I just celebrated being 6 months post-op. Woohoo! It's been a slow, but steady recovery. I must say that I still do feel some pulling, or tightness in the chest muscles. Especially if I raise my arms, or twist. Not really painful. It sort of feels like I have strips of duct tape stuck to my chest. I wish I could put this new valve to more of a test, but this darned Dystrophy limits what I can do quite a bit. Oh, well, at least my heart is fixed. I'm just glad to be around!