Not too far behind you, John. I'm scheduled for a hernia repair job next month, too. Think I'm going to bump it to early January for deductible reasons.
They told me 4 weeks minimum before lifting anything over 10-15 lbs max., and that I wouldn't feel like doing much of anything for the first week anyway. Currently in the process of moving stuff into storage before the operation, like you with the JDK. Get it out of the way beforehand.
Definitely take it easy and recover fully. The last thing you want to do it re-injure yourself.
