I feel exactly the same as before. My mitral regurgitation didn't give me any issues or perceptible symptoms until a couple of months before the surgery. So I wasn't coming back from a decline, really.May I ask how you feel now? Are you the same as you were before or even better now that your valve is functioning properly?
It's interesting to see the ranges of recovery experiences here on the forum. I was in excellent shape before my surgery, but the operation really knocked me down for a while, mostly in terms of energy level. For the first couple of weeks I didn't even have the energy to stand up while taking a shower; I used a shower seat. I was going for walks right away, of course, starting with ten minutes twice a day and working my way up to half an hour twice a day. Everything came back to normal, but it was a gradual process.
So when I read accounts of people who are back at work in a few weeks and doing all their normal activities quickly, I marvel at them and wonder what the difference was -- type of surgery? Duration on bypass machine? Or maybe it's just that every human body is different.