Hi,

Well, I didn't have a leaky valve but was diagnosed with an ascending aneurysm of 5.4cm when I was 65 (last year). I had elective surgery this past Feb and after a few months of recovery, am back to at least 90+% of my previous activity level. So, I'd recommend getting this done sooner rather than later with a doc that specializes in these kinds of surgeries. My recommendation is to get yourself in as good a shape as possible prior to surgery... it will aid in your recovery. If it helps, once I was home (a week after surgery), I was able to walk 10k steps daily but it was a struggle at first, but got progressively better.

Good luck!