had one before and nothing is worth a hernia op,i have had the pains for over a year and kept putting off going to the doctors 
good luck
as know, i am still off with hernia op, this week was s.posed to be my last week off ( 4 weeks ) BUT the way i am feeling it looks like another 1 or 2 weeks off
my mums friend husband had a double op 4 months ago, he was off for 10 weeks , he is fully paid and the company has bupa aswell , he says he is still in pain and is amazed at the progress i have made, walking to school after 6 days, driving after the 2nd week, he went back to the docs yesterday to have it checked out, 1 of the " patches " didnt work
he is gutted and said he isnt going the op if it doesnt start to really play him up
good luck with it, i had to wait about 2 months from being seen at the docs