Adam's Photos

As many of you know... Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. The turkey. The stuffing. The cranberries. The pumpkin pie. Family. Friends. And, most importantly, the dedicated time to reflect on all there is to be thankful for.

As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving, I am reminded of a quote from Jefferson Bethke who wrote, “Thankfulness is the quickest path to joy.”

On behalf of Robyn, my wife, Ethan, our 15-year old son, and Bodie, our pup, we are so thankful for you and all the wonderful members of the HeartValveSurgery.com community!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Adam

Hey Everybody!

During the past 3 weeks, our wonderful programming team has implemented over 100 changes to the code that powers the Community section at HeartValveSurgery.com.

The main goal of these updates was to accelerate the speed that any given page in the Community section loads on phone, tablet, laptop and/or desktop. We noticed, over the past few months, that our page speeds were getting slow because of all the features and the posts in the Community.

While we have a few more updates to go, I am happy to report that we have been able to decrease page load times up to 70% in some instances. Woo-Hoo!!!!

This required the development and implementation of many database enhancements and new strategies for ensuring the "Notifications" feature was optimized.

In addition to speeding up the website, we also spent a good amount of time optimizing several other features across the Community including faster YouTube playback capabilities, article/URL graph and meta data recognition, and more.

Again, we have a few more updates to complete. That said, if you are noticing anything that is not working correctly, please be patient with us as we complete the Community update.

As always, thanks for your extraordinary support of each other! I am so thankful to be a part of the wonderful community of people.

Have a nice weekend!
Adam

Amazing! I can't believe my heart valve surgery was 18 years ago today! Thanks so much to everybody here for your extraordinary support of me and this community! Together, over the past 18 years, we have collectively turbo-charged a global effort to educate and empower patients with heart valve disease! Again, thank you!

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody! On behalf of Robyn, my wife, and Ethan, our 14-year old son, we are so thankful for all the wonderful people of in this community! That means you!

Quick follow-up... Ethan and I had an amazing Scuba dive yesterday off the coast of Los Angeles. It is amazing to think that I had my heart valve surgery nearly 18 years ago. It's not Thanksgiving. But, I am so very thankful for life, my family, my friends and this community of wonderful, caring and supportive people!!!

As you have seen here in our community, many patients have questions about what life might be like after heart surgery. What can I do? What can't I do? What activities or exercise should I stay away from?

Considering that each patient is unique, it is really important to ask your medical team what may or may not be safe. That said, I do know patients (e.g. Veronika Meyer) who have climbed Mount Everest after her heart valve replacement surgery. Ahhhh-Mazing!!!

For me, I wanted to know if I was going to be able to Scuba dive after heart surgery. I have been a Scuba diver for 30+ years. It is one of my favorite things to do. So, I asked Dr. Starnes, my surgeon, "Can I Scuba dive after heart valve surgery?"

I was thrilled when, after my recovery, Dr. Starnes cleared me to Scuba again.

Now, after heart surgery, after marrying Robyn, after bringing Ethan into this world, I am so happy to share that I have a new Scuba buddy. And... It's Ethan!!!

In fact, we're going Scuba diving tomorrow. I am so excited!!!!

I'm curious... Is there any special activity or exercise that you have returned to after heart surgery? How did that feel? And, Is there any new hobby or exercise that you want to try but might be a little apprehensive given your valve surgery?

Adam

Hey Everybody - A few days ago, we talked about creating a search function to help you find other members in our community. I'm now working on the specifications to develop that feature.

Our goal is to make the new "Member Search Function" very simple to use for mobile, laptop and desktop members. That said, we created this mock-up to see what you think.

The search results would display the member's name with a link to their "My Story" page. From there, you can see their journals, photos and guestbooks.

Thoughts?

Thanks, Adam