I had a inguinal hernia repaired 2 years ago. I think it all depends on the type of surgery as I've heard reports of people being fairly fine and dandy (ie. back at work) within a week or two. I reckon skating would take a little longer than that if you took it easy, but who knows.
My experience was a little different. For the first week or two after the operation I could barely walk (my doctor gave me 3 months off work), skating was out of the question. After that, I felt really fragile and sore for a couple of months. Once it really settled down, I began rolling around a little and slowly got back into it. During this time period I would be out and about, exercising as much as I could because I was sick of sitting around the house.
I don't want to bum you out, but my advice is to take it as easy as you can, I just found out my hernia has recently come back and it bums me out thinking about getting the same shitty operation and going through the recovery again. I'm wondering if I maybe didn't take my recovery seriously enough immediately after the operation and didn't let things heal up properly. As it stands, I can barely skate at the moment because it feels like shit and I'll have months to wait before my operation.
I guess you're getting your surgery today, so I hope it doesn't suck too much. Ask me any questions you like although I can't remember things in too much detail. I'm interested to hear how you get on since I'm back on the hernia boat.
I'll end with something positive: take it easy and don't rush things during your recovery. If you start to feel shitty, sit down. When it heals up, you feel great. In regards to skating - I found that it really helped me appreciate just cruising around, I had fun not stressing about tricks for a little bit.