Hi Ross,
Sorry to hear you're sick. Hope you get better quick so it doesn't throw everything else off. Still, you want to be fully recovered and rested so your body is in the best condition possible to endure surgery.
By the way, I used to have chronic bronchitis for many years before my AVR last year. One of the many side benefits of the AVR is that it completely cleared up the bronchitis. It also reset my body temperature tolerance to normal. (I used to require a temperature at least 10 degress higher than everybody else, which was pure hell for my family.)
Many others on this site have also reported a variety of side benefits of getting a new valve.
Hope you do too.
Good luck and God bless,
Steve