I totally agree with JennyH. I do belive your surgery recovery depends on what shape you are going into it. I had only been in bad shape for about a week and a half before my surgery (rib resection, removal of scar tissue and scalene muscle and a failed attempt at 'patching' the subclavian vein) so the recovery was pretty quick. I had to spend a week after surgery in the hospital to make sure the clot wasnt going to come back and they kept me pretty drudged up so its just a blur of a memory now. When I got home I took another week to just take it easy and heal and was back to work (in a limited capacity) two weeks after surgery. I would say it was at about a month that I started to feel good, at that time was able to start PT to regain strength too. And at two months after the surgery I was back to normal (or at least my new 'normal') which compaired to some others is really good.