School, heart, and more!

So I have not posted in a long time. I have been very busy lately. This semester has been the hardest time I have ever had in school (so far). I have always been really busy, but this semester has been especially hard because of the classes that I am taking. I have been doing about 6 hours of homework a day and going to class and work too. There is no way I could do it without Joanna. She has been there encouraging me along the way on nights that I have felt like pulling my hair out or having my brain explode, whichever came first. She has also been so helpful in making dinner when she herself is very busy and tired too. The semester is not over yet, but almost. So recently I have been trying to tell myself that this will all be worth it someday. Sometimes I think that I must be crazy to want to do this and more for another four years to get my PhD. All I know is that I am not yet content with what I know. I am starting to think that I never will be.

But don’t worry I have not lost sight of what is really important. The other day while I was pondering some things. I thought about when Joanna and I will start our family, and suddenly all my worries about Kinetics, Thermodynamics and Mass transfer suddenly seemed so insignificant. I know what I am really here for, to raise an eternal family and teach them how to become more like Christ; to be the best husband and father that I can be.

Another thing that has been occupying my time is trying to solve some unanswered questions with my dent in my chest. So there is a syndrome called Marfans syndrome. One of the signs of this disorder is pectus excavatum (dented chest). I have never been too worried about it, but I (and Joanna) wanted to make sure that I did not have it because people who have it usually have heart troubles. The main thing that can happen is having aortic dissections. This means that your aorta can rip and you die. There are also other heart problems you can have like regurgitation (some of your blood goes the wrong way in your heart).

So I went to the doctor and he did not think that I had anything wrong with me, but there were some signs of it that were close. Also my chest kind of hurt. I did not know if it was my muscles or my heart. So to be safe, first he took a chest X-ray and then an EKG (measures the heart electrical signals). In the X-ray you could see that I had very mild scoliosis (your back is curved right or left). That is another sign of Marfans, but a lot of people have scoliosis a little bit. So just to be sure, we decided to have me go in to the hospital and get an echocardiogram. This is pretty much an ultrasound on your heart, but they measure your heart cavities, the thickness of your aorta and they can also measure the velocity of the blood pumping in the heart. Well I was very nervous to have that done because needless to say I do not want to have heart problems. After an hour of looking at everything and having the cardiologist look at the movies and pictures he determined that there were no signs of Marfans, or anything wrong with my heart. I was very relieved. Although nothing was ever really wrong, this has made me so grateful for good health. This also has really opened my eyes to all the things that can go wrong with our fragile bodies.

In getting the echocardiogram you get to watch the monitor while they are doing their stuff. I have to say how amazing and humbling it was to see my own heart beating, and seeing the valves open and close. I was humbled to know that that little muscle contracting and releasing is what is keeping me alive. I have seen hearts before in cadavers, but to see my own heart valves open and close was amazing. We have an amazing architect. I have included a short video, it is hard to see what is going on. The video is a side view of my heart, if you look close you can see the valves open and close. The colors on the heart are showing the velocity profile of my blood going through the valves. So when you see color, that is the flow of blood going through the heart chambers.



And finally, Joanna and I are going to Cambodia!! We bought tickets and we are going this summer. I am so excited. It will be awesome! Well that is all.