Two weeks into the New Year and there are a couple posts I\u2019ve been putting off for far too long.<\/p>\n
Before I get to a quick health update on your beloved blogger, I can\u2019t believe I forgot to include a blurb about the Pacers yesterday. So\u2026<\/p>\n
Hey, my Indiana Pacers have won six in a row! Including a comprehensive win Sunday over the Cavaliers, which broke Cleveland\u2019s 12-game winning streak. The Pacers got that dub coming from 13 down and playing the entire second half without Tyrese Haliburton, who tweaked his hamstring for the 800th time. Somehow their defense was the difference. The Indiana Pacers playing defense??? Crazy stuff! They have now won seven of eight, and 13 of 17. Pretty solid run after a slow start.<\/p>\n
Now we\u2019ll see how much time Hali has to miss to mend his hammy. The Cavs get a rematch tonight so I would imagine the Pacers\u2019 streak comes to an end.<\/p>\n
Now for the first of the items I\u2019ve been putting off sharing. For no good reason.<\/p>\n
Over the fall I had a couple more episodes where my heart got out of rhythm for lengthy stretches. After some back-and-forth with my cardiologist she had me wear an event monitor for a week and then sent me to an electrophysiologist in her office. The hope was the event monitor would catch something the specialist could use to determine if there was something up with my heart beyond genetics and develop a course of action.<\/p>\n
I wasn\u2019t able to get in to see the specialist until right before Christmas. As always happens when I go in, my EKG was fine. And my event monitor didn\u2019t catch anything. So he started from scratch, reviewing my full health history and then the times when I\u2019ve had Afib for 12 hours or more.<\/p>\n
The good news is that he still thinks my heart is in fine shape and my stroke score is effectively zero. It\u2019s not actually zero since I have Afib, but as all my other factors are super low he doesn\u2019t think we need to worry about any stroke prevention medications at this time.<\/p>\n
He did say that the thinking on how to manage Afib has changed in recent years. Where once physicians began with meds, they now like to put those off as the side effects are so significant. Instead, a surgical option that used to be used after meds is now the first choice. Thus, at some point I will need a heart ablation if my Afib episodes start recurring more often.<\/p>\n
He was pretty excited to explain how that would work. After knocking me out, he would run a line into my right femoral artery that would eventually end up in my heart. Over the course of a couple hours he would shock some of the tissue in the back, left of my heart, where the faulty signals that trigger Afib tend to come from. This process causes scar tissue which blocks those electrical impulses. It will not make Afib go away completely, but it does minimize how often it presents.<\/p>\n
That seemed kind of wild to me, especially since I don\u2019t have these episodes very often. But he told me he would do it right away if I wanted to, although that was not necessary. Also wild!<\/p>\n
I figure I\u2019ll kick that can down the road as long as I can. Unless my Afib starts occurring regularly instead of randomly, that doesn\u2019t seem like something I need to jump into just yet.<\/p>\n
Any time I\u2019ve written about my heart issues I\u2019ve noted that most of my Afib spells have occurred when I\u2019ve been drinking. The crazy thing is most of them have started when I have only drank one beer, or in a couple cases, not even finished that beer. Because of that I\u2019ve scaled my drinking back quite a bit. Since my most recent episodes, I\u2019ve pulled back even further. I\u2019m guessing I\u2019ve had less than a dozen beers in the last three months, with a few glasses of wine and mixed drinks sprinkled in there. And when I do drink beer, I\u2019ve mostly switched to Michelob Ultra. I didn\u2019t love that at first, but when I found their Amber Max it turned out to be pretty decent for a watered down beer. And the Amber Max is gluten free, which I guess is a bonus.<\/p>\n
Still, I\u2019m not drinking very often or much. It\u2019s become one of those mental blocks like when you eat something and get sick later and you aren\u2019t interested in having that meal again even if it wasn\u2019t what caused your illness. Drinking a beer just doesn\u2019t sound very good most of the time, and I worry that the next one will be the drink that causes my heart to act up.<\/p>\n
Those reactions are cranked up even more with liquor, so I have some very nice bourbon sitting in my cabinet I have no interest in drinking at all.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not totally dry or anything, and it isn\u2019t a huge switch since I had scaled back my drinking over the past couple years already. I will still get a nice, mixed drink when we go out to dinner, although I\u2019ve found a second one can truly be a motherfucker. Instead of having a beer every night, though, I\u2019m at maybe a beer a week. Or one every 10 days. It kind of sucks but if it helps keep my heart in rhythm and avoids a trip to the ED or increasing my stroke odds, I suppose it is worth it. Getting old sucks, but I could have worse issues, and I\u2019m happy to do things like this so I keep getting older.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Two weeks into the New Year and there are a couple posts I\u2019ve been putting off for far too long. Before I get to a quick health update on your beloved blogger, I can\u2019t believe I forgot to include a blurb about the Pacers yesterday. So\u2026 Pacers Hey, my Indiana Pacers have won six in a row! Including a comprehensive win Sunday over the Cavaliers, which broke Cleveland\u2019s 12-game winning streak. The Pacers got that dub coming from 13 down and playing the entire second half without Tyrese Haliburton, who tweaked his hamstring for the 800th time. Somehow their defense was the difference. The Indiana Pacers playing defense??? Crazy stuff! They have now won seven of eight, and 13 of 17. Pretty solid run after a slow start. Now we\u2019ll see how much time Hali has to miss to mend his hammy. The Cavs get a rematch tonight so I would imagine the Pacers\u2019 streak comes to an end. Ticker Talk Now for the first of the items I\u2019ve been putting off sharing. For no good reason. Over the fall I had a couple more episodes where my heart got out of rhythm for lengthy stretches. After some back-and-forth with my cardiologist she had me wear an event monitor for a week and then sent me to an electrophysiologist in her office. The hope was the event monitor would catch something the specialist could use to determine if there was something up with my heart beyond genetics and develop a course of action. I wasn\u2019t able to get in to see the specialist until right before Christmas. As always happens when I go in, my EKG was fine. And my event monitor didn\u2019t catch anything. So he started from scratch, reviewing my full health history and then the times when I\u2019ve had Afib for 12 hours or more. The good news is that he still thinks my heart is in fine shape and my stroke score is effectively zero. It\u2019s not actually zero since I have Afib, but as all my other factors are super low he doesn\u2019t think we need to worry about any stroke prevention medications at this time. He did say that the thinking on how to manage Afib has changed in recent years. Where once physicians began with meds, they now like to put those off as the side effects are so significant. Instead, a surgical option that used to be used after meds is now the first choice. Thus, at some point I will need a heart ablation if my Afib episodes start recurring more often. He was pretty excited to explain how that would work. After knocking me out, he would run a line into my right femoral artery that would eventually end up in my heart. Over the course of a couple hours he would shock some of the tissue in the back, left of my heart, where the faulty signals that trigger Afib tend to come from. This process causes scar tissue which blocks those electrical impulses. It will not make Afib go away completely, but it does minimize how often it presents. That seemed kind of wild to me, especially since I don\u2019t have these episodes very often. But he told me he would do it right away if I wanted to, although that was not necessary. Also wild! I figure I\u2019ll kick that can down the road as long as I can. Unless my Afib starts occurring regularly instead of randomly, that doesn\u2019t seem like something I need to jump into just yet. Any time I\u2019ve written about my heart issues I\u2019ve noted that most of my Afib spells have occurred when I\u2019ve been drinking. The crazy thing is most of them have started when I have only drank one beer, or in a couple cases, not even finished that beer. Because of that I\u2019ve scaled my drinking back quite a bit. Since my most recent episodes, I\u2019ve pulled back even further. I\u2019m guessing I\u2019ve had less than a dozen beers in the last three months, with a few glasses of wine and mixed drinks sprinkled in there. And when I do drink beer, I\u2019ve mostly switched to Michelob Ultra. I didn\u2019t love that at first, but when I found their Amber Max it turned out to be pretty decent for a watered down beer. And the Amber Max is gluten free, which I guess is a bonus. Still, I\u2019m not drinking very often or much. It\u2019s become one of those mental blocks like when you eat something and get sick later and you aren\u2019t interested in having that meal again even if it wasn\u2019t what caused your illness. Drinking a beer just doesn\u2019t sound very good most of the time, and I worry that the next one will be the drink that causes my heart to act up. Those reactions are cranked up even more with liquor, so I have some very nice bourbon sitting in my cabinet I have no interest in drinking at all. I\u2019m not totally dry or anything, and it isn\u2019t a huge switch since I had scaled back my drinking over the past couple years already. I will still get a nice, mixed drink when we go out to dinner, although I\u2019ve found a second one can truly be a motherfucker. Instead of having a beer every night, though, I\u2019m at maybe a beer a week. Or one every 10 days. It kind of sucks but if it helps keep my heart in rhythm and avoids a trip to the ED or increasing my stroke odds, I suppose it is worth it. Getting old sucks, but I could have worse issues, and I\u2019m happy to do things like this so I keep getting older.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[47,41,83],"class_list":["post-16012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-health","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-personal"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16012"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16014,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16012\/revisions\/16014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dsnotebook.me\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}