About Me (In My Own Words)
While in Air Force ROTC at college in the spring of 1995, I was sent to Travis AFB in Davis, CA for a physical. During the exam, the physician detected a heart murmur and instructed me to get an echocardiogram to check it out. I had the echo at Andrews Air Force Base in the summer of 1995 and all I really remember them telling me was that my murmur was benign and that they recommended I follow-up at some point (they were super unclear about this).
Over the last five years though, I’ve remembered it from time to time and thought I should look into it, but as you don’t often run into cardiologists on the street, it never seemed like an easy thing to do. That all changed last December when my mom had a bad reaction to some cold medication that affected her heart rate. She was kept in the hospital for observation…by a cardiologist! A light went off in my head and I asked her cardiologist if she could follow-up on my murmur and my old echocardiogram.
So in January, I had another echo which revealed a bicuspid aortic valve and in the process discovered that my ascending aorta was enlarged (valve is actually fine, no stenosis). Next, I had a CT scan to get a more accurate measurement of my aorta and the best cross-sectional estimate had the diameter just under 5 cm.
Now scheduled for surgery on July 18th at Columbia-Presbyterian with Dr. Allan Stewart.
More Info About Me & My Heart
More About Me
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I am from:
New York, New York