No need to apologize at all, believe me it is therapeutic to hear you are not alone! Your pepcid experience with the hernia slide up perhaps explains what I deal with, thanks for sharing. My doctors haven't mentioned anything about bending over, so thanks again for another tip.

As far as meals go I ordered a battery food sensitivity test on sale, and plan to use any reactions as a starting point for elimination diets. Hopefully the results will give me some insight where to begin trial eliminations. I had read the Docs had a backlog of urgent surgeries to do following COVID restrictions, no idea if their O.R. schedules finally cleared that backlog off their calendars yet. Sounds like your doctors want their patients to give it the old college (lifestyle changes) try before they take anyone under the knife. That or your insurance has tied their hands.

I am sorry you are going thru all this. I have a sliding hernia and bend at the knees when something has to be picked up. that has helped me because my trunk/head stay upright enough to prevent problems. If you haven't tried that you may want to and see if that does the trick for you. You can also try "grabbers" if all you want to do is pick up something light (people usually use those to grab stuff off high shelves). There may be other options. For instance, I use a picker-up suction cup at the end of my pickleball paddle so I don't bend over to pick up a ball. Good luck!