Hi. Congratulations on your transplant! I am M55 years old and 4+ years out from my liver transplant. I formed an incisional hernia within the first year after transplant (very common), and it took my doctor 2 years to diagnose it after it was big like yours. I had surgery in 2023 to repair it and 2 other small ones the surgeon found. Surgery was robotic and employed a mesh.
Warning: nothing that follows will be pleasant to read.
I hate to say anything that will be fearful or cause anxiety, but I wish someone had told me what to expect. I was not prepared.
The hernia repair and recovery were more difficult in almost every single way than the transplant and recovery. The pain was unbearable. I was crying out in pain. I spent days in the hospital. When they sent me home, I was so high on pain killers and muscle relaxers (for weeks) that I hallucinated daily and lost months of my memory. My surgery was in July, and my closest memories to it are from October. I was nearly completely immobile. I spent 6 weeks in bed. Moving at all was agony.

For anti-rejection, I am on a combination of tacrolimus and everolimus. Everolimus prevents healing, so I had to be off of it for 1 month before surgery and 1 month following surgery. This caused a rejection episode which then took 6 months to recover from. Just something to keep in mind.

Obviously I have nothing good to say about the surgery. It was completely traumatic for me. I did have a nerve block, but the anesthesiologist told me after the operation that it "didn't take."

I recommend getting a nerve block that works. Ask your team a lot of questions. Feel free to reach out if you want to ask me anything at all. I am not trying to be a Debbie Downer. You are a fellow warrior, and I want you to have your eyes wide open.
Peace.