Adam’s Heart Valve Surgery Blog

I’m incredibly lucky to receive touching and memorable letters from heart valve surgery patients and caregivers all over the world. In particular, I consider it a special honor when one of my book readers includes me on his or her email list during their heart surgery recovery.

Just today, Dean (from Colorado) sent me this wonderful email which illustrates his appreciation for his support group and his VERY RECENT heart valve replacement. I thought you might like to hear Dean’s thoughts on his hospital experience, so I asked him for permission to share it in this blog. Without further ado, here it is:

Friends and Family,

Tuesday 29 July, 2008 - One Week After Heart Surgery

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Without your thoughts, phone calls and good wishes, I would have come through this surgery as great as I have. I also know that your phone calls with Betsy throughout the last week helped her deal with me as I worked through all the emotions of having this done and the first week of recovery. She was my “rock” through out it all with the most positive attitude anyone could have. Thank you Hon!

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For most patients, open heart surgery recovery is filled with pain.

Pain levels vary, so the medical community developed pain scales to help patients better communicate with their medical team in the hospital and during cardiac rehabilitation. If you are a future patient, be prepared to see something similar to the pain scale example below.

The location of the pain can also vary. During the past week, I received emails from patients complaining about pain in their shoulders, arms, legs, and, of course, the chest.

Last night, I received an email from Fazilat about her collarbone. She writes, “Hello Adam. My name is Fazilat and I live in the United Kingdom. My question to you is… I am nine weeks post-op. Over the last two weeks, I have had severe pain around the collar bone area. The pain comes and goes but stops me in my tracks. I am not sure if this typical or common for patients during heart surgery recovery? Or, do I have a problem. I started a cardiac rehab program but I had to stop due to the pain. Any thoughts?”

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Aloooooooooha Everybody!

Robyn (my wife) and I just returned from celebrating our one-year wedding anniversary in Hawaii. Needless to say, our vacation was incredibly fun and most importantly… relaxing. The weather was spectacular and the food, especially the fish, was extraordinarily yummy.

I uploaded two pictures below. In one of the photos, you can see that my open heart surgery scar continues to fade through the years.

If you are curious, I used Mederma Scar Gel to help heal my incision scar during the recovery from aortic and pulmonary valve surgery.

Keep on tickin!

Adam Pick is a double, heart valve surgery patient and author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. To learn more about Adam and his heart valve surgery book, click here.

As a follow-up to my recent blog about cardiac rehabilitation exercises, Tony just asked me, “Is it okay to swim after open heart surgery? Do you swim? If so, how long did you wait to go swimming after your aortic valve replacement?”

Thanks Tony! These questions just brought back a flood of wonderful memories specific to my recovery from valve surgery.

So you know, I am a fish out-of-water. I’ve been lucky to live near a pool and/or a beach my entire life. As a kid, I was a swim-a-holic. At the age of three, I was racing in meets against six year-olds. In fact, here is a picture that my mom recently found.

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Cardiac rehabilitation programs are a critical, and sometimes overlooked, part of heart surgery recovery. As my 2007 survey showed, only 51% of patients attended structured classes with cardiac rehab exercises during their recovery. In my opinion, that is a shame. I could go on-and-on about the physical and mental benefits of good cardiac rehabilitation programs.

However, I just received a quick question that reads, “What types of exercises do you do at cardiac rehab centers?”

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I recently received a unique question from Samantha, a caregiver. She writes, “My husband recently had a cardiac catheterization and appears to be depressed. Is it common for patients to become depressed following a catheter procedure?”

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