How long will my recovery be...
I was able to ride again
the next morning after my surgery. Tho I had to ride the exercycle at the hospital, because I was confined to a hospital. There was zero pain from riding. The only "real" pain was the first 6 hours after surgery.
I was 56 when I had the surgery, a little over a year ago -- 2 inguinal hernias, one on each side, repaired 2 days apart.
I had my surgery done by a hernia specialist. I believe the recovery period with a non-specialist can be dramatically different. My surgeon told me that some things might
hurt a bit for 2 weeks, 3 at the max, but starting 3 days after my operation, there was
nothing I could do that would damage the repair. I believe he was right.
It is not accepted by all surgeons, but the best surgeons seem to insist that early ambulation and exercise speeds recovery and minimizes pain; and that sitting around and taking it easy prolongs recovery.
Starting on day 4 I began riding a real bicycle. That was the first thing I wanted to do, because it was the thing my hernia interfered with the most, and one of the first things I had to stop. For three weeks I did nothing competitive, and no pushing of my limits. But several hours a day of moderate riding was no problem. I never experienced any pain. I did not ride every day but I believe I could have, with no problem.
While there appears to be no board certification in hernia surgery in the United States where I had my surgery, nevertheless, some surgeons limit their practice to hernia surgery, and that is the kind of surgeon I chose, and I believe it made a big difference. I did quite a lot of consumer research beforehand. I'm glad I did. You hear a lot of "horror stories" from people who weren't too careful about their selection of a surgeon. I think there is a dramatic difference between one surgeon and another. Everyone who had my surgeon reported similar results to me. So it isn't that I'm a fast healer, that I had no problems; it's that I had a good surgeon.
There is some limited info at
http://OurHernias.ORG to start you off comparing the kinds of surgery you can choose from, and why you should choose a specialist. It says the choice of a surgeon is way more important than the choice of a kind of surgery, and I tend to agree.