Excuse me......
Dude....you okay? What's going on? -very concerned!
Apparently the atherosclerosis that my father had, and died from, was passed down to me, which caused me to have a clogged coronary artery in November 06, which necessitated a stent and catheterization. That was the good news! Because of that, I now see a cardiologist regularly. In October, I had a physical and all was hunky dory. Two months later, my cardiologist noticed a heart murmur for the first time. He scheduled an echocardiogram which indicated an aneurysmic ascending aorta (what John Ritter died from) and dilated aortic root which was preventing the aortic valve frm closing properly which was creating the murmur which he heard.
If I didn't have a cardiologist because I had the angina 15 months ago, I might have ended up like John Ritter.
I will have surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville to replace my ascending aorta, aortic root and either repair or replace my aortic valve, tentatively set for April 1. I am going to Mayo tonight to see a cardiologist tomorrow to schedule another catheterization. If there is any question about the quality of my coronary arteries, they want to know now and can do a bypass while my chest is cracked open like a slab of beef.
My cardiologist says I am in the 99th percentile as a cardiothoracic surgery candidate and should make a "quick rrecovery", in his words. I asked him how will my cardiovascular be afterwards, compared to now, and he said "like night and day", i.e., better! I have noticed that I am almost always limited by wind, not by muscle fatigue, when I do athletic events, especially swimming, running and shorter bike rides, up to 70 miles. After 70 miles, muscle fatigue gets me. So, I am excited to know what exercising for the last couple of years with an inefficient heart pumping system has done to my musculature. Top athletes train at high elevations where the air is thinn to get their muscles adapted to having minimal oxygen. That is essentially what I have been doing. I am hoping that I am gonna feel like a doped bike racer after my heart pumping is not my limiting factor!
So, I will be fine if all goes well, which I expect it to. My cardiothoracic surgeon at the Mayo Clinic has been doing similar surgeries like this 2 - 3 times / week since before Milli Vanilli was caught as a fraud. The only thing I am really concerned about is picking up some nasty staph infection, which I probably don't have any control over anyways. If I wake up on April 1 and don't get a staph infection by the end of my hospital stay, I will be great!
Since last month, I have been confined to mere walking and just getting by, with zero exercise. That is why I haven't posted in my journal since then.
Thanks for the concern.
Richard
