Buckeye - I'm late to the party, but thought I would join in just the same. Your profile doesn't mention your age or any pertinent info, so I can only guess. . .
I was 63 when I had my bicuspid aortic valve replaced with an Edwards bovine pericardial tissue valve. I also had a single bypass "while we were in there" rather than a stent. I, too, had no symptoms prior to surgery - I was a runner/jogger, actually running about 3 miles/day right up until the week of surgery. I had a "traditional" full sternotomy, but in spite of that, my incision scar is only 4 inches or less. My surgeon even made the incision on a slight angle, so that I can wear an open-collar shirt without my scar showing. He also used "surgical Krazy Glue" for external closure, so I have no staple marks or needle holes from sutures. Of course, with all of his care, I am also (fortunately) one of those people whose scars blend into skin tone quickly, so I even have to hunt for mine.
I was also the "poster boy" for post-op complications. I won't scare you with all of the stuff I went through, but I will mention a couple to try to help you understand that these things feel monumental to the patient, but to the docs, they see them often and just deal with them. Here's a couple of my experiences:
1. My native valve was so heavily calcified that the surgeon had to "cut wide" to get it out. This resulted in his "nicking" the nerve bundle that connects the top of the heart (the atria) to the lower part (the ventricles). Immediately after surgery, my heart would go fast, slow, it would skip beats. . . and it would even just plain stop for up to 20-30 seconds. Believe me, it is scary to be in the hospital and see your own monitor screen go "flat line." I would black out, then wake up to see all these very concerned faces looking down at me as the docs and nurses adjusted my meds. Finally, the doc said to me, "We can either keep trying to control this with medication, which could take a week or longer, or we can implant a pacemaker." I immediately asked him "Do you have a pacemaker in stock? What are we waiting for?" My mom had a pacemaker for a number of years, and it was a big NON-issue, so I just went for it. That almost immediately settled my heart rhythm issues. After a bit of tweaking the settings, I was back to all of my pre-surgery activities. Today, almost 9 years later, I am still a gym rat 5 days a week, doing much more than most all of the gents my age (72) at the local fitness center. I often tell people that the only way I am reminded that I have the pacemaker is when I look in the mirror with my shirt off.
2. Somebody else mentioned that the meds they give you during surgery, combined with inactivity, can lead to constipation. YES, it can, in a BIG way. All that "stuff" backed me up so bad that about 4 weeks post-op I had to be readmitted to the hospital to get my digestive system back into operation. A couple of doses of some industrial-strength laxatives fixed me up, but they told me to take Miralax for a month anyway. I started with the full dose per label instructions, then after 2 weeks went to half, then after 3 weeks to a quarter. The docs that time told me that usually the nurses and docs tell heart surgery patients to take Miralax after surgery, and they didn't know how nobody told me.
3. For the few weeks right after surgery, I was always cold. I mean, shivering cold. The docs told me that it was because I was borderline anemic. Not bad enough for medication, just cold. I walked around the house like a ghost, dragging my blanket everywhere. Eventually, it just subsided.
4. For the first couple of months after surgery, NOTHING tasted right. I had no dietary restrictions, but the food just tasted like industrial chemicals. That was a side effect of the anesthesia and other IV meds. Just find the things you can tolerate and eat them. Eventually, this just goes away, but I probably ate 5 pounds of vanilla wafers by then. . .
5. If you are in decent shape before surgery, you will do fine. Our house is on three separate floors, so stairs were an everyday thing for me from the start. I actually think this was helpful in my recovery. With all of my complications after surgery, I was not cleared for cardiac rehab until 3 months after surgery, but I was doing well anyway.
6. Speaking of rehab, if they offer it to you, jump for it. I did a rehab program that was 12 weeks long, 3 days a week. On the other 2 week days, I went to my own fitness center and did the same routine I had done that week in rehab. I came out of rehab able to do everything I had been doing before surgery - except push-ups. I waited about 6 months before I was comfortable doing them. Doc said I could do them, just didn't feel right.
7. Oh, and I also received insulin for a day or two right after surgery. My docs said that they had found that after surgeries like open-heart procedures, the body often goes out of whack and can't deal properly with sugars, so they give insulin temporarily. I think mine was even administered through my IV port, so this was a non-issue, too.
I could go on and on, but my point is really to say that no matter what happens, you WILL get through this. Your docs have seen it all before, and they can help you deal with it. After recovery, life is like a "do-over." You will once again be "just like everyone else."
