My Fit Dad Life: Fitness & Nutrition Coaching

12/10/2026

Rebuilding the athlete.

Getting back isn’t the same as being back.

When I first started recovering from open-heart surgery, my goal was pretty simple. I wanted to get back to doing the things I loved. Playing hockey, lifting weights, running, and just being active with my kids.

And over the past year, I’ve managed to get back to a lot of those things.

But I’ve also learned that being able to do something again doesn’t necessarily mean you’re back to where you were.

There’s still strength to rebuild, conditioning to get back, confidence to regain, and a whole lot of work ahead of me.

I’ve been wanting to document this part of my journey for a while now, so here it is.

The first episode of The Road Back: Rebuilding the Athlete.

I’m not starting from scratch, but I’m definitely not finished rebuilding either.

And honestly, I’m looking forward to seeing just how far I can go.

11/10/2026

It’s been a long road… Faith over fear, always.

08/10/2026

A couple weeks ago I ended up back in the ER because of my heart, and there’s a lesson in this that I apparently needed to learn myself.

It started around 11 PM while I was lying in bed doing absolutely nothing. I suddenly experienced pretty severe chest pain that lasted about 15–20 minutes. Once that stopped, I started getting a sharp, stabbing pain along my left arm that lasted another 15 minutes.

I’d put the chest pain at about an 8/10 and the arm pain at a 9/10. So we’re talking about 30–40 minutes of pretty significant pain.

And I didn’t go to the hospital.

Vic was sick, Charlie was asleep, and the last thing I wanted to do was wake everyone up, worry my wife or turn the night into another hospital visit.

So I convinced myself that because the pain had stopped, I was probably okay.

Over the next few days, I continued experiencing chest pain, but chalked it up to being muscular. Then I had another episode of chest pain, along with pain radiating through my entire left arm, into my neck and down into my hand, accompanied by numbness. It lasted about 45 minutes before going away.

Then it happened again.

That’s when I finally went to the ER.

I talk a lot about early detection, listening to your body and advocating for yourself. You’d think I’d know better.

But the truth is, I was scared. After everything I’ve been through, I didn’t want another doctor telling me something was wrong with my heart. And I think part of me would rather believe everything was fine than face the possibility that it wasn’t.

Once I got to the ER I waited roughly 50 minutes before being triaged. Given my cardiac history and symptoms, I was shocked…

But once I was assessed, the medical team was fast and fantastic.

Multiple ECGs, an ultrasound, bloodwork and X-rays were all reassuring, but I still had one concern… I hadn’t had a CT scan on my accessing aorta since leaving Edmonton over a year ago, and checking on that graft was something I’d wanted to do for a while.

Given the chest pain I’d experienced, I brought that concern up with the doctor and asked about getting a CT scan.

He agreed it was something that should be done.

Thankfully, the scan came back clear, and I walked put after 5 hours with a whole lot more reassurance than I had when I arrived.

There are two things I want people to take away from this.

First, don’t let fear stop you from getting checked.

Whether you’re scared of what they might find, don’t want to inconvenience your family or don’t want to spend hours in a busy ER, none of those things changes what’s happening inside your body.

Looking back, I should have gone that first night.

Second, advocate for yourself once you’re there.

That doesn’t mean diagnosing yourself or demanding tests. It means knowing your history, asking questions and speaking up when something still concerns you.

I spent four years trying to get answers before someone finally discovered the heart condition I was born with. You’d think I’d have learned these lessons by now.

Apparently, I needed a reminder.

As parents, we’re pretty good at putting everyone else first. But our families need us healthy and here, too.

Don’t ignore the warning signs because you don’t want to disrupt everyone else’s life.

Go get checked. Ask questions. Advocate for yourself.

Thankfully, this time I got the answer I was hoping for.

02/10/2026

Early detection has become one of the things I care most about advocating for.

Matti’s heart condition was discovered when she was just 4 days old through routine vital checks. That’s why early screening matters so much!

Really grateful to Claire and Matt for trusting Northern Voices with Matti’s story. ❤️‍🩹

Meet Matti. ❤️‍🩹

At just four days old, Matti was diagnosed with pulmonary stenosis, a narrowing of the heart’s pulmonary valve that restricts blood flow from the heart to the lungs.

The condition was discovered through routine vital checks while she was still in the hospital.

For her parents, Claire and Matt, the diagnosis brought immediate fear and uncertainty. They were told their newborn daughter would eventually need surgery, but in the meantime, they were sent home and asked to monitor her.

They obtained a device to track Matti’s oxygen levels and, with help from her grandparents, set up around-the-clock monitoring.

At three months old, Matti underwent a balloon valvuloplasty. Doctors guided a catheter with a small balloon through a vein to her heart, then inflated it to open the narrowed valve.

For several years afterward, Matti continued to have regular follow-ups and monitoring. She has a permanent heart murmur, something Claire and Matt admit can still be unsettling, but doctors have reassured them that it does not limit her or pose a threat to her health.

The experience also taught them how much a heart condition can affect an entire family.

As parents, they had to figure out how to give Matti the extra care and attention she needed while still being there for the rest of their family. It wasn’t always easy to explain what was happening to their other children, and there were feelings of guilt along the way. And even after Matti was given a clean bill of health, the fear and worry they had carried with them didn’t simply go away.

And there is one part of their story Claire and Matt especially want people to remember:

Those routine vital checks performed by the nurses in the hospital mattered more than they ever could have imagined.

For their family, those seemingly ordinary checks helped identify Matti’s heart condition when she was just four days old.

Real People. Real Stories. ❤️‍🩹

30/09/2026

Early detection changed my life. It may have saved it.

For years, I knew something wasn’t right. I kept asking questions, kept looking for answers, and eventually an echocardiogram found what other testing hadn’t — a bicuspid aortic valve with severe regurgitation.

Five months later, I was having open-heart surgery.

Advocating for yourself doesn’t mean diagnosing yourself or assuming you know more than your doctors.

It means knowing your body. Knowing your family history. Asking questions. And when something doesn’t feel right, continuing the conversation until you understand why.

An ECG and an echocardiogram are not the same test. They look at different things, and in my case, that difference mattered.

On World Heart Day, take care of the things you can control — but don’t forget about the things you might not know are there.

Listen to your body. Get checked. Ask questions. Advocate for yourself.

Early detection matters. ❤️

19/09/2026

Meet Scott. ❤️‍🩹

Originally from PEI, Scott has called Yellowknife home for more than 15 years. He’s a dad, coach, and one of the guys behind Stanley Boxing & Fitness in Yellowknife, having spent most of his life involved in sports, fitness and helping others improve their health.

For nearly 4 years, Scott sought medical advice for chest pressure, shortness of breath and fatigue. He knew something wasn’t right, but his symptoms were repeatedly dismissed or attributed to anxiety and stress.

In February 2025, at 44, an echocardiogram finally revealed a bicuspid aortic valve, a congenital heart defect that had gone undiagnosed his entire life. By then, his valve was leaking severely, his heart was enlarged and his heart function had significantly declined.

On July 10, 2025, Scott underwent open-heart surgery to repair his valve and replace his ascending aorta. Serious complications followed, including an emergency second surgery to control bleeding and a surgical injury that caused a heart attack, leaving permanent damage to part of his heart.

Recovery has been anything but straightforward. Scott has struggled to get his life back and return to the things he enjoys. From barely being able to walk around the block to lifting weights, running and playing hockey again, the journey has been filled with setbacks, uncertainty and hard-earned victories.

The experience has changed how he looks at life. He’s learned to appreciate what he once took for granted, be present with his family and make memories with the people he loves.

Scott hopes his story encourages others to advocate for themselves. Ask questions, follow up on persistent symptoms and seek another opinion if you’re not getting answers.

He also wants to raise awareness about early screening and detection. Congenital heart defects can go undiagnosed for years. An echocardiogram finally revealed his condition, but only after years of searching for answers and significant damage to his heart.

“I knew something wasn’t right for years. If sharing my story encourages even one person to keep asking questions and get the answers they need, it’s worth it.”

Real People. Real Stories. ❤️‍🩹