The width of mine seemed to about double, but it was clearly from fluid build-up mostly under the outer skin. It was actually pretty hideous-looking, but it didn't hurt despite all of the bruising.
There's good advice from someone else further down this thread. They're almost certainly going to intubate you despite how they MIGHT tell you it can be avoided if you don't eat or drink for many hours before the surgery. In my case, they intubated me both times anyway! Which sucked, because it made me cough for awhile in post-op... and that can be painful after surgery around the abdomen!
And be sure that you get some pills for pain!
One of my nieces drove me home from the hospital after my second hernia operation (as an adult), but she was in a hurry and said that she couldn't stop at the pharmacy for the pain pills. She kept apologizing, and I told her to not worry about it! I wasn't hurting much at all!
Well, that was just the after-effects of my anesthesia and pain meds from the hospital! By the next day, my abdominal area was hurting pretty bad! I slept in a recliner that night instead of a bed (after learning the first time that it was much easier to stand up that way), but even getting up from the chair was a very painful struggle. It felt like my 8-inch incision was going to rip wide open! (Which wouldn't have really happened, but it FELT like it might!)
So I finally got up that morning and called my sister about the prescription. Luckily, they didn't question her about getting pain meds for someone else... and I THINK it was Percocet if I'm remembering correctly.
And very soon after taking the pain pill, the amount of relief was AMAZING! Then I had far more mobility, like I did the previous day soon after the surgery.
They also gave me a bag of local anesthetic, near the incision. But I temporarily peeled back the bandages that next day and I realized that the IV needle for the bag wasn't even in me! So that bag got tossed in the garbage, being mostly a nuisance.
Edit: Just get the pain meds from the hospital if you can. Cripes, that's what I should've done!
Edit2: It probably won't be as bad for you. My incision the 2nd time was pretty big. The surgeon said my hernia was a "whopper" during the initial consultation, and that it was the biggest one he'd personally ever seen. Then he scolded me a bit for not getting it fixed much sooner. I lived with it for about 10 years, I think, since the hernia itself wasn't painful MOST of the time. And that hernia started very soon after I had surgery for the one on the other side, which made me pretty angry because I had basically begged to get the mesh to cover both sides! The first surgeon said something like, "The health insurance will only help pay for the one side, so let's just do that."
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