I've long known I've had Soldier's Heart. It's not a failure of my heart, but a broken one. This past week I found that I had an abnormality in my aortic valve which has caused a narrowing and decreased flow of blood. Following up with a very impish cardiologist yesterday, first name Poonuswamy (from East India) I got a more definitive diagnosis and prognosis. I'm probably 5 years out from the necessity of a valve replacement. Fortunately major strides are being made in less invasive procedures, and (if our health care system doesn't fall apart in the near future) there are very positive outcomes.

As Meridel Le Sueur once said of her 'heart attack'...it wasn't an attack from the heart, but a broken heart from years of sorrow.

The sorrow of war.
***
Our mutual flesh lights the sulphur emanation of centuries of
exploitation. Amidst the ruins we shine forth in holy mutual
cry, revealing the plainest cruelties and human equation,
the deprivations of power and the strength of numbers and
endurance and the holy light from the immortal wound.

~Meridel Le Sueur from Doàn Kêt