Seeking answers

A few things I've learned in the last couple days:

1. It is great to have a brother who's a doctor, and who can offer some perspective on test results, even though the test in question is not from his specialty. Thanks, Matt Hanson! Matt is a head and neck surgeon, and a diagnostician with an unparalleled trained intuition. He knows how to read medical information about a test in which I got a result that was, on its face, alarming. But he told me that, while this test is usually reliable in ruling out conditions, an abnormal result doesn't necessarily mean the condition exists. A lot of medical tests are non-specific in that way.

2. There may be a fairly simple solution to what's going on with my heart. Or maybe not. I don't know yet. I've got some tests scheduled for early October, but I'm on a waiting list to see a cardiologist -- who would want results from those tests, anyway, before I see him or her.

3. AFib is a fairly complicated diagnosis that can manifest itself, and be dealt with, in a number of different ways. In many ways, I was lucky mine showed itself in the way it did; at least one of my friends found out he had AFib by having a debilitating stroke.

4. Dan Quayle had AFib. Wow, I guess I have something in common with him after all.

5. My weight loss might be one cause of my condition, or at least a contributing factor. So might heredity.

6. In any case, as Jay Donald Jerde observed, it's probably better that this didn't happen while I weighed 130 more pounds than I weigh now -- because I'm probably better equipped to deal with it now.

7. Once again, medical professionals, and the non-medical-trained bureaucrats who run this country's health care system: Yes, obesity is a health risk factor. But no, losing weight does not solve all health problems. Weight loss may in fact create new problems, even if the body size reduction happens in a healthful way, as it did for me.

8. Although I'm hyper-conscious of my heart's sounds and rhythms, I'm actually feeling OK. I got through a fairly strenuous work day on Saturday, and I plan to get through another on Sunday.

This is my brother, Dr. Matt Hanson: