Adam's Heart Valve Surgery Blog

Community Question: “When Will The ‘Voice of Doubt’ Go Away?” Asks Stephanie

Adam Pick — Wed, 23 May 2012 19:50:47 +0000

Earlier today, I spent some time at Heart Valve Journals, our online community. While there, I read an interesting question posted by Stephanie Cole, who had mitral valve replacement surgery on March 16, 2012. In her journal, Stephanie asked, “When does that little, tiny ‘Voice Of Doubt’ go away? Is my valve still intact? Is [...]

“Is Heart Valve Leakage Common After Valve Repair Surgery?” Asks Valerie

Adam Pick — Tue, 22 May 2012 20:04:24 +0000

Valerie sent me an interesting question about leaky valves after heart valve repair surgery. Her email reads, “Hi Adam – I had my mitral valve and tricuspid valve repaired in October 2011. I recently had an echocardiogram done. The echo showed that both valves are leaking (mildly). I went to my cardiologist and the surgeon [...]

Enhanced Website Feature: Your Patient Success Stories!

Adam Pick — Mon, 21 May 2012 22:26:16 +0000

Over the years, I’ve received hundreds of success stories from patients and caregivers within our community. With the relaunch of our website, I wanted to create a special place to feature your inspirational stories and your smiling faces. For that reason, I just built a new ‘Patient Success Stories’ section of the website. Today, you [...]

Meet Karen Campo, Our “Featured Patient” at Heart Valve Journals

Adam Pick — Sat, 19 May 2012 20:46:33 +0000

Hi everybody, I wanted to take a quick moment to introduce you to Karen Campo, the new featured patient at our Heart Valve Journals Community. Unlike many patients who monitor their heart valve disease for years, Karen is on the “Fast Track” to heart valve surgery as she was recently diagnosed with severe mitral regurgitation. [...]

In Memory of Cindy Pastrano, Wife and Mother

Adam Pick — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:33:17 +0000

I am very, very, very sad to report that Cindy Pastrano, a fellow patient from San Antonio, Texas, recently passed away. Since joining our community, I had become familiar with Cindy as she shared her experiences with us at her journal. Given her energetic attitude, funny remarks (including her distaste for the dentist), and post-operative [...]

Mitralign Gets $35 Million For Less Invasive Mitral Regurgitation Treatment

Adam Pick — Fri, 18 May 2012 16:29:43 +0000

As we continue to track the new technologies impacting heart valve treatment, I thought you might like to know about an interesting treatment method for mitral regurgitation. The Mitralign device enables physicians to repair a mitral valve using a catheter-based procedure instead of an incision to the sternum or ribs. Unlike the Mitraclip, another transcatheter [...]

Special Announcement: The Relaunch of HeartValveSurgery.com!

Adam Pick — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:24:10 +0000

Dear Patients, Caregivers & Friends - In 2006, we started this website with a goal to help one fellow patient through heart valve surgery. Over time, that mission has expanded to educate and empower all patients and their caregivers. To accomplish that mission, our website has transformed to meet the needs of our growing community. That [...]

The New ‘Cardiac Clinics’ Section Of Our Website!

Adam Pick — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:22:26 +0000

Over the past year, I have spoke with many of you about the different ways in which we could improve this website. Many of the comments I received went something like this… “It would be great if there was a section about the hospitals.” “Why don’t you have clinic profiles like you have surgeon profiles?” [...]

The ‘Learning Center’ Gets A Face-Lift

Adam Pick — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:17:51 +0000

Another major enhancement to our relaunched website is the new Learning Center. To further help patients and caregivers learn about heart valve disease, surgeons, cardiac clinics, treatment options and recovery, we segmented the information by category. The picture below should help illustrate this new approach. While there is a much more content to upload to [...]

Find An Annoying Bug? Please Let Me Know!

Adam Pick — Thu, 17 May 2012 17:17:05 +0000

I’m very excited about the relaunch of our website. At the same time, I’m also a bit nervous right now. “Why is Adam nervous?” you might be wondering. So you know… Over 100,000 lines of programming code are required to run this website. That said, no matter how much testing we’ve done — prior to [...]