march madness

I spent much of the first half of this week studying the NCAA Tournament brackets, listening to ESPN Radio and associated podcasts, and watching as much college basketball analysis on ESPN and its family of networks as possible. And the result...

One of my final four and one of my elite eight teams are already eliminated. Not entirely surprising given that, while I do definitely follow college basketball, it ranks behind NFL football, NCAA football, Major League Baseball and NBA basketball, in that order, among my favorite sports. Still, very sad to see Scottie Reynolds, someone of whom I am a big fan and with whom I am personally familiar be eliminated from the Tournament for the final time. However, I am now on the Gaels' bandwagon - how could you not root for a team with five dudes from Australia?!

I watched all of CBS' NCAA Tournament coverage on Thursday - yes, all of it - but Friday my attention was diverted. Early that morning I woke to catch a bus over to St. Elizabeth's hospital in Brighton where I was scheduled for an echo cardiogram at 9:00am. I'd had the test done previously twice - once in August of 2008, at which time my ejaction fraction was down to 45% (unfortunately I moved to Boston shortly after the procedure and my doctor in Virginia never alerted me to the low score), and in January of 2009 I had an echo stress cardiogram, registering an ejaction fraction as low as 37% (I had two different tests conducted on consecutive days and cannot recall the name of the second test, but on one my ejaction fraction was 40% and on the other it was 37%).

2009 was an up and down year for me - actually more of a down, up then down year - physically and personally. 2010 has been great for me personally so far, but physically it's still been a bit up and down. Consequently, I was shocked listening to the voicemail left by my cardiologist on Friday afternoon. My ejaction fraction was 50%!

To put this in context, the ejaction fraction is the ratio of blood pumped out of the heart's ventricles with each beat. A "normal" ejaction fraction for an adult male is 58% and anything in the 55-65% range is considered healthy. Once you dip below 35% percent as a cardiomyopathy patient you qualify to be fitted for a pacemaker. So to gain ten or more percent in a 15 month time period was far above and beyond good news.

And it came at the end of a week in which I hadn't been feeling that great. I'd been experiencing some pressure on the left side of my chest that I associated with water retention and/or heart swelling, both symptoms of my condition. I've also been experiencing some discomfort on the left side of my chest cavity from a lingering rib injury I suffered just before Christmas, and after everything I've been through the past two plus years of my life, it's become incredibly difficult to discern different types of physical pain and what is actual physical pain as opposed to psychological concern.

But this affirmation that the lifestyle changes I've made and the arduous experiences I've endured have not been for nothing has me feeling incredible today - the 70 degree and sunny weather in Boston in the middle of March doesn't hurt either. I've only told two people about my good news so far - there are just a couple of friends with whom I've been able to share details about my condition and my experience living with it. It's overwhelming to talk about and even just think about how good hearing "50%" in a voice message felt, but I look forward to opportunities in the days ahead to enjoy sharing something positive about my health with those who have helped me be strong (well at least not completely wimpy) in the face of so much negative.