The ability to diagnose an imminent heart attack has long been considered the holy grail of cardiovascular medicine.
I'm doing great heart-wise. I get a complete stress test once a year, and those have gone well. I have stents in two arteries, and they are holding up. My other arteries haven't shown any additional clogging.
When I had the heart attack I had one stent inserted, which was great.
When people age, the main valve carrying blood out of the heart becomes brittle. As this aortic valve narrows, it can cause debilitating heart failure, and even death.
The doctor heard my heartbeat and found out I had an irregular heartbeat. I was not symptomatic or aware of my symptoms. I had no idea that this could make me five times more likely to have a stroke than somebody who doesn't have this.
I feel great. I had a triple bypass in 1976 and a quadruple bypass in 1984.
When I turned 30, due to my father's heart history and my family genetics, I vowed to start seeing a cardiologist every year and just really be proactive and take my own heart health into my own hands.
I had my first seizure, and I had to go in for heart surgery.
