Going on a long trip like this was a good motivation to get a physical exam and deal with scheduling that long overdue appointment for a colonoscopy. So I had the physical, scheduled the appointment and purchased the “prep” medication — 10 ounces of magnesium citrate and 4 liters of polyethelene glycol solution. To drink in big glasses at 15 minute intervals for two hours.

Yuk! But I found that by not eating any solid food for two days before the procedure, I was able to completely clean myself out after drinking only 2 liters of the solution. Interesting. Liquids flow right on through.

So everything was moving smoothly along for having the colonoscopy on Monday morning. I had my blood pressure and pulse taken and an IV inserted in my left hand. My pulse was typical — 44 beats per minute. It’s always been low, as long as I can remember.

When the doctor came by to explain the procedure, he asked about the low heart rate. He was a little concerned about it, because sometimes a person’s body will have a response to the procedure that lowers their heart rate by 10-20 bpm. And that would be dangerously low. He thought it would be prudent to do a quick electrocardiogram before starting. So they rolled over a compact device and attached half a dozen electrodes to my chest. They ran the monitor for a couple of minutes and the device then spit out a graph of the electrical signals from various parts of my heart.

The doctor looked at the graph, paused a few moments, then briefly placed his hand on Cynthia’s shoulder as he walked around to discuss the results with me. Cynthia knew immediately that he had some concerns.

The signal from my left ventricle was much stronger than from any other parts of the heart. The machine had automatically applied some algorithms to the data and printed out some diagnoses. The doctor explained that there was some indication that my left ventricle was thicker or larger than normal, and there was some question as to whether the artery serving it was able to provide enough blood. He decided that this was enough to cancel the colonoscopy and recommended that I see a cardiologist as soon as possible.

Well. That was unexpected. I haven’t felt any symptoms of anything amiss with my heart. I climbed Mt Rainier last summer, Kilimanjaro the previous year and Longs Peak before that. I’ve been confident that doing the kora around Mt Kailash will not be too difficult for me. So it seems really puzzling.

In any case, I was very fortunate to be able to schedule an appointment with a cardiologist in Everett this afternoon.

Stay tuned.