Adam's Journal

Hey everybody! Tomorrow, I will be on Facebook LIVE at 2pm EST at a Ross Procedure Training Course being taught by my surgeon, Dr. Vaughn Starnes. This is going to be amazing as we all go inside a real cardiac surgery "wet lab" at USC. If you want to join me, here are the details - https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/heart-surgery-blog/2025/03/06/ross-procedure-training/

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

Hi Everybody! Fyi, we are continuing to make several updates to our community section today. If you notice any issues, please be patient as we implement the updates. Thanks so much!

Hey everybody, We're making some updates to our "Heart Notification System" for logged in users. If you notice some issues with your notifications, please know that we are working on this. Thanks for your patience! Adam

Together, this community is making a difference in the lives of people struggling with heart disease. Thanks sooooooo much for your support of each other, this website and... Nsimire!!! Much love, Adam https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/heart-surgery-blog/2024/10/21/nsimire/

Hey everybody, We had an amazing webinar yesterday about bicuspid aortic valve therapy with the Mayo Clinic. In case you missed it, here is the video replay we just posted on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW3PuWTzA8s

Hey everybody, Quick question: Is anybody having trouble accessing this website. I just received a few complaints that our firewall is intermittently blocking a few patients from the website. Is that happening to you? Thanks, Adam

Today is a good day. Thanks to your support, I am happy to share that our community just sponsored the life-saving cardiac surgery of Patrick Kalikodi, a 13-year-old boy from Uganda who is struggling with severe heart valve disease. Together, we are making a difference! Learn about Patrick and his upcoming surgery at https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/heart-surgery-blog/2024/07/05/gift-of-life-patient-patrick/.

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

Hey Everybody! As you may know... This Thursday is National Heart Valve Disease Awareness Day!!! To celebrate, I'm hosting a special patient webinar titled, "8 Must-Know Tips for Heart Valve Patients", to help educate our community. To learn more and register for the FREE and LIVE webinar, go to this link - https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/heart-surgery-blog/2024/02/15/national-disease-day-webinar/. Hope to see you on the webinar!!!

Hi everybody! Thanks to Daneen and Ana, we learned that for people using tablets (e.g. iPads) there was an unexpected bug with the notification counter in the top navigation during a recent website update. That said we have found and fixed that issue.

However, in doing further testing, we found a few other bugs with the top navigation in tablet viewports. That said, we we are working now to correct those minor issues. Fyi, these issues typically do not impact the overall functioning of the website. Thanks for your patience as our programmers resolve these minor issues. Best, 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!

Together, this community is accomplishing incredible things. Thanks so much for your incredible support of each other, me and Mohammed. This wonderful update is coming in from Uganda after we sponsored his heart valve surgery. Happy Thanksgiving! Go Mohammed! Go! https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/heart-surgery-blog/2023/11/20/mohammed-patient-success-story/

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!

Thanks to your wonderful support of our community, I am able to share wonderful stories like this one. Thank you, thank you, thank you for giving Mohammed a "second chance" at life.  https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/heart-surgery-blog/2023/09/09/mohammed/

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

Given all the yumminess I've seen recently (and over the years) in our Patient News Feed, I just had to post about it this morning. What do you think? Do we need a Heart Valve Patient Cook Book?  https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/heart-surgery-blog/2023/08/15/patient-cook-book/

I just saw Greg's thoughtful post about worry, anxiety and fear before surgery. Great job Greg! The timing of this post was serendipitous as I just posted a new video all about 3 facts that Dr. Gillinov uses to help his patients overcome their fears. Here is the new video that I filmed with Dr. Gillinov. I hope it helps anybody in our community that might be a little stressed out leading up to their surgery!!! https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/learning/anxiety-fear-gillinov/