What is hernia op recovery like?

[BlueShed]

DH needs a hernia op. He's had his initial consultation and now needs to pick a date (being done privately via work insurance).

We both work FT and equally split childcare/ the school run etc.

He's been told two weeks no driving and up to six months before he's back to normal in terms of going to the gym and so on. For whatever reason it has to be a general anaesthetic and open surgery not keyhole. I've asked him to ask more questions, but it sounds like a return to the majority of normal life will fall somewhere between the two weeks and six months, which is quite a broad window!

This will have quite an impact on my work which we need to manage, plus we already have a holiday booked.

I'm just after any direct experiences you might have had as to what the recovery period looks like and how long it lasts?

Where is his hernia?
How large is it?
Is he physically fit apart from hernia?
Is he a healthy weight?
Does he smoke or vape?
Loads of things to factor in

In his groin
It's fairly large
He's mid forties, fairly fit but only gets to the gym once per week since DC
Healthy weight but showing the beginnings of middle aged spread
Never smoked

In my experience it was horrific and that was keyhole.

I was told 2 weeks recovery, it was 6 weeks before I could even sit on the toilet due to where the inscisions were without extreme pain.

5 months before I was able do the things I wanted (not the gym just walking the dog, going shopping)

It's very important that he does NO lifting

Husband had this. It's horrendous. Absolutely no lifting. He's going to be in a lot of pain for a few weeks. Keep reminding him not to lift or strain in any way. It's the only time I've known him to take all painkillers offered.

He's gonna be very bored so plan recuperation in advance.

I've got a small one groin also, but has for a while, I had other more pressing surgeries done first ( most of last year was a write off) I've also been told around six months , no lifting, cycling, gym, even housework. But also you can't be too inactive , also he will be in blood thinners for a while after surgery.
Is your holiday involving a flight?
Edited for spelling!

I had this, albeit I was in my teens so age was likely on my side.

I had keyhole surgery and the first day or two were really painful to move between standing, sitting and lying down.

But after 1-2 weeks I was fine and mobile.
Don't get me wrong, no vigorous exercise but perfectly capable on a general level.

I had an inguinal hernia repaired at the start of December. It was an open surgery, done under GA and in all my pre op consults I was being told to prepare to be in overnight and that they were ensuring a bed would be available for me, although in the end I was released on the same day.

My recovery was absolutely fine. I felt a bit like the walking wounded for about a week, was taking painkillers for the first five days, and by about day 10 I was feeling much much better and less washed out or delicate.

For about four weeks I could feel it tugging if I lifted anything or extended my upper body (leaning over to grab things off the back of the sofa for example), and I felt like I needed to support it when I was picking things up off the floor. Since then it's been fine, I'm completely back to normal. The only thing I'm really noticing is where the incision was (which is about 12cm across, just above my bellybutton), it's at exactly the right place to be nudged by my desk while I'm sitting at it, or the supermarket trolley - and if that happens more than a couple of times it still feels very tender and bruised for a while. I'm not exercising yet but that's next on the list - low impact, obviously!

Oh, and in terms of the things that impact family life - I was driving again after about 7 days, but struggled to do the dishwasher for three weeks because of the bending and reachy twisting involved. And DH kept putting the wine on top of the freezer to get it out of the way and I couldn't lift it down without help 😁

Oh crumbs. Thanks everyone. It sounds like he's going to be even less able than I was after a c-section!

He's actually got a small one too on the other side, but it's optional whether or not that gets done. Has anyone had double? He's debating just getting it over with now vs. tougher recovery, with the added complexity that now he knows about it, if anything changes with our insurance situation he might not be covered in future as it's now a known pre-existing condition. A change in jobs is on the medium term plan so it's a very probable situation.

@BlueShed everyone is different , I had my gallbladder out, the day I came home, I vacuumed the downstairs of my house. I've had the same surgery on both legs and healing time and recovery was completely different ( same surgeon). He might bounce straight back, or he might not.

My husband had double because the chances are that the other one will go they said