Introduction

7/15/2008
It all started with a routine doctor's appointment for a sore shoulder. During the appointment, the doctor routinely listened to my heart. He seemed to be listening for an excessively long time. So long, in fact that I asked "what are you listening for?". The doctor paused and said "did you know that you have an extra sound in your heart?". I said no, and asked what it meant. He said that it could be nothing, but recommended I get an echocardiogram. The sore arm was totally unrelated.

A little background: My name is Steve. I am a very healthy 46 year old. I run on average about 10 miles a week and spend about 5 hours a week engaging in other strenuous sports activities. For the past 5 years, I have had the impression that something was not right with my health, and more specifically with my heart. There were times when I would feel a very irregular heart beat - even skipped beats for several minutes at a time. This even resulted in occasional dizziness. Although can run 3 miles with no real problem, walking up the stairs made me feel out of breath. It just didn't make sense. I've even had numerous routine check-ups in the last 5 years and always deemed healthy. During one of these check-ups, I mentioned the irregular heart-beats, but it was ticking just fine at the time - and no determination was made.

Nevertheless, even though I jogged regularly and engaged in other strenuous activities, my physical stamina seemed to only go so far. When running uphill or with other strenuous activities, there were times when I just couldn't get enough oxygen - almost to the point where it seemed I was going to pass-out. Although I dismissed this as a likely age/stamina thing, something still just didn't feel quite right

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