Adam's Heart Valve Surgery Blog – Page 12

As many of you know… I’ve transformed into a big Peloton fan since Robyn (my wife) introduced me to this amazing technology that helps us stay healthy and save some money.

During the COVID-19 quarantine, we’ve increased our Peloton usage to keep our minds right and to combat the extra calories that somehow find a way into our bodies. Can you relate?

Earlier today, I was on my 100th run with Jess King, a Peloton instructor.  Jess is a great and very fun coach who teaches on the bike and the treadmill.  When Jess saw my Peloton user name, which just happens to be “HeartValveGuy”, she released an empowering “shout-out” to people with heart valve disease. Here it is…

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Thanks to the wonderful support of patients, their family members, friends, doctors, physician assistants, nurses, hospitals, medical companies and cardiac research centers, I am happy to report that HeartValveSurgery.com achieved the #1 ranking in FeedSpot’s “Top Cardiac Surgery Blogs & Website” for the fourth consecutive year and we were named one of the Top 15 Best Heart Blogs by eMediHealth.

These are such extraordinary honors considering all the great cardiac websites out there!

 
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Dear Patients & Friends,

On this special day, I wanted to tell you how grateful I am for your continuing support of our website and each other! Thank you for being a special part of our community!

Happy Valentine’s Day!
Adam

As you may have seen here, I had a few HeartValveSurgery.com hats made for Robin, my wife, and Ethan, our son. When ordering the hats, there was a significant price decrease if you purchased more hats. So, I bought 10 extra hats for the wonderful people in our community and gave them away.

In response to the HVS hat giveaway, I received wonderful pictures from Laurel, Dennis and Jeannie who are making the hats look dang good!!!

Laurel and Dennis (Heart Valve Surgery Patients)

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Woo-Hoo!  Today is “National Wear Red Day” in support of the Go Red for Women initiative to raise awareness to heart disease for women. 

Did you know that heart disease is responsible for taking the lives of 1 in 3 women every year?

And… Did you know that cardiovascular disease kills more women than all forms of cancer combined and yet only 44% of women recognize that cardiovascular disease is their greatest health threat?

To educate our community about heart health and heart valve surgery – from a woman’s perspective – 7 patients in our community just asked Dr. Joanna Chikwe, Chair of Cardiac Surgery at Cedars-Sinai, their important questions.  See the answers in our new video just posted below.

Many thanks to Beth, Carolyn, Cheryl, Donna, Kathy, Kim and Laura for submitting their questions. And, a special thanks to Dr. Joanna Chikwe for sharing her clinical experiences and medical research with our community!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

[11:51am PST Update: Unfortunately, all of the free hats are now gone! I’m so sorry if you did not get one. Holy Moly! Those hats went fast! Again, I’m super sorry if you did not get one of these hats.]

Hey everybody!

I thought it would be fun to make a few HeartValveSurgery.com baseball hats for Robyn (my wife) and Ethan (our 11-year old son).  It turns out that the cost to make the hats dropped significantly if I ordered more than just 3 hats.  So, I ordered 10 extra hats to see if anybody from our patient community wants one.  As you can see in the pictures below, the HVS logo is embroidered on the front and the text “HeartValveSurgery.com” is embroidered on the back.

HeartValveSurgery.com Baseball Hats (Robyn and Adam Pick)

 
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Hey everybody,

In case you missed my recent email newsletter announcement, I just posted a new and free eBook titled, “Advances in Heart Valve Repair”.  This 71-page eBook was created with Dr. Pavan Atluri and Dr. Wilson Szeto, two leading cardiac surgeons from Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center, following our recent webinar that had over 225 patients attend.  In this eBook, you will learn all about the advantages and patient benefits of heart valve repair.

To instantly download your eBook, click here.

I hope the important information in this eBook helps educate and empower you!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

P.S. You can also download 10 other eBooks at the “Free eBooks” section of this website.

Many questions are coming in about whether-or-not heart valve disease is considered part of the qualifications for patients to be considered part of “Phase 1c” of the COVID-19 vaccination allocation.

For that reason, I just interviewed Dr. Marc Gerdisch, Dr. Joanna Chikwe and Dr. Ram Dandillaya to learn more.

See the physician responses at “Are Heart Valve Patients in Phase 1c of COVID-19 Vaccination?”

Keep on tickin!
Adam

[Update: Great news!  You can now download the “Advances in Heart Valve Repair” eBook and watch the video playback at this link.]

Amazing!!!

Join 479 patients and me on our live and free webinar, “Advances in Heart Valve Repair”, with Dr. Pavan Atluri and Dr. Wilson Szeto today at 6pm EST!

This is going to be great!

Keep on tickin!
Adam

[Update: Great news!  You can now download the “Advances in Heart Valve Repair” eBook and watch the video playback at this link.]

I’m excited to announce that our LIVE and FREE patient education events continue next Thursday, January 21, with a special webinar, “Advances in Heart Valve Repair”. Featured speakers include Dr. Wilson Szeto, Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, and Dr. Pavan Atluri, Director of Minimally Invasive and Robotic Cardiac Surgery at Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center. The one-hour webinar will start at 6pm EST.

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To keep 2021 going in the right direction, I have some joyful news to share with the HeartValveSurgery.com community.

 
Thanks to your extraordinary support, we have partnered with Gift of Life International to sponsor the heart surgery of little Traver (shown above).
 
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I’m getting LOTS and LOTS of great patient questions about the COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.  Many of the questions are about the safety, efficacy and potential side-effects of these new COVID vaccines for patients who previously had a heart valve replacement implanted, a heart valve repair operation and/or an aortic root reconstruction for an aneurysm.

To help educate the patients in our community, I contacted several heart valve experts to better understand the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines for patients who already had some type of heart surgery.

The important information is in the new post: “COVID-19 Vaccines & Heart Valve Surgery: 10 Important Facts“.

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While 2020 has been a difficult year with many unexpected challenges, I am happy to share great news with our community.

 
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Dear Patients, Caregivers & Friends,

On behalf of Robyn (my wife) and Ethan (our son), I want to wish you and all those around you a safe and happy holidays!

All the best in 2021!!!
Adam

It’s difficult to imagine that 15 years ago today… I was rolled into an operating room to replace my defective bicuspid aortic valve during open heart surgery.

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If you have been diagnosed with heart valve disease, here’s a really important fact to know…

According to Dr. Marc Gerdisch, the Chief of Cardiac Surgery at Franciscan Health, up to 35% of patients with heart valve disease also suffer from atrial fibrillation, an abnormal heart rhythm.

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As valve disease progresses from mild to moderate to severe, there may come a time that patients hear something like this from their cardiologist, “After looking at your last echocardiogram, it appears the valve has gotten worse. Unfortunately, it is now time to start planning surgery to repair or replace your valve.”

A flood of emotions can impact the patient in that moment. As a patient, I distinctly remember being scared and confused about the next steps. I even began to question my cardiologist as I didn’t really have any symptoms. “I’m not sure my cardiologist is right,” I remember telling my mom. “I feel fine.”

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I am very excited to announce that Penn Medicine Heart and Vascular Center just became a new sponsor of HeartValveSurgery.com!

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I don’t know about you… But, when I was first diagnosed with severe heart valve disease, I had no idea what a heart valve looked like.  I really didn’t even know what my heart valves did.  All I knew was that I was diagnosed with a heart murmur when I was five years old. That’s about it.

The more I researched my disease and my treatment options, the more I became fascinated by heart valve structures, function and disfunction.  It turned out that I had a bicuspid aortic valve.  Two of my aortic valve flaps (or cusps) had fused together during pregnancy.  While a normal aortic valve is tricuspid, with three valve cusps, I was born with two. That’s why it’s called a bicuspid valve. As a result, my aortic valve suffered from both aortic stenosis (a narrow valve) and aortic regurgitation (a leaky valve).

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In case you missed it…

New research by the University of Alabama at Birmingham suggests that deaths due to mitral valve regurgitation in the United States have increased during the past six years after fourteen years of ongoing declines.

Patients with mitral regurgitation have a leaky heart valve which forces the heart to work “over-time” to re-pump blood into the body.  The condition can cause patients to feel tired, short-of-breath, dizzy and experience chest pain.   It is also important to note that patients can have severe mitral regurgitation and no symptoms.

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