I voted for two months, but I think it was more like somewhere between the second and third month.
What is recovery?
As far as recovery from the surgery goes -- I have to say, that was very quick and easy. I was in pretty good shape before the surgery, I think. I never had any very noticeable symptoms anyway (my PCP noticed a murmur in the course of an appointment for something completely different). During the months between the diagnosis and the surgery I exercised and got into pretty good shape. Afterwards it was just a matter of getting back to where I had gotten just before surgery. I never had much pain or breathing problems. At about six weeks I started cardiac rehab. That went VERY well & I definitely recommend it.
But if "recovery" refers to what caused you to need to have the surgery, it is not just going to "go away". My cardio says I still have "heart disease," the underlying condition -- i.e.., my heart is different from most folk. I still have some regurgitation (but not severe regurgitation as I had before) and some stenosis. My left ventricle function is still impaired, compared to a "normal" heart. (But according to the MUGA test my EF is within normal range -- low normal but normal.) A little more than a year after the surgery, I have now been diagnosed with A-flutter, and now I have to go on coumadin. I don't know if the flutter is a consequence of having OHS or if I would have had it anyway.
Mentally -- well, maybe I am in denial or have dissociated from reality, but I've never really felt much different mentally -- except of course at the time of first diagnosis (total shock) -- and when I was facing the surgery (fear, but I was also very glad that there WAS something specific they could do).
Now, well, I feel fine. I do not really feel that having heart surgery "changed" me.
Even this A-flutter business: I don't "feel" anything (I didn't know I had it) so it was hard for me to accept that it's anything I need to do anything about -- i.e. coumadin. I had hoped I was off that for good after the first three months post-op, but apparently it was not to be.
Still -- overall, I am an incredibly lucky person!