You guys start a monitoring thread and then switch the topic to a bunch of scary S*it.
BTW, I took a copy of the gym workout and BP/HR readings to the cardiologist and he was almost astonished - "Nobody ever does that!" was his comment.
I have found that the machines in the gym I go to don't read accurately any more... so telling my cardiologist those numbers would be worthless. I would have to test other meters to see if they'd measure accurately. My Omron seems to be reasonably correct.
A couple years ago @ 51 I experienced a couple of intense light headed spells that were very short lived in the middle of a day when sitting. Two days later while checking into a hotel (business trip), I experienced the same thing but also lost my vision for a short period. When it happened, I noted to the hotel clerk that "something is not right" and she responded with "do you want me to call an ambulance?" I said no... the feeling went away, and I checked in and went to my room. The morning of the second day after checking in, I got up early and ws waiting for some people on a coach in the hotel lobby when I had the feeling again. I blacked out twice, the second time I remember having to sit back up as I had slumped over. I flew home that morning and had DW pick me up from the airport and went to the ER (emergency room... not early retirement
).
I'll skip some of the details.. When the episodes were not happening... I felt fine. I was admitted and was passing all the tests. They were about to send me home, but one test was taken late so they kept me overnight so he could read it in the morning. That night I have 3 more light headed episodes... the constantly monitored EKG did not alarm. After the second one I gave them the gory details of it and the nurse looked back through the electronic records. She found it, the signals on the top of the heart were just fine... but every now and then the signals on the bottom vanished.
So they fitted me with shiny new pacemaker (I think it was shiny and new) that paces conditionally. I did not like the idea at all when they first told me that I was getting one.
Limitations...
- Will not let my heart rate go below 50 -- doc does not want to be called in the middle of the night by ER thinking I have arrhythmia.
- Will not let my heart rate go above 150 -- limit of the tracking of this pacemaker... advantage of this pacemaker is that I can still get MRIs.
- EMI Issues, such as cannot work on a car under the hood while running -- need to keep away from ignition system or other high EMI sources. Note that I spend most of my career working in high EMI projects.
- Many HR meters don't read accurately when the pacemaker is pacing. Omron seems fine, machines at the gym just don't work reliably.
Orders from the cardiologist on exercise... whatever you were doing before... keep on doing it. If the strap from the backpack bothers you (where it crosses the pacemaker)... just get a pad to cover it. I can still push DW when hiking even with the 150bpm limitation.
Alan... hope all goes well. Hopefully the resulting treatment will not be too limiting.
ER's @53 ... this month. Now that it is warming up... time to get hiking!