Going to See a Cardiologist - Again

When I retired five years ago, my exit health check picked up an irregular heart beat on an EKG.  So I went to a cardiologist who did a stress test cardio CT scan of my heart.  The conclusion was no heart disease  and probable cause was too much coffee, which I had been drinking about 7 cups a day.

A decade prior to the visit, I had experience some chest pain when running in 30 degree temperatures.  My doctor had told me that it was likely bronchial spasms from breathing cold air through my mouth.  Since I didn't have chest pains any other time, I accepted his explanation.

In the past few months, I have been experiencing some chest discomfort when lightly exerting myself in cooler weather, e.g playing tennis, or cutting the grass.  There was as not much pain as in the running experience, but neither was the weather as cold.  The discomfort was generally associated with physical exertion in forty degree temperatures, but didn't happen every time. 

Last night, I experienced discomfort again after spending less than a minute in 20 degree temperatures running in and out of my garage.  This caused me enough concern to start checking, through the Internet and with friends, for a cardiologist to set up an appointment.  My biggest concern came from a conversation with a neighbor who just had bypass surgery.  He had no signs of heart problems except for a occasional heavy feeling in his chest.   When he finally went in to get it checked, it turned out he had significant blockage and had surgery immediately.

So first thing tomorrow, I'm going to schedule an appointment with a cardiologist.  Hopefully, I'll find out there is no major problem since I have made progress in improving my health since my last heart evaluation.

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