the thread of ATRIAL FIBBING

might not be a long piece of research lol

nice possibly final visit (since i’m moving out of london) with my primary GP of nearly 40 years, just to have a face-to-face to jigsaw together the implications of all my ailments: for which the answer is mainly (a) re the topic of this thrread viz my high pulse-rate get my cardiology consultant to move his ass and give me a rescheduled appointment (she thinks more ablations are pointless but says he's the one whose knowledge counts and i will likely have to change meds somewhat as BISOPROLOL is evidently not doing what it needs to

as for my asthma more exercise and lose a little weight lol. the headaches are “stress” headaches (ie who knows what causes them, maybe just the state of the world) and (she is old-school) paracetamol is fine in moderation and not implicated in blood pressure (which is now back to normal). i’m booked for a hearing check re my tinnitus and try epley exercises for my labyrinthitis. anyway she is a good wise person (actually my favourite GP at the centre even if i nearly never see her) and i will miss her

i mentioned the *other* GP i saw a few weeks ago to my sister (who was also a patient at this centre for many years) and she laughed and said "she always made me feel i was being told off" -- which, well, true, me too, but i guess i kind of feel i deserve to be told off so it doesn't really register

maybe stress headaches in part from getting more writing-editing gigs, also re health and considerations of moving from London---maybe try this very basic form of meditation I read about, which is sitting for 20 minutes not thinking about much: I tried sitting on bench by front door of library after hours on a short day, mostly sheltered from the evening sun, but with a glow around the frame, just the occasional passing car, although I did sneak peeks at my travel clock, will try to do better about that ("trying" all this keeps some tension in there but I've only started these breaks).
My tinnitus long ago became part of the environment, and occasionally I think I hear crickets. Having doctor remove ear wax helped (don't try it yourself, though there are kits). Easy on the headphones for a while after that.

in the end i wrote a letter to my cardiologist, one copy to barts and one to the royal free (he does consultation at both) to point out that i was due a rescheduled appointment after the pandemic cancellation in december and it was now something like eight months?

anyway i got a reply and now have an appointment in november -- that's quite a gap but tbf i haven't been suffering or i'have made more fuss

meanwhile in jab news: i got flu *and* my covid booster this afternoon 💉💉

i: an old lad in the packed waiting room was quietly looking at facebook or youtube or whatever on his phone and got ambushed by a VERY LOUD advert screaming at him for not satisfying HIS WOMAN and he needed [such and such a pill, didn't catch its name despite volume] which is SIX TIMES MORE POTENT THAN VIAGRA etc, anyway he found the off button eventually
ii: the pharmacist pronounced it "omnicron" (am i a dick for find this funny? yes i am) (same question-answer to part i)
iii: afterwards he said "i strongly advise you to eat a banana! this will deplete your energy!" i asked did he mean in the next ten minutes or later today (i was already on my way to MS afterwards) and he said "over the next two weeks!" -- which again made me laugh (no one strongly advises you to eat a banana in the next two weeks). luckily i had my mask on so no one spotted i am finding them funny: apparently my being-a-dick levels are off the chart today

my original anti-COVID jab and the two boosters were both pfizer and i had no symptoms at all (ditto the time i tested positive with the thing itself); this was my first dose of moderna so it wd absolutely serve me right if i get the works, we shall see

I thot it was omnicron! Let's all go to see allll thee timelines at the Omnicron.

turns out that eating bananas is good, when did i forget this

they gots potassium, also they taste good (to me)

ketchup inc.minor downstream implications

so after asll the faff i scored an appointment w/my nice consultant in mid-november, at which it was decided to put a pause on further procedures for the time being: my fib has calmed down into flutter (viz the aberrations form regular rather than wild-party patterns) and my resting pulse rate is only *exactly twice* a normal pulse rate (c.126 instead of 60ish). but as i have no other symptoms we decided let's just observe for the next six months and decide the way forward then

so far so good, except today i was in for a bunch of tests and a chat with the consultant anaesthetist abt an entirely unrelated procedure: not urgent -- the condition is a minor inconvenience tho i cd do without it -- but also something the meds think is worth tackling. tests all fine and i have a letter from my cardiologist to say "yes i know his pulse rate is twice what it should be, here's why that's no emergency", which helps orientate the student that does the ECG.

anaesthetist also talks through all of this and explains the best kind of anaesthetic for the surgery (spinal not general) and what that entails (off blood thinners for three days, longer if there's bleeding afterwards, as there might be). strongly advises i do sleep studies to see if i have sleep apnea (i don't think i do but he's the specialist). and then says he thinks given my heart condition that i'm probably high risk in the context of the surgery being explored, and he's going to postpone it until he's talked to my cardiologist. since there's a chance of clots and embolisms and also just general heart chaos courtesy the anaesthetic. "and we wouldn't want that" -- well no we wouldn't

i was planning to postpone it anyway as i'm in the middle of moving house and it feels like too many things at once! so this isn't a catastrophe. but it is the first real-world consqeuence of the condition since they admitted me (in 2019? see above) for a week, for racing pulse…

I think you can do sleep studies now in the comfort of your own home so that's a plus

i asked abt this and they said no it's in the hospital

If you do have surgery, the anesthesia may make you lose some words for a while: they'll say Oh Noes, what could it be, better run some neurologicals---but (judging by the experience of several friends & relations in recent years), it may well turn out to be anesthesia---if they can't find any other cause and the condition is temporary, that is. Can last up to 3-4 weeks, at least it did for a couple of the people I know who were affected.

better safe than sorry obv but i've actually been under full general anaesthetic since the fibbing began -- albeit for fibbing related procedures so i guess they have the heart under close observation throughout

and they didn't involve sharp cutting knives which this one in a small way would

hope this goes well for you

waiting for a phonecall from my health centre following up on the letter the anaesthetist sent to my GP, which fingers x-ed is just admin

meanwhile ATRIAL FIBRILLATION was trending on twitter this morning -- partly bcz it's apparently stroke prevention day (tbc i am in favour of stroke prevention) and partly bcz thousands of anti-vaxx numpties are busy screeching that AF is caused by the jab (clue: it is not)

oh the letter arrived at my house also, he thinks i am at risk of sleep apnea and wants me to take a sleep studies test -- which fine, sure, w/evs

Believe me, taking one and getting CPAP was a game-changer for me!

yeah it made a big difference for mr veg also

Same for me - especially helping with racing heart in the middle of the night stuff.

turns out -- six months later -- that i have no significant sleep-disordered breathing tho i do have "severe snoring" lol, sorry neighbours i can't hear it and it doesn't affect me

quick atrial update: despite ongoing adventures with vertigo lol, my annual check-up went v well -- the consultant (the same cheery guy who i have now seen in three sepeatre hospitals, barts in smithfield, the royal free in gospel oak and this time in fkn ENFIELD) (nice shiny modern building tho) was v positive: my heartrate may be a bit faster than all you sad normies but i am otherwise reassuringly asymptomatic (viz this higher rate causes me zero distress) and he thinks no further procedures are necessary at this stage 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

(not even sure what these procedures wd acually be: more cardioversions and ablations? on towards a pacemaker? anyway, we not going in that direction yet)

(i have a friend whose grandad had 18 !! ablations and lived into his mid-80s so i am chill either way, tbh i just want a quiet life and life in plymouth is exactly this, between the world-historical storms anyway)

Hooray! (but sped up so it doesn't sound like whalesong to you)