I’ve had three hernia surgeries, so you’ll survive.
The first was to put a mesh in. My experience was much like excavating (for a mind)'s, except that I didn’t go back to work as quickly (I also had a desk job). It was more like a week.
The reason I had multiple surgeries, and they were over a period of years, was the mesh was too small. The first mesh the surgeon put in worked, but then the hernia sort of squeezed around it, so he inserted a larger mesh. That was on my right side, then a year or two later, I had a hernia on my left side, and he put a mesh in. That was about 3 years ago, and I’ve been great ever since.
I’d say the worst part of the whole thing, the absolute worst, is not being able to roll over in bed by yourself for a couple of days. When you roll over (or get up, or lie down), you use your ab muscles, and with hernia surgery, obviously that whole area is pretty tender.
Also, the last time I too had problems with the anesthesia, and couldn’t get enough oxygen, so I simply stayed overnight in the hospital. But other than boredom, that was no big deal.
The upshot is hernia surgery’s very routine, the post surgical pain isn’t bad (I had a “pain grenade” at home, so I could give myself a boost of pain meds when needed), and I’d say you can resume a normal life within a week, maybe sooner. While it’s not something I’d want to do again, it’s much better than living with a hernia (and Weird Al’s song just came on in my head–“Living with a hernia”). And in my experience, it took at least a week to get back to complete normalcy, such as going back to work, but I was up and walking around on my own, sitting, standing, lying down, etc. within 24-48 hours after surgery.
And I covered the sutures with a piece of plastic wrap and took a shower. Several weeks after surgery, I saw my surgeon, and he gave me a clean bill of health.