Today was consecutive run #4,650, wondering once again how long this streak would ultimately last. Yesterday, I got some news from my new doctor that I might need to have surgery to repair a 5.1 cm aneurysm in my ascending aorta. This was discovered several years ago after a run turned to dizziness and an emergency room visit. Ultimately, they didn’t find anything wrong except for this flaw in my blood vessel that had nothing to do with my light-headedness. The doctor back in Portland didn’t seem to find much urgency considering no one really knew how long it had been there or if it was growing in size. It might even had been a birth defect. “Just keep an eye on it – have it checked in a year,” he urged. 

A year has now passed, so I reminded the doc again yesterday that I needed to have it checked. She immediately set up an appointment for an ECG and prescribed a beta blocker. Her tone was setting off some alarms that clearly showed that doctor’s opinions vary. Without even seeing any of the past reports, she practically had me on the operating table. Oddly, my first and only concern was the running streak. I hope that the scan that is being scheduled will show little change in its size and that I can continue to simply monitor this imperfection that no one would have ever known existed without the sharp eye of a technician. I now feel like there’s a bomb planted in my body. 

I’ve lived with this situation for nearly three years now without noticeable impact. There are no symptoms and I’ve continued to remain active. Of course, if it ruptured, instant death (and the end of the running streak) would be unavoidable. This has my wife more concerned than me, since all I really want is to get up every day and run. Let’s not panic yet, as we wait for the test results. At least, we know that I have a heart!