Get Your Annual Physical: A First-Person Account of Heart Health by Kevin Hanratty
A Routine Physical In January 2020 I went in for a routine physical. The doctor, after listening to my heart, asked whether I knew that I had a heart murmur. It was news to me. Within a week I had an echocardiogram—a heart ultrasound—which revealed that I had moderate aortic valve stenosis without symptoms. The valve was narrowed by calcium leached from my bones in a process known as arteriosclerosis. In January 2023, I had a second ultrasound. This revealed