Dr Dearani did mine back in 2016 and he was super fast! He told my family it would be 3 to 4 hours but was done in 1.5 hours.

As far as advise, I would recommend some hand signals between you and your family. When I was having my breathing tube removed I would stop breathing so they had a heck of a time getting me to breath on my own. During that time I wanted to say so many thing to my family but couldn't. Simple things like I wanted my wife's hand, or I wanted to wipe the spit from my chin/mouth. They are useful as well for when you are in too much pain to talk, but want something like water, or food or more meds.

The nights will be the worst. The nurses tended to not be on time with my meds, so I would sit there in pain until they came in (the call button fell from my bed when I was sleeping). With no where for my wife to sleep I was alone at night. If I could do it again I would have fought harder for my wife to be able to stay at night so I had someone to advocate for me to the nurses.

If they don't give you a heart pillow, have someone get you a fluffy soft pillow to hold against your chest. Even the heart pillow they did give me was a little too thin I thought. It will be your best friend if you have to sneeze or cough.

Your arm/chest/upper back muscles will become VERY weak almost immediately. Within the first week I pulled several muscles in my rib/back on my right side just trying to push myself up from the lazyboy chair. Even if you feel like you can get up on your own, have someone assist you so you don't end up back in the hospital back on IV narcotics for pulled muscles causing you not to be able to take a full breath.

Best of luck with your surgery! You are in the best possible hands!