If you are not sure whether this is the department you need, this is what it covers and what each of these conditions actually involves.
Hernia
A hernia is a weak point in the abdominal wall that lets tissue push through, usually seen as a bulge in the groin or near the navel that appears on standing, coughing or lifting and settles when you lie down. In an adult it does not close on its own and a belt does not repair it, so the question is when to repair rather than whether. Most repairs are planned and unhurried. What changes that is a bulge that becomes hard or tender or will not push back in, because that means the tissue inside it is trapped, and that is an emergency rather than an appointment.
Appendicitis
The appendix becomes inflamed and the pain typically starts around the navel before settling low on the right side, often with nausea, loss of appetite and fever. Some people have grumbling bouts over weeks that are worth seeing a surgeon about in clinic. An attack that is severe, steadily worsening or leaves the abdomen too tender to touch is a different matter — that needs a hospital with a 24-hour emergency department and an emergency theatre, which AJSMC does not have. Call 108 or go straight to the nearest hospital with one.
Gallstones
Gallstones form in the gall bladder and often sit there causing nothing for years. When they do cause trouble it is usually pain under the right ribs or at the top of the abdomen, coming on after a heavy or oily meal, sometimes with nausea. Which of the two you have is settled by what the stones are actually doing to you, with an ultrasound to confirm they are there and to show their size and position. Stones causing no symptoms are not automatically removed; stones causing repeated attacks usually are. Pain with fever, or with yellowing of the eyes or skin, is the version that does not wait for a clinic.
Piles and back passage problems
Haemorrhoids are swollen veins at the back passage, and they show up as bright red bleeding when passing stool, itching, discomfort or a lump. Fissures and other causes produce much the same complaints, so what you have is established by examination rather than by the symptom. Most cases are managed without an operation. Bleeding is worth being examined properly even when piles seem the obvious answer, because a few other conditions bleed the same way and are far better found early.
Lumps and swellings
Lumps under the skin — in the neck, the armpit, the groin or anywhere else — are common and most are harmless. They are still examined rather than watched indefinitely, particularly a lump that is new, growing, hard, fixed in place or painless. Examination, and where needed a scan or a biopsy, is what separates the ordinary ones from the ones that matter — the two cannot be told apart by feel alone.
Day-care surgery
Several of the planned procedures here are done as day care: you come in that morning, have the procedure, recover here and go home the same evening rather than staying overnight. Your surgeon will tell you beforehand whether your case suits day care, what preparation is needed, who should come with you, and what the days afterwards will involve. Some operations need facilities AJSMC does not have, and in that case you will be told so and referred rather than fitted in.
