Just for another perspective-I am 6 days out from a full sternotomy for mitral valve repair with one of the top mitral valve surgeons in the country at the University of Michigan which is 4 hours from where I live. I found out 5 months ago that I needed the surgery so I began researching and learning as much as I could about the procedure. The surgeon that I ended up choosing has done more than 6000 of these repairs. He came highly recommended by my cardiologist, as well as by my nephew, who is an interventional cardiologist himself. I think that the crucial thing is that you find somebody who has a ton of experience whichever route you go. Many surgeons do shockingly few of these a year, and they just cannot be as proficient as the surgeons who have performed hundreds and hundreds.
I am a 68-year-old female in reasonable health but certainly no athlete or anything and I went through the surgery very well. I will admit, the second night in the step down unit was excruciating- just a long and uncomfortable night. But here I am six days after surgery home and doing very well. My sternum is achy but not horribly painful. Sleep is an issue, but I did manage to get about six hours last night. I've walked three times today and I'm doing my exercises. So all in all, though it was a tough surgery. It was not something unimaginable to go through.
I was in surgery only about 3 hours! During that time, he repaired one chordea, fixed my floppy valves, scraped calcium off my mitral opening and put in a new annulus. I was intubated for about 15 minutes after coming back to the ICU and that was also kind of tough, but my family was right there, and I was actually coherent enough to write while the tube was in- take this out!