I did not see that coming

Several weeks had gone by since I noticed that my heart rate was usually around 100bpm at rest. And, given my generally active lifestyle (broken up by bouts of drinking with Jordan), this just didn't seem normal.

I had visited a doctor in Frisco, and after an EKG, chest X-ray and blood work, was told that I "had a big, strong heart." and that I must just be "under a lot of stress." I was sent on my way with 12mg of Ambien CR, and told to get some rest.

Stress. OK...I guess I'll buy that, I thought. I just got out of a very serious, 8 year relationship with Carol. I didn't really have a place to live. I've been essentially unemployed for a year...I must be under a lot of stress. Although it seemed to me that I had a pretty stress-free life -- a good amount of freelance work, a job starting soon, lots of skiing, travel...hell, I was heading to Hawaii on March 3. But OK. Stress it is. Good for me. Plus, it got me some sweet, sleepin' drugs. All is going to be well. Yea!

But something else was amiss. And after a few more mornings waking up at 4 a.m. with a monstrous heart rate, I decided that I simply wasn't under that much stress.
After much insistence from Dawn, I scheduled an appointment with my old doctor, Dr. Caroll, in Fort Collins. He detected a very small "heart murmur" and wanted me to get an echocardiogram to see what's up. They scheduled an appointment for me that afternoon at the Heart Center of the Rockies, but I blew it off and headed back up to Frisco. I didn't want to deal with rush hour traffic in Denver, and just wanted to be home.

For some reason, I rescheduled the appointment a few weeks later at the Heart Center. And, even though I was heading to Hawaii the next day, and it was a huge pain in my ass, I made the drive up to Fort Collins for the test. It was Monday, March 2, 2009.