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Thursday, February 22, 2007

Heart of the Matter


Winter is a difficult time of year for me. My body doesn't seem to respond well to the cold temperatures and I spend weeks at a time inside the house. (You know something's not quite right when I look forward to outings to the doctor) The way I feel physically, I spend more time thinking about my mortality.

But I got some encouraging news today from my cardiologist: my annual echocardiogram indicated that my heart function had not declined over the past year and may have even improved a tiny bit. I was surprised to hear that this is the case, but I'm not about to argue with good news.

The reality remains that I still have a weak heart and something fatal could always occur suddenly -- the doctor has told me more than once, "You'll be okay until you're not okay" And while my heart function may be better, my heart will inevitably continue to weaken. Still, the doctor also reminded me that I'm no longer in heart failure. He couldn't say that 4 1/2 years ago when I first rolled into his office with a heart function of nine percent.

With excellent medical care and lots of luck, we've managed to turn things around. I'll turn 29 soon. And that's all the evidence I need.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Weheeeeeeeeeeeeey! The EC is doing a little whoopy war dance for you - this is such good news Josh! Here's beaming at you across cyberspace,

Livvy xxx