Angus 's Journal

Marie Myers  You are going to love being home! Just be patient with yourself. My emotions were all over the place for a couple weeks..

Rose Madura  What a great birthday present for your wife!  Welcome home. Slow and steady now will win the race.  👍

Sue Maize  Welcome to recovery Angus! We had our surgery at the same place—I’m amazed you had Dr. David (I thought he had retired)—you were blessed…so was I! World class care and expertise. 
The hardest part is over as far as repairing your heart…now you just have to be a patient patient :) and take it super slow and steady as others have said, but you will also be amazed at your progress even a few weeks from now. I pray you have a full and uneventful recovery—it will feel amazing to be home! ❤️‍🩹🙏🏻

Angus Butler  Thanks so much Sue! Recovery is going great at home. Thanks for all your prayer, encouragement and advise along the way! 
Dr. David was truly amazing.  I think he showed up all 6 days i was in hospital.  I asked him does he ever take a day off and said he would try and visit after surgery the next day. I think he’s over 80 and did 100% of my surgery for 4 hours.  He also did my Dads surgery in 1988!!!

Angus Butler  Thank you for all the kind words of encouragement and prayers!  It all went great!  Thank you Lord and thank you Dr.David and his team!  Feeling great about all of this, I wish I didn’t wait 2 years.  They just moved me out of ICU!  This pic is taken 28 hours after surgery!  

Rose Madura  Wow! I'm amazed that you posted and you look like everything went well! Congratulations and welcome to recovery. 

Fidel Martínez Ruiz  Fantastic Angus you look like a boxing wold champion after a hard fight and at the end, as a winner! Congrats!

Angus Butler  Thank you all for the kind words.  Not gonna lie, day 2 has been rough with pain in incision in chest when they took me off hydromorphine to Tylonol and Oxycodone.  Just hurts with attempting to take bigger breaths and getting up to walk but feeling positive just painful. vitals are good!

Kathy Ozio  Welcome to the recovery side of things!  Looks like you did great!  And you were so fortunate to have found Adam's site prior to the surgery.  It is definitely the best.

Melissa Baker  Glad to hear that all went well with your surgery.  I decided on the On-X mechanical valve in April 2025 and I've been really pleased with mine, even managing my INR has not been terrible at all! Feeling great and ready to enjoy 2026.  Wishing you a speedy recovery

Barry Brasseaux  Awesome!!  Glad you made it through the surgery.  Take the recovery process at a methodical pace and it will make all the difference in the long run.

Susan Lynn  Happy New Year, Angus!  We'll be sending you positive thoughts and prayers on the 6th!  We'll be anxiously awaiting your post-op thumbs up! 

Barry Brasseaux  Hi Angus.  I had my aortic valve replaced in 1988 with a St. Jude mechanical at age 26.  I also had a bicuspid valve.  I have been on warfarin since then and have had a normal life along with keeping a close eye on my INR during that period.  No parachuting out of airplanes or snow skiing but I have remained active keeping up with my wife and son.  I had aneurysm repair as well in 2017, second surgery went well.  The surgeon checked my St Jude valve during the second surgery as it was fine and it is still functioning well today at age 63.  I still work in Information Technology as a Data Governance Manager in the private sector and worked for many years in the Federal Government sector.  My energy levels are good with the mechanical valve.  I exercise 5 days a week both cardio and strength.  Happy to answer any questions you may have Angus.  Hope this helps.

Angus Butler  Thank you for your prayers Susan and thank you Barry for sharing your story that is very encouraging! 

Pamela Gregory  There are a lot of heart warriors on this site including Adam Pick that have gotten the Ross Procedure. This is good for younger patients that do not want to be on blood thinners. Just throwing that out there for thought

Angus Butler  Thanks for the suggestion on the Ross procedure which at first I was considering until I was told by one surgeon I wasn’t a candidate.  I’m not sure exactly why but I think it was to do with either having the aneurysm ascending aorta repair or because my left ventricle has become enlarged too much. 

Dave Jaworski  Hi Angus, I had a similar surgery in October 2024. They replaced my bicuspid valve with the On-X valve and I couldn't be happier. I had a wonderful surgical team with minimal complications. I have had a few follow up appointments and the valve is working great. I'm very happy that I will not need to have the valve replaced during my lifetime and the Coumadin is very easy to build into your daily routine. I also had worries about taking blood thinners for the rest of my life but those worries were very exaggerated. I need to have my blood tested once a month and I just need to be aware of what I eat but I barely think about it. I was in your same position about 2 years ago and I found that a lot of the things I was worried about turned out just fine. Good luck to you and I'm sure everything will go great.