Yeah, I've been through several major, major surgeries. Not a whole lot you can do to prepare for it, so don't worry about that part. But keep a positive outlook the whole time. You'd be surprised how much a positive outlook can speed recovery, and there's research that supports this. After brain surgery that I had to undergo it was expected to be 6 weeks before I could even consider returning to school, but I was so positive with the whole thing, and kept well rested after, that I was able to go back in 4.
Recovery sucks, because being told you cant do the things you love for a while blows. But it seems to go WAY faster than when your doctor originally tells you 6 weeks or whatever. You'll be good, work hard at rehab and the results will be surprising, you can usually cut some time off of what your doctor tells you if you do your exercises daily and really stick with it. I was a total slacker on that, and my recovery for my broken femur took basically the entire time lol. But I volunteer at a sports medicine clinic with physical therapists and some of the recovery times I've seen are just miraculous.
Best of luck!
