Adam’s Heart Valve Surgery Blog

This is pretty neat. (Especially, for those of us wanting to learn more about human heart valve anatomy.)

I just came across a three dimensional, reconstructive image of the heart valves functioning. Unfortunately, the animation does not show all of the four valves opening and closing. But, if you look close at this 3D reconstruction of the heart (on the right), the leaflets of the tricuspid and aortic valves are partly visible.

The two, left images are from the same dataset, showing tricuspid and mitral valves (above) and aortic and mitral valves (below).

When I learned that I needed aortic and pulmonary valve surgery, I wanted to learn as much as possible about the human heart. My hope is that these types of pictures will help current and future patients better understand the anatomy of their own hearts before valve repair or valve replacement operations.

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.

Robyn (my wife) will tell that I don’t really like to use cliches.

But, if there is one thing I have learned since my heart valve replacement surgery, it is that “there are no guarantees in life”.

Yes. I did just use a cliche. But, it is sooooooo appropriate to heart valve surgery. As you may already know, there are risks, there are uncertainties and there are complications that are undeniably associated with cardiac surgery.

As we already seen (in patient stories from Leslie Lafayette or Brad Mueller), “there are no guarantees in heart surgery”.

Recently, I received an interesting email from Brian, which emulates the twists-and-turns of heart surgery. I thought you might like to hear Brian’s story. So, with his approval, I have posted his thoughts below.

Continue reading this post »

When I receive a patient or caregiver question that is unique and interesting, trust me… you are the first to read about it.

For example: This morning, I woke up, gave Robyn (my wife) a kiss as she left for work, made a cup of coffee and then turned on my computer. Among all the spam emails that I quickly deleted, there was a question from Bhupinder about kissing heart valve patients.

Bhupinder’s question was, “Hi Adam, Is there any risk to kiss or to smooch a heart valve patient? Please advise. Thanks! Bhupinder”

First, I had to chuckle a bit… Why?

Well. There are certain words in the English language that I thoroughly enjoy. And yes, you guessed it, “smooch” is one of those words. I don’t know why. There is something so honest, so innocent, so traditional and so cuddly about the word, smooch. That said, when I actually saw “smooch” in an email about heart surgery, I let out a “He.. He… He…”

Now, as for an answer to the question, I believe the answer is no. From what I understand, there is no risk to smooch or kiss a heart valve patient. Heart valve disease is not contagious or transmitted through human contact. While there are certain, medical terms associated with heart valve disease that suggest potential risks (e.g. bacterial endocarditis infection), they are only medical terms. They are not infectious in the sense that we might think of the common cold.

I hope that helps you understand more about kissing, smooching and heart valve patients.

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.

The impact of heart surgery on any man, woman or child is daunting. However, for amateur or professional athletes, the short-term and long-term effect of cardiac surgery is beyond significant… It can be career-ending.

As we have seen in the stories of Ronny Turiaf and Teppo Numminen, that is not always the case. For, both Turiaf and Numminen have returned to play in the NBA and NHL sports leagues following aortic root replacement and heart valve repair.

Continue reading this post »

Anytime my inbox lights up with an email from Medtronic, St. Jude Medical or Edwards Lifesciences, my heart skips a beat (pun intended).

But seriously, those three companies are the leading heart valve manufacturers on the planet. That said, if they are emailing lil’ ole’ me, it is usually of interest. Well, I just received an email from Edwards which attests to the growing popularity of robot-assisted heart surgery. Here is what I found in my inbox this morning.

Dr. W. Randolph Chitwood Jr., a globally recognized cardiothoracic surgeon, today performed his 400th robotic-assisted mitral valve repair at Pitt County Memorial Hospital (PCMH), the teaching hospital for the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University (ECU). Chitwood has performed more robotic-assisted mitral valve operations than any surgeon in the world.

Continue reading this post »