They want you walking pretty quickly after surgery, I had just had leg fracture surgery and that made it a little more difficult for me but i used a walker. No issues laying flat, sometimes laying on the side was a little uncomfortable as it puts pressure on your sternum, but I found the right combination of pillows to make it more comfortable.

The hospital is what you would expect, a couple of days in the ICU while they monitor you, hoses and wires coming out of you, nurses will help you walk with them. (my nurses were awesome, they normally are). They gave me a pump with a pain killer that I could press if I had a lot of pain, I am scared of opiods so I think I pumped it once only (they were all surprised about that), after my leg fracture my threshold for pain is very high. After a couple of days they took all the hoses and wires out and moved me into a non critical care unit room, just like any hospital they check on you all the time, vitals, weight, etc wake you up when you are finally resting, etc. It is uncomfortable, they manhandle organs that are not supposed to be touched, so it takes some time for the body to recover.

The main source of pain is your sternum, it is broken and it takes a while to start healing, coughing, laughing, sneezing will hurt some. They will give you a small pillow that you embrace when you sneeze or cough to hold your sternum as together as possible, that pillow will be your best friend for a couple of weeks. I walked as much as I could when I got home, tried to sit more than lay down. As I said I went back to work 3 weeks later, still with minor pain but tried to go back to my life as much as I could.

After surgery is tough, won't lie, but it is berable and over before you know it

Sleeping in the hospital was tough... just too much noise and traffic in and out. As it turned out for me, the only position I was somewhat comfortable with was lying on my back and that continued for the first few weeks at home. You will want to walk every day... move around as much as possible, even if you are tired. It will make a big difference in your recovery. You will start feeling a LOT better a few weeks post surgery but don't push it with overly strenuous exercises of the upper body... that will come with time.

Even in the hospital ICU they got me up in a recliner for part of the day even with all the wires hoses etc. I had a similar routine the 1st 3 weeks at home. Tuesday will be the 3 month mark for me and I am still using the heart pillow Mayo gave me primarily because the occasional sneeze hurts like hades. The early morning hours from 3 to 4 there was a lab tech coming in every morning to take blood and an x-ray tech to do chest X-Rays.