The Start of a New Journey

I have been having some fatigue issues for a while now and on May 20 of this year I went to my doctor to see if we could find out what was causing it. This was not your garden variety 53-year old type of fatigue, but neither was it an urgent, scary kind of fatigue. Just somewhere between and persistent and concerning enough to embark on what was expected to be a tough diagnosis. There are only many 100s of things this could have been and nothing obvious was standing out. My doctor started eliminating the obvious things. Blood tests were ordered, nothing serious showed up. One possible reading was worth throwing some drugs at, but after seven weeks, no significant improvement occurred. During the follow-up appointment on July 15, Dr. Thompson (Fairview Lakes, Wyoming, MN) performed another exam. In the process of checking my heart again, he thought he heard a faint murmur though nothing obvious. So, an echocardiogram, along with a rheumatology appointment were ordered. The echocardiogram was scheduled for Friday, July 24th. This is when everything came into clear focus and changed our journey through life permanently!

Jon