It turns out I may have a hernia in my lower abdomen. The surgery itself doesn't bother me since I've had much worse surgeries in the past. What I'm concerned about is the recovery time.

People are saying that I won't be able to work for 6 weeks after the surgery, but if I can't work for that long, we'll end up out on the street. I'm a laboratory technician so I spend all my time on my feet moving samples around.

Is it true that this surgery is THAT traumatic? (Faaaar more traumatic than removing my appendix ... I was back at work the next Monday.) Should I just wait until it becomes incarcerated and deal with it then?