Premature Beats

In the three months since I last posted an update not much has happened, although two weeks ago I did have a bit of a scare. I was feeling short of breath and I could feel my heart out of whack. My pulse dropped to about 35 beats a minute. While cause for concern, it is not super dangerous as my resting pulse is in the 40s. However, I did call 911 and spent a few hours in emergency at the St. Catharines General Hospital.

My heart was beating prematurely and I had an unusual electric discharge, both of which have been seen before. My doctor has told me that the premature beats can cause shortness of breath. I wonder if the premature beats cause my pulse to appear lower than what it is. Fortunately for me when I was discharged at 4 in the morning it just happened to be a very mild night with a temperature of 14 C as I walked home.

Since then my heart has been giving me occasional trouble in terms of shortness of breath. What my pulse and blood pressure are doing I don’t know as I have taken it since the night I went to the hospital. When I went for a couple of long walks last night I felt fine. I also felt fine when I cycled from Burlington to Rockwood and back one weekend and when I did a 114 kilometer bicycle ride.

Still no word on the specialist in Hamilton I’m supposed to see. I did have a follow-up to the sleep test I did earlier this year. The doctor told me that I need to lose a little weight and gave me some medication to try to open my nose at night. Both would help keep me from snoring, which may in turn help my atrial fibrillation. I’ll see what my own doctor has to say the next time I see him.