Personal Goals

9/11 Heroes Run, Annapolis, MD

A wise friend recently told me how he used to time himself running.  5 miles.  6 miles.  Whatever length, he'd check his performance and work to shave seconds off.  But then, he says, he got older, and he stopped obsessing.  Now he just runs for the pure joy of it.  He's still in great shape.  In a recent 5K race, where he finished at the top of his age group, he didn't even bother to wear a watch.

Clearly I haven't reached this level of maturity.  In August I shaved 2/10th's of a second of my (slow) 100 meter sprint time.  This month I averaged 14.2 miles per hour bicycling 22 miles around BWI airport.  October will mark 4 stable years without a pulmonary heart valve ... and, despite having no real control over the situation, I'm shooting for 5 :)

So yes, I recently had a scheduled checkup at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  My cardiologist was happy to hear I'm remaining plenty active (actually more than ever) and feeling great.  I was happy to hear that, despite some crazy sounds my heart continues to present to the curious stethoscope wearer, everything seems stable and there are no real changes from my visit 6 months ago.

As with each visit, Ann Marie and I learned a lot in our conversation with Dr. Ringel.  He explained that in my case he has had to "reset his thinking", because he knows he has the tools to "fix" my condition.  But since no fix is permanent, I'm kind of 4 years ahead of the game.  Assuming I remain stable, the clock doesn't starting ticking until I get a new valve put in.  And believe me, I'm happy to wait.

So unless symptoms appear sooner, my next checkup is 10 months away.  Should I be ready for a "fix" then, I'll have flexibility for scheduling a procedure.  You can be sure, unless there's a clinical reason to act quickly, I'll push the procedure until after I hit my 5 year mark :)