good protein and take plenty of calories.”

The flu has been wicked bad this year. Neither Barb nor I have gotten it (so far). We both got flu shots. But my recollection of the flu was you felt like hell for a week (or two) and that was it. I’m here to tell you the aftereffects of pneumonia can drag on for months.

From an article by Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, and author of a book on psychological changes across generations (Generation Me) and apparently has just published another (iGen).

“Around 2012, something started going wrong in the lives of teens. In just the five years between 2010 and 2015, the number of US teens who felt useless and joyless — classic symptoms of depression — surged 33 percent in large national surveys. Teen suicide attempts increased 23 percent. Even more troubling, the number of 13- to 18-year-olds who committed suicide jumped 31 percent.”

“In a new paper published in Clinical Psychological Science, my colleagues and I found that the increases in depression, suicide attempts and suicide appeared among teens from every background — more privileged and less privileged, across all races and ethnicities and in every region of the country. All told, our analysis found that the generation of teens I call ‘iGen’ — those born after 1995 — is much more likely to experience mental health issues than their millennial predecessors.”

“What happened so that so many more teens, in such a short period of time, would feel depressed, attempt suicide and commit suicide? After scouring several large surveys of teens for clues, I found that all of the possibilities traced back to a major change in teens’ lives: the sudden ascendance of the smartphone. All signs point to the screen.”