Lubdub Lubdub Lubdub

The beat goes on... This pic is from my annual visit to my cardiologist at the University of Chicago Children's Pediatric Cardiology clinic. I am the patient here, not my son as one might guess. My checkup every year is to monitor my aorta since I born with a congenital heart defect called a coartation of the aorta which also came with a bicuspid aortic valve. It was corrected when I was a child at the wonderful University of Kentucky (which happens to be my birthplace).
Growing up a corrected heart defect wasn't strange in the least. I was given a clean bill of health. The only problem I would run into was when I would change doctors or be sent to an emergency clinic for some reason. Often the nurse or doctor would listen to my um.. unique heartbeat and begin to.. panic. Most doctors have never heard the sound of a corrected coarctation with bicuspid regugitation... he he he. That's always a fun one to explain..