I had laprascopic heria surgery on the right side correcting what the doctor called a VERY Large hernia. Was supposed to take an hour to repair and took 1:45 to repair....I am a big guy, not really fat but big shouldered. They put 3 holes in my stomach...1 in my belly button and one about 3 inches on each side of the belly button...i think one is for the gas to blow up the area to work on, one for camera and one for the tools to work. I have to say, although i am older this time since my last hernia which was repaired with mesh, the placement of the laprascopy holes is the worst part. I don't remember have the centrally located pain that affected everything I do with movement compared to the mesh last time. This hurts/stings. forget the 10mg dosage of oxcodone and went to 20mg every six hours. seem to help considerably but ran out quickly. I have the nut swelling and soreness but besides the incision pain, no other complications. Not sure I would recommend the laprascopy unless you are a chipndale dancer or maybe in better shape than me....I don't think the traditional was as tough healing. One recommnedation: don't wait as long as I did to get this corrected.....it did get worse.....