Stats: Male. Age 40. Inguinal hernia, right side, non-threatening. Emerged in February, surgery undertaken in late June. Method: Direct Kugel implant. Doctor in my surgery did not have any rules for rehab, though he did suggest waiting 10 days before swimming.

My risk of hernias is hereditary - most of the men in my family have had similar operations done. My hernia was not extruded so I had the flexibility of scheduling surgery any time I wanted. I found a hospital nearby, but not too near, which had a great reputation for hernia surgery. This really makes a difference. My surgery was done on a Thursday morning, by an experienced doctor who had performed over 1000 operations by this "direct Kugel" method.

My fitness level was excellent going into the surgery. I had been doing 100-mile cycling rides a couple times a month at that time. Usually, fitness helps recover from injuries, and this surgery was no exception.

They didn't want me to eat for some hours before the surgery, more than 12 hours, and I was given an IV drip apparatus to pull around on wheels after me. This wasn't too bad, but awkward. The hospital recommended one overnight stay, mainly to help recover from the drugs (anaesthetics) used. For the same reason, no driving was allowed. It was a general anaethetic.

The surgery was not too big: a cut of only maybe 2 inches in length (less than 3). The hospital provided some pain killer drugs to take home, but I didn't even take any. Although there was some pain, I was in good shape and the pain was really not as much as I had feared.

1st hour after the surgery, the nausea level was low, the headache about a medium, and pain level also about medium, nothing as bad as was feared. But there was nothing to do in this hospital so just hung around doing eye exercises and mental exercises, light reading.

3 hours after the surgery, feeling grogginess from the drugs, but reading and able to walk down the hall.

20 hours after the surgery: the pain sensation is described as different than expected: feels like a severe charley horse (muscle bruise) rather than an incision or cut wound. For this reason, I found out on my own (and wish the doctor would have suggested this) the following treatment: as with any big muscle injury, to ice and massage of the wound helps. The massage element should not be to the point of pain, but only to get the tissues moving and toxins cleaned out. After I begun to ice and massage lightly, I could notice a difference in the healing and felt better.

23 hours after the surgery, first bowel movement: painful because the muscles there are the ones stressed and broken in the hernia. As the hernia occurs right at the belt line, there is some issue with wearing pants and a belt in the first few days.

Appetite was great after 40 hours. Energy level was pretty high, but there was pain on the right side (surgery) so putting on the right sock was extra difficult. Shifting body position is painful, but exercise or rest are all fine when the body position is stable.

One strange result was blue blotches under the skin in the groin area due to blood leakage. Another thing to watch out for: sneezing. It's still painful up to 72 hours afterward - it really shakes the system. Still painful on day12. A secret I found: when you cough or sneeze, bend forward at the waist or brace your abdomen - this helps reduce the muscle tensing that's painful.

By the 4th day after surgery (96 hours), shifting in bed is almost no longer painful.

By day 9, I cycled for 35 km, joined friends in a party for about 6 hours, and felt few remaining issues.

By day 36, the wound had shrunk down to a small, hard area extending 2cm all sides of the wound.

Legend: If 100% was the performance level I was at a week before the surgery, "Tolerance" percent marks the estimated level on that item on that day. The time line is amount of time after the surgery time / day.