Following heart valve surgery, I learned to slowwwwwww down.

However, given my career and my goals, this wasn’t easy. In fact, at times, it was downright miserable.

One hobby I picked up to help me “slow down” was gardening… More specifically, roses.

Although I’m still learning lots about how to properly grow roses, I’m having the time of my life now that the Spring season is here. Here you can see some of my early bloomers.

Here’s another one:

I took this picture earlier today:

And, the last one:

Remember… Slow down… Take it easy… And, of course, “Stop to smell the roses!”

Keep on tickin!

Adam

Talk about an incredible, patient attitude towards heart valve surgery? I thought all of you might appreciate reading about Jonathan Abramson… Here is Jonathan’s story:

Hi Adam,

I am 29 years old and just had my second heart surgery.  I was born with a congenital diseased aorta. Growing up, this never affected my lifestyle.  I was always a very active person and played sports in high school. After college in 2002, I had a mechanical aortic valve replacement. Everything was fine, until a few years later when a routine echo discovered a 5.7cm aortic aneurysm that was partially caused by my initial mechanical valve being too small for my body.

On January 29th 2009, I had my aortic root repaired with a Dacron graft as well as a new larger mechanical valve.

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You may have noticed that my blog postings about heart valve surgery have stopped over the past five days.

Well… There is a good, 7.6 pound reason for that!

My son, Ethan Bradley Pick, was born Saturday at 5:29am. Ethan is the first child for Robyn, my wife, and me. Needless to say, we are rapidly adjusting to the parenting role – an outpouring of love and appreciation for every little thing he does including burps, wiggles, hiccups, stretches, coos, yawns, poops, toots… I could go on and on and on. So far, the lack of sleep is an easy trade-off for the love we have for our little boy.

Ethan Bradley Pick – Born April 4, 2009

Thanks so much for all of your thoughtful support during our pregnancy. As we consider all of you an extended part of our family, I have attached a few pictures which capture Ethan’s entry into this world.

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In 2006, I developed this website and published my book with a simple goal… To help future patients and caregivers better understand the challenges and opportunities of heart valve surgery.

Today, three years later, I believe we are taking one more, significant step in achieving that goal. Thanks to the efforts of this community, I am excited to share that the Heart Valve Surgeon Database is now available for use in “beta” mode.

As we have discussed, finding good, reputable and trustworthy surgeons is often challenging for patients and their caregivers. For this reason, the Heart Valve Surgeon Database was developed with many unique features:

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