I was just fine until....

So i was going to a physical. Just a standard physical and follow up on my shoulder that I buggered up playing soccer. I never thought that day was going to end the way it did.

At my appointment the Dr. said my heart sounded a little funny. Not something you want to hear but nothing to worry about at this point. He wanted me to get an echo done. An echocardiogram is basically an ultrasound on my heart. We made the appointment for that afternoon and I thought nothing more of it. According to the doc it was just to check on a few things but nothing major.

So that afternoon I headed to cardiologist for my echo. No big deal, just lay down and let a very nice lady move a gooey tool around on my chest. Easy for me I just lay there. While the echo is going on I can see how my heart moves and how valves open and close. Pretty cool! All that stuff you learned in science class about the human heart comes alive right in front of you. After the actual test was done I headed for the Dr.'s office to hear what they found. This is where is started to get heavy. I was just fine until i heard the doctors voice say "I know you don't want to hear this, but you need a new valve". New valve? What do you mean? Whats that? A new valve where? my Heart?

Yes he said, open heart surgery was now in my future.

To make it clear he said i needed a new aortic valve. This is the valve that keeps blood from flowing back into my heart when it should be flowing into my body.

After hearing all this "good news" I scheduled a follow up CTA to get a more detailed image of my heart. I wasn't sticking around his office any longer if he wasn't going to make me and I headed home in shock. A few hours ago I was a normal 27 year old worried about getting caught up on work and wondering who I would be skiing with that weekend. Now I was a 27 year old heart patient that had to figure out what all this news meant and what I was going to do.