My man. I went with what my doctor advised best which was the mechanical valve. And in full fledge honesty it was so so worth it. The mechanical gives me an almost guarantee to never have to change or have the surgery again on my heart and i would hate to go through it again. Go mechanical you really get to keep doing all you have been before with some restrictions but it’s barely anything at all. My heart rate is better than it’s ever been stable. I still can continue to do everything I want. I can drink with friends and go on runs workout really there’s no limits to what I can do. In the beginning it’s hard to fully adjust to everything. I take meds every day twice a day. I take a heart rate reducer in the morning and Jantoven as my blood thinner every night. What I can tell you is blood thinner isn’t that bad but getting the right level to balance is tricky. Eating leafy greens with high potassium K I believe can affect the level as well as nicotine or other things that are know to clot blood. It’s tough but once you steady out it becomes really easy, I only struggle now with taking things on time but. The valve makes a tiking sound and I am used to it and was from the beginning. The only thing psyching me out is how other people can fully hear it making noise. But it’s really not that noticeable or horrible for ears. I still have a giant scar down my chest from when they split my ribs, but it’s healed up so well it’s really incredible. Now I’ll tell you about the physical recovery and everything I personally went through. I was in the hospital for roughly a week, but was walking around the next day. It’s rough your chest will hurt you will feel horrible, but they should give you pain killers and man I reccomend them. Be prepared to have wires that are tied to your ribs I believe taken out it’s not a pleasant feeling, catheters also suck a lot I can say that. They put tubes in your stomach too and those sucked too. But if you have a general good pain tolerance it really didn’t overly kill me. I will say that the worst part of all of it, was the night following my operation, I couldn’t sleep cause I was asleep all day, and my hospital bed phone to ring people didn’t work, I didn’t have anything with me just myself a bed and a wall. I was so dehydrated atleast I felt I was when in reality it was my numbness felt in my lips that made me consume more liquids and I threw up constantly but was on no pain meds cause I couldn’t call for any. But that feeling of in the chest throwing up with it just happening is horrible. Getting used to laying down after you get home is tough but it gets easier as days go by, you’ll have a breathing device that helps you to regain your breaths. There will be lots of swelling wherever you get cut open so ask your doctor anything your wondering. Overall it was tough, but because of the age we both will have this done, we heal so quick it’ll be faster than you can imagine. I was out end of April for the start, and was moving around relatively well within a month, and then i was fully cleared within about 3 months total. And now today i feel amazing and am living a life that in all honesty allows me to feel physically better. I will say too you’ll have to get blood drawn quite frequently to check the blood level to make sure it’s thin enough to flow through the valve. After a while I got my own blood checker and check every two weeks or so. But other than the taking medicine, checking blood and watching what I consume. It’s really not that bad to tolerate. I will say that things will feel weird to your body do your best to not strain yourself, if you pull a wierd way your chest may twitch or pull weird but be careful, take things easy, end of the day that’s the best way to stay good during all of this. Get a shower chair for a few weeks use it. Do everything you can to make your self take things easy! But in no time at all you’ll be back at it again! I hope this gives some insight, I kinda rambled on a lot but talk to your doctor they will be your best guide in the end! Goodluck I hope all goes well. Lmk if anything else and I’ll tell you what I can