good news and threes..

Is it good news that comes in threes? Well, depending on how one counts, I am closing in. Today the shock doc, the ablator, took me off all heart medication! No more amiodarone; no more Eliquis. (The latter was $42 each prescription.) The former was toxic as discussed previously. (The third area of toxicity appears to be liver.) Tapering off? No. Amiodarone has a half-life of a couple weeks and so peters out on its own. The doc also thought there was no need for the apaxiban (Eliquis); instead, back to a baby aspirin each morning. The apaxiban is gone in a couple days. This is all wonderful news.

Now it is back to careful monitoring of all systems, but particularly speeding heart. They expect my resting HR to climb some in the absence of the amiodarone. Exercise seems to be bringing that down. I now have multiple readings in the high 60s at the time of arising.

And the former hypertension is gone. As has happened to a good friend, this is probably due to weight loss and as a corrollary (sp?) improved heart function. So exercise and maintaining a good weight will be critical.

But one must be cautious. It has been too easy these past few days to be a little less careful with the sodium thing.