whingeing, etc

to whinge: Brit term not widely used in the olde US&A. Means to complain incessantly about minor things. When I received feedback (not published) from a couple close friends about my last post, whingeing was the descriptor that popped immediately to my mind. You all can just substitute the American term: whining. One suggested that I was suffering TBS: too many birthdays syndrome. Another said he wished that I wouldn't write because if he hadn't heard, he'd know that all was fine. Hah! They were correct, rereading suggested whingeing. I guess for a guy normally still optimistic (yes, even about American politics) it was a different feel. I must have been feeling sorry for myself. On the other hand, if you are truly being spied on you may have paranoia, but it is justifiable paranoia--reality based paranoia. So here is what happened next.

Last Sunday I had trouble sleeping. It seemed to me that my energy level was down and I continued to feel lethargic (see the prior post!). But it had been hot here and we have been entertaining or being entertained alot. So I just added it to the list of something more to whinge about. For a number of days my afternoon naps were increasing in length. Sunday night my HR bumped up to >135 bpm. It did not come back down. My iwatch simply told me it could not do a conclusive ECG because the pulse rate was too high.  It stayed up for days. It is hard to sleep when part of your system is stll charging along. Finally on Tuesday I called the rhythm specialists at IHC and did an extensive telephone consult. Since what little (30 sec) of actual heart activity on the watch I could see looked still like sinus rhythm but at a higher rate, they thought I probably had an atrial flutter. Close inspection after that of the pulse rate function on the watch showed two non-overlapping distributions--one in the 60s, the other in the 130s. They scheduled a cardioversion (you know with the paddles and the shock and such) to see if they could shock the heart back into the correct rhythm. So we came to SLC and spent the state holiday Wed (Pioneer Day aka Pie and Beer Day) here and the procedure occurred this morning.

So that is how I spent my morning. The set up for the procedure takes much more time than the procedure itself. One is sedated so an IV line is required.  They were not sure of their success when I awoke while the NP was discussing the outcome with my wife and daughter. She wassuggesting an amiodarone drip when my heart went back to normal. So all is well. I can feel muscles pulled probably during contractions, but otherwise, I feel like a new person. Now one hopes that the old ticker stays in sinus. I can live with that.