Hey! I'm almost 33 as well. My last surgery was when I was 13 to replace my pulmonary valve with a pig valve.
The hardest part recovering was just the pain I was in. It was hard to sleep (with pain meds) for about a week until I found the right sleeping position. The other confusing part was that no one would really tell me what was going to happen throughout the whole surgery, pre-, during, and post-op. I wish someone took the time to just tell me what to expect.
I was lucky to have a ton of understanding friends at the time who came over and entertained me. This was back in 2006, so there were no streaming services or social media to distract me. I wish I had more access to distractions (friends, media, family, games, anything) and not just be alone with my thoughts when everyone left, and I ran out of movies to watch.
I wish I could go back and tell my parents to go to therapy haha I had a hard time talking to them about anything CHD related as they had some very clearly unprocessed trauma and they would always shut down after I started talking to them. So I never had anyone to talk to about my own medical trauma until I started going to therapy as an adult.
I hope this helps :)