I Don't Need those Stinking Beta-Blockers

If my unconscious mind asks the question why not stop taking my meds, would that action leave me no worse off health wise? Is this a message or just my own resistance to medication? When I do have an atrial fibrillation episode I reach for my beta-blockers and they do the trick. So what is the upside assuming that not taking them has no deleterious effects on my heart functionality? My metabolism will shoot higher, I will burn more calories and I will not be out of breath as quickly in the anaerobic zone. 

Is that reason enough to stop taking them? Maybe my cardiologist might weigh in to say that meds are better than no meds. I am just not so sure and the only way I can evaluate my non-PhD. theory is to test it on myself and that’s what I am going to do. I am just off them 3 days now and I witnessed my HR rise during the peak of exercise from 140 to 163 and although I don’t trust those heart rate monitors for true accuracy my caloric burn went from 366 to 662 today in Kristen’s Spin Class. I will keep a log and see where it brings me. I secretly am hoping for yet another round of lost pounds to a level I have not seen since I was 45.  

I have had a quite a few episodes of late and my friend Mike from spin class put me straight. He’s a former anesthesiologist and he told me that the pulmicort I have been taking contains a steroid and  I told him I  had been taking two blasts of it each morning with the bronchial asthma I am now saddled with. He told me that as a dilator it would automatically make my HR jump and that I should let exercise raise the “beat” naturally and afterward take my inhaler. Thanks Mike again. 

Catheter Ablation Part II

I have decided that maybe the time has come again to take a chance on another heart  ablation. My client and friend Jamie had it done three years ago and is completely cured. So cured that he received a Preferred Plus life insurance rating something only 3% of the population could lay claim to. The thought occurs to me that if I can eliminate these fibrillations my metabolic rate might just rise and the weight I am losing might accelerate as well.  

But It Ain't Gene Krupa

It is still a struggle that finds me each morning ingesting the beta-blocker that keeps my arrhythmia from taking on the tempo of Gene Krupa’s drumbeat.  As I attempted a run this morning on the beaches of New Jersey, I found myself not limited by my body but by my heart that will allow me a pedal stroke but not putting one foot in front of the other as was my custom in the 1970’s and early 1980’s. But because I have a spirit that will never be daunted until my expiration, I will gas up my running car just to see if I can recapture first and second gear.  Heart acted up this week and on Wednesday in the noon Tripp Doherty class I quadrupled my bystolic dose so as to squash my racing heart like a bug scurrying across my path.  

Just This Mr. President

The country is squarely behind you.  And other than that I have nothing to report.

We're Busy Doing Nothing

Perhaps I will just keep a log about my heart and record my medication ingestion as well because like most people they do forget their prescriptions at times but I can ill afford that when my heart beat is at stake.  

So being Monday the 30th Memorial Day I fortunately had the good fortune of remembering because I did not have the ‘rush’ of my day as I struggle with the song that typifies my working life so often and that’s “We’re Busy Doing Nothing Working the Whole Day Through”. 

And now Tuesday has me free for yet another day. 

Episodes Saturday and Sunday May 28, 29 2011

I may not have LVH but I am still in the throes of my A-Fib. I need to record them and their severity. I worked out extremely hard on Saturday in my KSC class and today I did not when I merely rode for an hour in the streets of Greenlawn. 

I should note that this week was a particularly stressful one in terms of my home life and my work. A friend intimated that stress and exercise might be a lethal combination. I know that I just have to pull back and ease up on that resistance wheel.  

In terms of severity I would have to categorize them as severe because I don't have mild episodes now. I have started taking a new drug Multaq and I falsely thought that it had the desired effect but if it will or not remains to be seen.