About 5 weeks ago, I laid on a table, fell asleep, and woke up with three tiny incisions just under my belly button. Oh, and a layer of mesh that stops my intestines from bursting out of my abdominal sac.

I was happy to get the surgery over with, but now began the process of recovery.

My most dreaded part of the surgery.

I got laparoscopic surgery, so it wasn’t very invasive. However, because I got the surgery done on both inguinal sites, I was going to have a more prolonged recovery time.

There are a lot of reasons why a prolonged recovery is bad for me, my lifestyle, and my family. However, doctors’ orders are doctors’ orders. I had to follow the no lifting or sitting orders or else I could risk having to go under again and making my recovery even longer.

So, what to do while recovering from a hernia surgery and while on heavy pain meds? Also, how do you prepare for surgery recovery?

The streaming function of the PS5 came in handy during the first few days of recovery - the most I-can’t-do-anything-and-it-hurts-to-move days.

I was able to continue my playthrough of Persona 3 Reload from the comfort of my bed by streaming my PlayStation 5 to my Retroid Pocket 5. What a wild future we live in.

I spent a very long time playing this game and ended up finishing it. I loved my time with this game and found myself really attached to the characters and touched by the ending.

Yet another handheld game.

My interest in this game was starting to wane. I had just reached a slower point of the game, more interested in exploration, and I thought the game was starting to lose focus. However, when I started to get bored of lying in bed, this became a salve.

Little did I know, the game was about to grow into something great.

I love this game because it feels like reading a bedtime story. Short snippets of adventure that lead into a bigger narrative.

I’ll be writing about this later so uuuuh, wait for that.

This was a surprise to me.

I wanted to play Metal Gear Solid 1, but I wanted to have some save states on my memory card for spoiler reasons. I booted up Silent Hill 1 and was transported and trapped.

This game is gross, but the old PS1 graphics make the whole experience palatable. Yes there are skinned dead bodies hanging from the walls, but with modern eyes they kind of look like rotten ground beef. Sure, still gross, but not as scary as it may have been on a CRT in 1999.

As for gameplay, it’s the classic go-here-find-this-to-solve-this-puzzle-to-open-that-door type of gameplay. The combat is janky, but I was able to make it work and I loved almost the whole thing. It’s also a short game so I was able to play it here and there and get through the nightmare.

As for the ending? Wild.

Reading while taking heavy pain meds is really hard. If you thought your attention span and brain were rotting from social media overload, imagine pumping your brain with percocets. It’s not a great mix, but I was able to get some reading done.

If you’re getting ready for a surgery, I wouldn’t recommend planning to get a lot of reading done.

This book is wild.

It feels like a book version of a found footage film, but if the people who found the footage inserted clips of their own lives as they descended into madness.

I can’t recommend it at this point, but a lot of other people do, and I’ve certainly found some really interesting moments, thoughts, and choices.

Going into this surgery, I didn’t know what to expect. My surgeon told me I should be clear to work after a couple of days, but the nurses urged me to stay in bed for a week or two and get up to walk often.

Now that I’ve gone through it though, I feel more equiped to give advice on surgery recovery.

If your doctor, surgeon, or nurses tell you to do something, do it.

I had slightly different directions from my surgeon and nurses, so I decided to trust whichever instructions were stricter. My surgeon told me I can work after a couple days, but my nurses told me to stay in bed for 1-2 weeks. Therefore, I stayed in bed for 1-2 weeks, but worked from my laptop while in bed after a week of rest.

If you’re into handheld gaming, you’ll want to get your outlets in order. I didn’t do this, and it ended up leading me toward doomscrolling rather than engaging in a game.

Get a surge protector and set up a charging bank for all of your intended devices ahead of time.

When you’re on heavy pain meds, your bowels don’t work very well. On top of this, you likely have staples in you that make it impossible to bear down.

Apple juice is a great way to keep things moving at least slightly better. You’ll stay hydrated, and the properties of Apple juice will help things move along.

One thing that was hard for me during the recovery process was a fear of moving.

I knew I needed to get up and start walking, but even after about a week, I was scared to get out of the house and go for a walk. Even though the hospital staff told me to start going to walks, I didn’t want to out of fear. I do think this prolonged my recovery just a bit.

Listen to your body and start getting out there. Even if it means walking to the street and back.

This was HUGE for us.

Thanks to our church, my wife and I were able to get a meal train going for 2 weeks. The lovely people who made meals for us really went the extra mile. Every meal lasted at least 2 dinners with enough leftovers for lunches.

If you are a member of a local church, ask if they have a meal train ministry. If you aren’t a member of a church, maybe go to church?

Not everyone has a great family, and that sucks. However, hopefully everyone has a support system.

Before going into surgery, ask your family or support system for help. For us, this looked like having family come over to hang out with the baby while my wife cleaned, or my family coming over to clean. This was also helpful for my mental well-being. It’s nice to have visitors.