Michael's Profile

Hi everyone, I’m Mike’s wife Andrea, and I’m starting this page as an easy way to keep track of all that’s going on and coming for Mike’s surgical mitral valve repair. Mike is 54 now, and was born with Tetralogy of Fallot, and has already had multiple heart surgeries throughout his lifetime. He is the most alive person I’ve ever known, possibly because he knows better than most people that each day is a gift and a miracle! His latest heart surgery was in 2002, also done by Dr. David Adams, to replace his aortic valve with a mechanical St. Jude valve, and repair an aortic aneurism. He was in pretty poor shape before that one, and had some issues with recovery, but fortunately, he made it through that in time that we could meet, become friends, fall in love, and get married. Sometime during all that, he also found the time to make my cat like him better than he likes me. Figures. After that surgery he remained under the care of Dr. Valentin Fuster, who is an absolute Rock Star of Cardiology. The routine controls over the years allowed Dr. Fuster to notice the mitral valve regurgitation before Mike had any symptoms beyond some mild tiredness, so he’s going into this coming surgery in much better physical shape than the one before, which took much longer to diagnose and correct. The way we see it, Mike owes his life, and I my happiness, to the Fuster-Adams Mount Sinai medical team! So, he’s an experienced patient, but I’m new to the rigors of caring for a heart patient. While we’ve seen each other thru other ailments and surgeries over the years, this is by far the most invasive surgical proceeding he’s undergoing during our relationship. I want to understand as much about it as I possibly can, and support him through every step. Even if he stole my cat.