I've been told I have a big heart. I can't say I've ever identified with that statement, but science has proven this can no longer be denied.

Friday, May 8th, I went to bed a little early because we needed to be up early the next morning to take our Sparky's Woodworks booth to the DeSoto Farmers' Market for the last shopping day before Mother's Day.

Something strange happened. I woke up — reason unknown (not really abnormal; I change sleeping positions regularly, and at 54 I have to get up during the night more often than I used to) — but I felt strange. I felt as if I had stopped breathing, and was very short of breath. I breathed deeply and rapidly for several seconds. Every time I laid my head down and started to drift off, I'd have another episode of shortness of breath and 5–10 seconds of deep, rapid breathing to catch up. So I decided to just stay up and get ready for the market.

I'd also noticed over the last year or so that I get winded a lot easier than I used to. Saturday morning at the market was a challenge. I knew something wasn't right when I hopped in the truck bed to start unloading our booth. It took a while for my breathing to settle down that morning, but by afternoon I was feeling a lot more like myself.

It was two weeks before this happened again — and then it happened two nights in a row. Frustrating, but I have too much to do and too much to worry about to slow down over something as erratic as this, especially something that seems to fix itself.

Then it happened again.

And then it happened again.

As this continued, I was getting less and less sleep, and less and less work done.

It happened again over the July 4th weekend, and this time it really pissed me off. Multiple nights of no sleep. Crazy breathing. Getting winded too quickly. Work not getting done. Chores on the property piling up. Frustrated beyond belief.

Until Tuesday, July 7th, I didn't have a primary care doctor. Ridiculous malpractice insurance rates had skyrocketed, so my doctor decided to close his practice. That was the last good relationship I had with a PCP, and it ended in the early 2000s. Tuesday morning I spent time finding a new one — found a doctor a reasonable distance from the property with a same-day appointment available. I took it.

We went over everything. Talked a lot. Asked and answered a lot of questions. Eventually Doc G decided we should do an EKG on the spot. The EKG was abnormal, so he ordered a chest x-ray — which I also did the same day, in the same building. He ordered bloodwork too. I waited an hour to be called for a blood draw, but by 2pm I'd had enough. Tired. Irritable. No food.

Later that afternoon I got a message from Doc G about the x-ray. The summary: I see some stuff I don't like, and what I don't like is probably the cause of your breathing and fatigue problems. He prescribed some medication and said he was going to find a cardiologist for me to see as soon as possible — which, in the U.S. healthcare system in 2026, could mean weeks or months.

Today I received a call from the cardiologist's office. I was surprised. Doc G had pushed hard — he wanted me seen within 2–4 days, which put real pressure on the scheduling team. Ms. D found a cardiologist with an open appointment tomorrow. Same building as Doc G and the blood draw station. Tomorrow, July 9th, I'll be seeing a cardiologist for the first time, and getting all my lab work done so both Doc G and Doc R have results to review before the weekend.

Things I don't need a doctor to tell me:

1. I have to be diligent about wearing dust protection in the shop.
2. I have to give up the vape. It may or may not have been a net positive that I switched from cigarettes to vaping back in 2013 and haven't had a cigarette since — but putting anything other than air in your lungs isn't good for your heart or your lungs.
3. I have to switch to edibles. Enough said.
4. I have to cut back or eliminate caffeine. Three of the four things I drink each day have caffeine in them. More water.
5. We have to start eating better. No processed foods. A heart-healthy diet.
6. When the docs say it's time, I'll need to start building cardio exercise into my daily routine.

I also have a sleep study scheduled for later in July.

This is Day 1 of my journey with a heart condition. I figured it might be a good idea to start a blog — a journal — from the very beginning. I hope to share my journey, my successes, my failures, the advice I'm given, and things worth thinking about with my Sparky's Woodworks family, and hopefully bring a whole new group of people into my orbit along the way. I hope someone out there finds this helpful, or at least interesting enough to read.