{"id":37551,"date":"2023-08-15T09:16:10","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T14:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/?p=37551"},"modified":"2025-06-08T10:07:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-08T15:07:23","slug":"scuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2023\/08\/15\/scuba\/","title":{"rendered":"After Heart Surgery, I Have A New Scuba Buddy!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As many of you know, I loved Scuba diving before heart valve surgery.\u00a0 Thankfully&#8230; My heart surgeon, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/surgeons\/dr-Vaughn-Starnes-Los+Angeles-California.php\">Dr. Vaughn Starnes<\/a>, cleared me to Scuba dive after my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/learning\/ross-procedure\/\">Ross Procedure<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>One of the key ingredients for a safe dive is having a trustworthy &#8220;buddy&#8221;.\u00a0 You never know what can happen underwater. So, having a certified buddy swimming next to you always helps mitigate any potential risks.\u00a0 That said, I am happy to report that Ethan, my 14-year old son, recently got certified. So, Ethan is my new, lifelong Scuba buddy. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-37552\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/..\/Images\/adam-scuba-dive-with-ethan.jpg\" alt=\"Adam Pick and Ethan Pick Scuba Diving\" width=\"400\" height=\"462\" \/><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As we live in Los Angeles, our fist dive together was off the coast of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Santa_Catalina_Island_(California)\">Catalina Island<\/a> which is known for its amazing kelp forest.\u00a0 One of the best moments of the Catalina dive came unexpectedly when a sea lion swam right up to us.\u00a0 That sea lion was humongous!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-37592\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/..\/Images\/kelp-forest-sea-lion.jpg\" alt=\"Catalina Kelp Forest with Sea Lion\" width=\"531\" height=\"377\" \/>Catalina Island Kelp Forest &amp; Sea Lion<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Needless to say, it was a great dive but incredibly cold as the Pacific Ocean water temperature was just about 56 degrees.\u00a0 We needed hoods, a 7 millimeter full wetsuit, booties, and gloves to protect us against the chilly water.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-37553\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/..\/Images\/adam-pick-ethan-scuba-dive-catalina.jpg\" alt=\"Adam and Ethan Pick Scuba Diving\" width=\"400\" height=\"439\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The best moment of the dive was looking over and seeing Ethan having the time of his life.\u00a0 It is downright amazing how confident he is in the water. No fear. Pure joy. Yes, I&#8217;m a Proud Papa.<\/p>\n<p>Here we are, on a different dive, looking at a puffer fish that just happened to be swimming by. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-37556\" src=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/..\/Images\/scuba-dive-puffer-fish-1.jpg\" alt=\"Scuba Dive Puffer Fish\" width=\"650\" height=\"402\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For anybody out there interested in Scuba diving after heart surgery, please check with your medical team to make sure it is okay. It&#8217;s always best to be safe not sorry.<\/p>\n<p>Related Links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2023\/08\/22\/scuba-dive-catalina-island\/\">SCUBA Diving Update: 17 Years After Heart Surgery, This Happened!<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2008\/06\/21\/swimming-after-open-heart-surgery-good-or-bad-idea\/\">Swimming After Heart Surgery: Good or Bad Idea?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keep on tickin!<br \/>\nAdam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37551"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41963,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37551\/revisions\/41963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}