If you know the story of my heart problems you know that I was misdiagnosed for 2 1/2 years prior to my emergency surgery. My symptoms over that whole period were limited to chest tightness and difficulty breathing when I exercised outdoors in the heat of summer. I'm kind of a nutcase about preferring to exercise outdoors whenever possible, even in unpleasant weather*. Every summer there'd be some heat wave when something would feel wrong in my chest when I ran outside. I would go to the doctor and get misdiagnosed as having exercise-induced asthma and would be sent on my way with a handful of pills and inhalers which, the doctor said would take a month or so to take full effect. Sure enough, a month later I would indeed feel better - but it was because the heat had broken, not because of the meds. This happened in 2014. It happened again in 2015 (the doctor did sent me for a cardiac stress test that year, but it failed to reveal any problems). When I showed up with the exact s...
One man's journey into the great outdoors of Washington, DC and its environs.