That is a long time. I’ve not had a surgery like that, but I’ve had both knees replaced and the time span was about two weeks between identification of the problem and the surgery. Perhaps the seriousness of your surgery and the age distribution between there and my area has something to do with it.
I had hip replacement surgery about 7 years before the open heart surgery at the same hospital, from the first doctor visit to the surgery was less than 10 days, the entire thing was less than 2 weeks and I was home walking around.
The test for hip surgery was a basic x-ray to show the Cartlidge was gone in the hip joint and the surgeon told me my only recourse was surgery to relieve the pain.
Like I said for the open heart surgery, I saw multiple doctors, had 6-7 tests to determine the extent of the problem, one of the tests was with general anesthesia, another I was in the hospital all day under sedation with my arm immobilized, another was CT scan with contrast which means an IV was inserted in my arm that show the contrast of the heart as blood flowed thru it, this test was used to discover that I had an aortic aneurysm that had to be repaired during the surgery.
When you are the one having the surgery, 3.5 months is nothing when they tell you they stop your heart for an extended period of time and they performed a full sternotomy , meaning your chest was completely separated.
I was in cardiac ICU for 6 days/5 nights, compared to 1 night in the hospital for hip replacement surgery.