Beginnings

All fall I was feeling generally more tired and run-down than usual. I thought, oh well, I'm about to turn 55, I must be getting old. It would show up especially when toting my electric piano on the way to practice or to a gig. I'd find I couldn't get my breath; I was weak like I'd lost muscle mass and tone. Again, I thought, "So this is what 'old' feels like."

Then in January I found myself waking up at night, my heart racing, short of breath and having to gulp air until I calmed down. I was not sleeping well. Neither was F.

I thought maybe I had pneumonia. The doc took a chest x-ray which showed the lungs were clear but that my heart was enlarged. Plus he heard a pretty substantial heart murmur. He referred me to a specialist in internal medicine here in town ... since we don't have any cardiologists.

The internist sent me for an echo-cardiogram and prescribed some medication to reduce blood pressure to make it easier for my heart to pump. The echo (which is quite an astounding application of sonar-like technology -- thank you military-industrial complex for something useful other than bombs) showed that I had a severely regurgitating mitral valve. Despite this disappointing news -- I had a broken heart -- I was happy to learn more about the problem.

The internist referred me to a cardiologist in Calgary.

There was a wait, of course. In the meantime I tried to take it easier that usual. The heart medication was amazing stuff. It enabled me to breath again, I could go up a flight of stairs (not two at a time, mind you, but much better than before), and I could sleep through the night. I lost a bit of weight but, overall, I was able to continue on pretty much as before.

After a couple of months we went to Calgary. There was another echo-cardiogram. It was remarkable to see the internal functioning of my heart, without someone needing to cut me open to view the innards at work. They took a bunch of images, movies, measurements, and other mysterious stuff. We met with the cardiologist later. He confirmed the diagnosis: a severely regurgitating mitral valve.

I was scheduled for an angiogram and we went home.

After another couple of months we were up again, this time for a more invasive procedure to gather more exact pressure readings from inside the heart. They also took images of blood flows through heart arteries.

The results didn't add much to what we already knew about the mitral valve - it was leaking badly - but did show that in addition I had one heart artery which was about 60% blocked. Aggh ... the dreaded coronary artery disease, well, at least in one artery. That wasn't bad news, actually, since the blockages weren't widespread and this one could easily be fixed.

So, the next step was for a referral to the cardiac surgeon.

After another number of weeks we were back to Calgary to see Dr. Maitland, the surgeon. We reviewed the evidence, discussed the options, made a plan, and decided to aim for a date in June or July.

Good to have that much decided, finally.