You can return to normal duties within a few days except in rare cases. Years ago muscle and fascia were tightened over the hernia, now a mesh patch is used and is done through a mini incision. You will probably leave hospital within a couple of hours. A surgeon in Ontario completed it is said 30,000 hernias in his years of practice and said all were different. Good luck, have the expected fast recovery.
I had inguinal hernia repair with mesh in June last. Im typing on a mobile, so I'll have to keep this concise . Give yourself 2 to 3 weeks to reasonably recover. Day 1 you'll be tired and the surgeon will likely have numbed you up well and perhaps given a dose of pain meds, so you won't feel all that bad, but you will experience some *minor* pain. Be VERY careful getting up/around, pull the wrong muscle and you'll know it. Don't pull stitches by trying to be a tough guy during recovery. Day 2 is worst, you'll feel it. Just take the prescribed pain meds and it will be just fine, trust me. Make sure you do get up and move around as often as you can, it prevents blood clots. Day 3 and things start to get slowly better, and so on for the following weeks. Do as much activity as you van stand, you'll tire more easily than you think. Listen to Your Body. You've just inflicted trauma on it with surgery, it needs to heal. Get rest when you need it.
Also, the pain meds they give you may cause constipation. Drink PLENTY of fluids, eat a diet high in fiber (fruits, veg, whole grains), prunes, and skip the bready stuff and meats as much as you can. Also I recommend taking stool softener (docusate sodium) if your DR says it's OK. I guarantee if you don't make your BMs soft you'll find out how much fun it is to strain with stitches. oh, and bruising in the genital area is normal. Be sure to use ice packs as recommended by the post op instrctions, kept mine to a minimum.
If you're having laproacopic surgery the recovery will be faster than the ~3 weeks I took off for open surgery. I was still a little sore even then, but it was OK.
Barely a twinge today, no numbness anymore and the scar is barely visible.
I'm having surgery for an inquinal hernia next tuesday. My surgeon told me I would be back to normal life after 7 days. I have talked to coworkers whom had hernia surgery, and they said they were flat of there backs for 10 days, and couldn't lift more than 10 lbs for 6-8 weeks. Of course his hernia was hiatal too. I dont really know the difference, but like my recovery option alot better.
My doctor recommended that I start taking easy walks after about a week or two, depending on how I felt. Before then, I'd just walk around my home and did fine getting around very carefully. Definitely ROLL to the side to get up, as you won't be able to just sit up. I used my arms to lower my body up and down when needing to use the restroom.
I used to run frequency and my doctor told me I that after the 2 weeks when I start to walk, as soon as I feel up to it, I can start running again. She just said to take it slow and even if it's uncomfortable, to not push myself. Running was uncomfortable at first, so I waited a little longer (probably closer to a month). Same for ab exercises.
Inguinal Hernia surgery Thursday 
