lol The resident expert is here to tell you his story. I went in for surgery a few years ago. Recovery was about 3 months. I had an ileus (which means the intestines shut down) which resulted in a hospital stay of about 10 days. I also caught an infection in the hospital and was messed up for a few more weeks. It was about 3 months until I got back in the gym.
THEN the patch he stuck in moved. He didn't stick it in right. I ended up having another lump the size of a mellon and just got that fixed this summer. Surgery was 6 hours, I have a 12 inch scar on my stomach and an 8" by 12" polypropelene patch in my stomach now. The hospital stay the second time was about a week.
I am almost fully recovered now though. The chances of me getting another hernia is very slim now though because of the huge patch I have.
The BEST advice I could give is make sure you get a good doc to do the surgery. The guy I had is well known locally but he fucked up. The second surgeon who did it has been doing it for 30 years and teaches up at UNC and he was top notch. I was in the gym 5 weeks lifting after the surgery and that is amazing.
Here are a couple of threads I had...
http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/c...-long-hospital-stay-big-operation-598097.html
http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/c...ho-thanks-all-who-gave-me-support-605147.html
FYI - normal hernia surgery is not that bad. It takes a couple of hours and you are nearly 100% in 6 weeks.
If you are that unlucky 5% and get complications though, prepare for hell.