EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER TWO OF THE PATIENT'S GUIDE TO HEART VALVE SURGERY BY ADAM PICK - 2007 EDITION AVAILABLE NOW

I will never forget that first-and-only meeting with my new cardiologist, Dr. Bad Bedside Manner.  He took a ten-second look at my echocardiogram results and said smugly, “Huh? Why weren’t you here last year? Or, two years ago for that matter?  You need a new valve.  And, you need it soon.”

The doctor then proceeded to tell me that my heart was already dilated and suffering from ‘working overtime’ as he phrased it. "Dilated?" I thought to myself, "What the heck does that mean?"

As I remember it now, time stood still in that white room with the white floors and that distinct, medical office smell.

The walls were draped with heart posters, heart diagrams and other pharmaceutical-sponsored paraphernalia that related to my troubled heart.

I was numb. I was completely numb.

Dr. Bad Bedside Manner then took a plastic heart that opened outward like a book and said, “Your aortic valve is really worn down. There is both regurgitation and stenosis.”

The cardiologist continued with more medical, mumbo-jumbo that I didn’t truly understand.  The stoic man with the red nose eased me into this new life stress with a very interesting comment, “You’re not going to die tomorrow but I wouldn’t wait to take care of this. Do not wait more than a few months.”

He then asked me, “Have you fainted lately or gone numb on any part of your body recently?”

I instantly remembered that Mexican dinner with Robyn (my wife) at La Pulita, a few weeks earlier.  Right when we finished our first bowl of chips-and-salsa, the left side of my chest went numb and cold.  A few seconds later, we were outside the restaurant, walking to the car, destined for the hospital, when the numbness stopped.

“You are going to the doctor tomorrow,” Robyn pleaded with me. Robyn knows I don't like taking orders. So, she conveniently changed her command to a question, “Will you promise me that you will call for an appointment tomorrow?” I acknowledged by nodding my head up and down. 

I knew at that precise moment, it was time that I would have heart valve surgery...

>NEXT: To read more about my heart valve surgery - from diagnosis through a very challenging recovery - please click here.