November 3rd, 2008
I just received an email from Cathy about her mother. The note reads, “Dear Adam - My mom has been diagnosed with a narrow heart valve. I believe it’s her mitral valve that’s the problem. Is narrow valve disease the same thing as stenosis?”
The simple answer to Cathy’s question is “Yes”. The medical term for narrow heart valve disorder is stenosis. Personally, I had stenosis of my aortic valve which led to my valve surgery.
Mitral Valve Stenosis - Narrow Heart Valve Continue reading this post »
November 3rd, 2008
Another heart valve surgery success story!!! This time, Boaz from Israel, writes about his experience. (Odd… It seems like lots of bikers are having valve surgery lately.)
Dear Adam,
God bless you! You were right! I did great!
The surgery lasted 3 hours and my aortic valve has been replaced with a biological one (27mm) and a 30mm aorta for the defected part.
After one day in the ICU, I stood on my feet and was forced to sit in an armchair. Then, I was taken to the cardiac ward. The surgery was on Monday and my surgeon wanted to release me on Thursday, but I insisted to stay until Sunday to get stronger.
Continue reading this post »
November 3rd, 2008
I just received this interesting email from Margaret. She had mechanical valve replacement surgery almost 27 years ago. I thought you would appreciate her thoughts about surgery and the clicking noise of mechanical valve.
Adam,
I just received your book and so far it’s great. I’m not like most people who is buying this to understand what to expect but to see what has changed.
I’m 39 yrs old and had my aortic valve replaced when I was just 13 years old. Yes, that is correct 13 years old. When I had it done, I was given just a month to live without it. So far, I have yet to speak or hear of anyone with a valve as long as I have.
This March will be my 27th anniversary with the same mechanical valve. I have been told recently that it will need to be replaced within the next 5 years. I always knew that I would need to have it replaced at least once in my life time. Even though I have been through this before I seem to have more fear now that I’m older and understand what is going on.
Continue reading this post »
November 3rd, 2008
David just wrote me an email that reads, “Hi Adam - I’m really confused right now. My doctor says I have severe aortic stenosis which could require valve replacement. Strange part? I feel fine. Can you help me better understand what are the key indicators for aortic valve replacement?”
Many patients believe that symptoms are the key indicators for valve operations. However, as I and others can attest, patients can be asymptomatic and still be very ill. That said, the key indicator for valve replacement due to aortic stenosis deals with the size of the valve and the rate of blood through the valve.
Example Of Aortic Valve With Severe Stenosis Continue reading this post »
November 2nd, 2008
Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of shopping on eBay.
Robyn (my wife) is pregnant and I’m finding that most baby/nursery products are 20%-30% cheaper on eBay than at Babies R Us or Right Start.
Earlier today, I was curious… So, I typed “heart valve” into the search field at eBay. Guess what I found?
I could not believe it. I actually found an auction for a complete mechanical heart valve sizer kit! In case you didn’t know, heart valve sizers are used by surgeons during operations to measure the patient’s valve size.
Heart Valve Sizer Kits
Continue reading this post »
