Harness Power

So, somewhere between Glacial and Ozark I developed a ..... Hiccup of sorts. The drummer in my chest needs inspiration, he's got a lack of syncopation.

I thought maybe rest and a some other adjustments would set it right, but its not quite there on its own. OK, I've only given it about 4 weeks, but when your ticker is acting up, usually it causes the alarm bells to go off. It did for me anyway. They symptoms were similar to something I have had before, and are probably related to running, stress, caffeine, and rest (lack thereof). Just for sanity sake, I went to see a doctor. And you know what that means. TESTS. The picture above is completely accurate, although its not me (I don't have that much hair). Its the exact monitoring harness I'm wearing right now.

The heart goes in its rhythms for most people along smoothy: 1 <> 2 <> 3 <> 4 <> 5. Most of the time mine looks like this too, but not always, sometimes I get this: 1 <> 2 <> 34 <<>> 5. A double beat no space (34), with a double <<>> pause. Its a hitch in my giddy up. Its a tiny misfire on the electrical charge, and apparently its easy to get out of sync.

Its like most people have a polka heart, with a slight back beat but continuous rhythm, but my heart is playing jazz. It knows the beat, but prefers to play all the way around it once in a while.

Lest you be alarmed, I feel pretty good. I am still running, and in fact the time everything feels best is when I go out and RED LINE. Get my heart rate up to 180 beats per minute and the drummer has to keep time. No skipping around playing Jazz. I cleared this with my doc, and let her know that I'd be doing it, and she didn't have an issue with it as long as I wasn't having chest pains. I don't.

I had blood tests, and all kinds of other things, and everything points to a very healthy man, regardless of my age. Resting heart rate is around 60-65, Oxygen markers in the red blood cells are 99% effective, which the doc said is unheard of. (I said great but that doesn't seem to make me any faster... anyway). Cholesterol is a little bit high, but no medications needed, just some minor tweaks in diet and is unrelated to the current issue.

But here's the thing: when the the medical community gets someone who is healthy, they have a tendency to want to dismiss your other symptoms; a nurse took my pulse for over two minutes, and of course the drummer played nice and kept perfect time; it looks like nothing is wrong with me.

But. Its still there. I had to INSIST on the harness, as well as I will INSIST on a treadmill stress test regardless of what the harness data shows. I am thinking of insisting on the ink check for arterial plaque too, if the other tests prove nothing.

Mostly, by this time, its just kind of irritating. And, I hope I can sleep with this dang harness on without pulling the wires all over the place.