I am by no means an athlete although I am 37 a runner and enjoy weight training. I am more high energy than most people my age. I am two weeks into my recovery and for the first while it was very scary. The smallest effort seemed to send my heart rate skyrocketing whereas I'm used to something like 50 bpm at rest. So registering in the 80s and 90s from light activity scared me. But it seems to be improving much faster in the second week.
I was told by a surgeon at the hospital that people who are fit can have a bit more pain around the incision because if everything is "tight" and there isn't a whole lot of extra tissue, it means a bit more stretching to get the opening they need (my operation was a hand assisted nephrectomy through a pfannenstiel incision).
I was wondering how long it would be before I could start to use my lower abdominal muscles. Frankly I was terrified of an incisional hernia. Still kind of am but I am gaining confidence. Yesterday I tried a few stretches and exercises and what was cut seems to be coming back online.
I think that in a way being in good shape, even if it means more pain, helps in the recovery. I was out and about earlier than expected (it you do body weight exercises then lifting and supporting yourself with an arm is easy ... same with running which I think gives you steadier legs). I'm by no means back to my normal activity level but there isn't anything I would call chronic fatigue. I napped just once and I sleep maybe an hour more each night.
One thing which I found helped tremendously was to ditch the opiates as soon as I left the hospital. Most of the symptoms including the lethargy, dizzy spells and weird heart palpitation seemed to have been caused by them. And really, at its worse, the gas pain and incision pain felt as though I had done way too many crunches. When I started this, I was bracing myself for agony for days. This hurt way less than a cracked rib. Generally between 0 and 3 out of 10. At home I took tylenol on and off but now this isn't needed either. Blood pressure is actually back to its usual low and although the heart seems to be taking a bit longer to recover, it's improving. My only lingering problem is the discomfort that food causes if I try to eat as much as I normally do because of pressure against the internal stitches.
So, this isn't the success story you asked for but as far as I can see, I will go back to my normal activity level. I also think that being an athletic person will give you a massive advantage when dealing with the pain and compensating with other muscles while your stomach heals.