Slice of Chaotic Life

I was not shocked. I have lived in a Social Democratic country all my life. I know how socialized medicine works (and sometimes why not). So when the kind doctor at the Emergency Room yesterday wrote a letter for me to give to my regular doctor within the week, I was not really sure this was possible. I tried, though.

April 16 is the first opportunity to meet my doctor. Almost a month from now. And no doubt there will be some time before an actual Holter monitor (portable EKG) is available. Perhaps another month, who knows. Let us hope it doesn’t collide with the summer holiday. ^_^

I was still a bit nervous last night, as my pulse remained higher, although it went down a bit as I approached bedtime and went past that by an hour or so. Yes, I was a little shakable, I guess. I was not entirely sure I would wake up this morning. Of course, in principle we can never be, but sometimes I feel my mortality more strongly. But as you can see, I woke up this morning. Long may it last. Banzai! Banzai! Banzai!

But my pulse is back to normal speed, so that is good. It is still irregular, except when lying on my back (which I don’t do for a living, nor do I recommend that for others). Especially irregular after standing up or walking, but also just sitting there. Thanks to the miracles of modern technology, I can measure my pulse with my smartphone and the app “Instant Heart Rate”. Actually not instant, it takes 9 seconds from it detects the pulse by shining a bright light at my fingertip. During those seconds it draws a graph of the pulse on the screen, vaguely similar to an EKG. After 5-10 heartbeats there is typically a trough, making the graph look like a row of teeth where one has been pulled out and the gums have retreated somewhat in that place. This coincides with the sinking feeling I get when my heart skips a beat.

People can and do live to a ripe old age with occasional palpitations. It is something almost everyone experiences even without provocation, from time to time. There is a correlation between palpitations and fibrillation, but you cannot say that if you have palpitations so and so often, you will get a heart attack within so and so long time. It cannot be used to predict, only to warn that there is a higher risk than usual.

Omega-3 fatty acids supposedly help stabilize the heart rhythm, but not in proportion as you eat more and more of them. It is when you don’t have them at all that you will get the most benefit from adding them. I eat these fairly regularly, a capsule or two each workday.  (Cod liver oil, common and popular in Norway, might be cheaper; but I have very limited ability to digest fat, so have to eat very little of it at a time.)

Anyway, in my own experience the one thing that seems to trigger palpitations and later tachycardia (speeding heart) is losing weight. The irony is that losing weight is warmly recommended by the doctor who doesn’t have time to see me. And I’d love to exercise more myself – the long walks are quite pleasant. But from my experience, adding just a couple kilograms (5 pounds or perhaps even less) will completely erase palpitations. Certainly I have no memory of them between 2006 and last year, except for a short time in the winter the year before last. (This was after the extremely cold winter the first year in Riverview, and I lost some weight simply from shivering in the cold whenever I was outdoors or even some of the rooms.)  At the worst they can not have been a common feature, or I would have written about them.

So if I resist the temptation to take long walks, and still eat as if I did, I should be safe in a couple weeks – from the palpitations. It is not going to do wonders for my prediabetes, I suspect…