Just got back from the heart specialist. Recently, had a bunch of visits to specialists and labs because one thing led to another to another.

SpouseKitty has long known I have a heart murmur. When I changed jobs, she started getting on me to have it checked out. I felt fine, so blew it off until the effort of avoiding it was greater than the effort of making a single appointment. After all, he'll check me out, nod, say, "Yep, it's a heart murmur," and I'll be on my way.

Plans of mice and kitties... He listened, heard something not quite right, suggested I take a stress test. No, not "YES, I'M $&#**^% STRESSED!" stress, but "let's put you on a treadmill and see how your heart beats" sort of test.

That came back "interesting." He booked me for an EBT (not sure what that expands to.) Basically, it's an open MRI ring. You lie on it, slide in, breathe normally, hold your breath, etc. It takes real-time motion capture of your heart.

Not just motion pictures, but full modeling, so the technician can rotate the somewhat fuzzy and noisy image (think ultrasound, much sharper, but not perfect.) It also detect arterial plaque, from cholesterol. (Thank stars for spell checkers!)

Mine was noteworthy. Not just interesting, but noteworthy. That was last week. Today, I saw the cardiologist again, and he explained the numbers. I'm 98.9% for my age and gender in terms of arterial plaque. That means out of every thousand, I'm it.

I'm booked for an angiogram in a few weeks, and a blood test tomorrow. I would view alacrity in which they made appointments to be somewhat dismaying.

How is this good news?

• We caught it early. I didn't find out with my first heart attack. I can change my diet, perhaps take pills to address this.
  
  
• This gives me an excuse to break the piggy bank, splurge a little on a new bicycle, a road bike. Road bikes are the sleek thoroughbreds to my current Clydesdale disposa-cycle.
  
  
• This adds some impetus to get moving on things. I have stories I want to tell, I have memes I want to propagate. Legacy. I've always known I am mortal, but it seemed something beyond the next hill, or the hill thereafter.

Outlook. I choose to see this as a life sentence. And I want mine to complete a thought, have a goal, finish its purpose. Then end with a definite mark, not an ellipsis...

Blessed be.