U of M Hospital

I would say they are the mecca of hospitals and honestly we couldn't be happier with the staff, surgeons and everything it has to offer! Every time I see a "Michigan Difference" commercial I get goosebumps and my eyes well with tears... i think this hospital is truly amazing.... 

Their cafeteria has so many choices and amazing food - that is important - a girl's gotta eat! Plus my father-in-law LOVES hospital food... although this is more upscale than what he is used to at Beaumont. They have all sorts of stations and grab 'n go's...it can be overwhelming really.

They have a hotel located inside the hospital for families called the Med Inn. 

Its a very small hotel with only 30 rooms but its conveniently located inside the hospital and has reduced rates compared to area hotels. They assist about 950 people with their lodging needs each month. We were able to check it out on our last appointment...since there were no photos online I really was interested to see what a hotel inside a hospital could look like. It was converted patient rooms after all... but to our surprise they had just remodeled 2 months ago from their throw back 80's style. The rooms are really nice, clean and have either 1 or 2 queen beds, mini fridge, microwave, flat screen TV and spacious bathroom. They allow families to book up to 2 rooms for the duration your loved one is in the hospital. I already booked one for Sam's parents (Bonnie & Fred) and one for myself. Since surgery will be so early we decided to head up there the night before - that way I already have a room and don't need to worry about checking in and 5:30am will come very quickly.

The Cardiovascular Center is 350,000 square-feet and one of the largest facilities in the heart of the U of M Medical Campus. The Center includes a 24-bed surgical post-procedure ICU, 24 vascular general/moderate care beds, nine cardiac procedure rooms, four cardiac surgery operating rooms, two vascular surgery operating rooms, two general thoracic operating rooms, two endovascular procedure labs and 36 clinic exam rooms.

Surgery Date

With two surgeons we had to wait to get official word on Sam's surgery date....once everyone synced up we were called and told to circle and highlight Friday, October 28th on the calendar. Its a little later than we expected since the doctors were telling us it would be September but at the same time it gives us time to get things in order and have fun with friends and family! Sam is thrilled to hit the links, finish out the Tiger's season, take a trip to Florida, kick it at some Lions games and attend some weddings before surgery. 

Our next appointment is October 12th for some pre-op tests, physical and to answer any other questions I can come up with by then...and trust me I am really making all these doctors and nurses work hard with all of my questions and research findings :)

p.s. Sam loves The Peanuts :)

Dr. Steven Bolling

Do you know how many times your heart beats in a lifetime? Well if you were seeing Dr. Bolling I think that may be his opening question.... and the answer is 3 billion! I don't think I will ever forget that.

On Monday we went to meet the 2nd surgeon - Dr. Steven Bolling. A little insight on Dr. Bolling:

• He performs 350-400 mitral valve repair surgeries a year (other surgeons only do about 4 repairs a year and mostly do replacements). 
• He is 1 of 3 surgeons in the region that perform the large amount of mitral valve repairs.
• The oldest patient he has operated on was 100 years old and the youngest was a newborn.
• He has worked with Dr. Deeb for 26 years - thats longer than some marriages!

He was very impressive!! He was down to earth and one of the first doctors that didn't talk to us using the usual textbook terms or a long list of acronyms we weren't familiar with. He immediately drew a picture of Sam's heart and highlighted the problem valves and explained in depth what was going on and how he was going to fix it.

The week before our appointment with him I got an email from Adam's Heart Valve Surgery Blog (I subscribed to this a few years ago and the articles are great). Dr. Bolling talks about the mitral valve predictably here on Adam's Heart Blog. Its amazing how things happen at just the right time... it landed in my inbox and i happened to catch the name in the headline and immediately got goosebumps watching this small clip of him.

I was so happy that both Dr. Bolling and his physician assistant Dr. Michael Guerra were so patient and answered our long list of questions.

After our appointment we went to find the Med Inn hotel located inside of the hospital. I wanted to see where it was located in relation to the cardiovascular center and get the 411. Lucky for us the rooms were just renovated from the 80's two months ago and look almost like Marriott hotel rooms - not too bad for being hospital rooms transformed!

Surgery has been scheduled for the end of October... more details to come.. 

Welcome to our blog!

Thanks for stopping by. This blog is about Sam and the heart condition that he was diagnosed with nearly 6 years ago. Sam had insisted on keeping this a private family matter but thought now would be a good time to kick things off and be able to keep our extended family and friends informed about what will be going on in the near future.....hence the cute header "from the heart".


So as you may or may not know... Sam was diagnosed with a heart condition back in the summer of 2006.  His heart was enlarged and had two leaking valves (mitral and aortic). The first doctor he saw that summer wanted him to have open heart surgery right away....since that didn't sit well with any of us and especially since Sam felt fine we looked for a 2nd opinion. We met with Dr. William O'Neill at Beaumont and after some tests he felt we should hold off on surgery and try a combination of blood pressure medications to help delay. Dr. O'Neill left for Florida shortly after our initial visit and we started to see the valve specialist in the practice Dr. George Hanzel. He is amazing! We were able to go a few years with some check-ups and tests to monitor the heart. 


We got to the point two years ago when Dr. Hanzel suggested we see a surgeon and that surgery may be around the corner. We met with a Beaumont surgeon - Dr. Francis Shannon in 2009. He was a very educated surgeon but not the one for us. We decided to get a second opinion at the University of Michigan (which was difficult for Sam since he is a Spartan fan) where we met with Dr. Michael Deeb. From the moment we walked into the doors of the U - there was a calming feeling...everyone is so nice and helpful. Sam loved Dr. Deeb on our first appointment (and he is half Lebanese too)! After a TON of testing that Fall, Dr. Deeb decided now wasn't the time for surgery and that he wanted to monitor Sam carefully and have a UofM cardiologist see him regularly - Dr. David Bach. 


We have been seeing Dr. Bach now for the past two years every 6 months for echo-cardiograms and check-ups. To our surprise during our last visit with Dr. Bach (June 2011) he said it was "go time" with the surgery! So needless to say things have been a whirlwind the past 2 months.. we have been in Ann Arbor every 2 weeks for either a test or an appointment. We met with Dr. Deeb  a couple weeks ago and he is going to operate on Sam's aortic valve. He hopes to repair it and give him 10 years on a repair vs a replacement with a pigs valve. He won't know until he gets into the operating room and looks first hand. In addition to Sam's aortic valve being operated on - he is referring us to his partner Dr. Steven Bolling who will be performing the mitral valve surgery on Sam. Due to the complexity of Sam's valve conditions he will be getting the two best surgeons that the region has to offer - all in one surgery! 


Stay tuned for the Dr. Bolling update! 


We appreciate all of your thoughts and prayers.