Greetings ...

We are posting this Go Fund Me asking for assistance for a coworker and friend. Cody Stevens has a challenging journey ahead of him, and we ask you to help. He is a member of our Cyber Implementation team, and the team wanted to help him and show our support. Any funds raised will go to Cody's medical expenses and supplement his reduced income during these weeks. Cody's surgery is scheduled for the end of the month. Most of all, we ask for your positive thoughts and prayers.

Below is the Journey ahead of Cody:

When I was born, it was initially thought I had a Patent Foreman Ovale (PFO), commonly known as a hole in my heart. Eventually, doctors discovered that I had what is known as a Bicuspid Aortic Valve. That means my heart has two doors instead of the usual three. This eventually leads to one of two possible outcomes. The first one is that the valve will wear out and leak back into the heart. The other possibility is the flaps could harden (calcify), preventing them from opening. This is described as “closing off” but is better described as the doors not opening as wide.

All throughout my early years, there were many restrictions put in place of things I could or could not do - I wasn’t allowed to play any sports, do any lifting, etc. They thought I would have surgery by age 12, then 16, then 18. At age 21, I went in for a routine checkup, and the doctors thought I would need heart surgery at once. After more testing, they discovered that there was nothing wrong at that time, and everything was in great shape. All physical restrictions were lifted, and I was told I'd be fine until my 50s, most likely.

Around Memorial Day 2022, I got chest pain that felt like heartburn. This wasn't abnormal heartburn, so I tried my normal treatments. However, the heartburn persisted for a week, and the pain worsened. After two weeks, I could no longer stand to walk around stores or even go up a flight of stairs without having to take a break and sit down. I had started taking a new medicine at that time and thought maybe that was the cause, so I stopped the medicine and waited another week or two.

The issue did not clear up, so I went back to the heart doctor. Since then, we have had multiple tests run on my heart and have discovered that my heart valve is now over 75% closed off. They measure this in cm2, where normal is around 3-4; mild closure is 1.5-2, moderate is 1.0-1.5, severe is .6-1.0 and critical is under .6, which is where mine is at. They also discovered that I have a small aortic root, so they can’t just simply place a new valve in as a manmade valve with my already small root would still have reduced blood flow.

This means that the operation is finally a must-have; I will need to have two things done during my operation. First, they will need to remove my old aortic valve and then they will need to widen the root. Secondly, they will place in a larger heart valve into its place and then close everything off. This operation I’m told, will take over 8 hours. From there, I will spend the next week in the hospital; the first few days will be in ICU before moving to a step-down and then a standard room. From there, I will be released home to start my recovery.

For the first six weeks, I won’t be able to lift anything over 10 lbs., no driving, etc. After that, I move to a 25 lb. restriction for the next six weeks but regain some privileges such as driving! The total estimated time out of work will be between 6-12 weeks, depending on how I recover.