Seeking Advice To Return To Lifting (Medical Restrictions)

Hello all - brand new here, joined mostly to get input and advice on a topic for myself.

I started lifting in my 20s while in the Marines, and learned to enjoy it greatly. While I was not always hitting the gym over the years, I kept coming back to it, and thanks to my friend teaching me solid fundamentals, I could always make progress.

At age 49 I was diagnosed with intestinal cancer, and ended up having fairly radical surgery that left me with an incision scar from my sternum to my crotch. Those of you with medical experience know that this scar is not nearly as strong as abdominal muscles are, and in fact I have already had one surgery to correct a hernia through one of the surgical scars. I have been told my my surgeon not to lift, but I really don’t enjoy all of the bike riding or any of that stuff to the same degree I enjoyed lifting.

Do any of you have any ideas how I could resume my favorite form of PT safely? Or is it, as my surgeon says, completely out of the question now.

Thanks all

Bruce aka Orkney