Easter Update

 Hello, dear Reader

I have now stopped the Amiodarone.  It's not as scary as it sounds as last time it took 5 weeks before I started getting fast heart rate.  So far I am only just over two weeks into those five.

Even before that though, I had one of fast HR while mopping the floor.  Felt it straight away and was filled with dread but it ended after five minutes or less. Asked Papworth Hospital arrythmia nurses if I should still come off the drug and they said yes, that it was too toxic to stay on long-term and we wouldn't know if it had worked if I didn't stop it.

My recovery has continued to go well.  I was able to increase my running quite substantially so I was running further than expected more quickly that I expected and gained fitness quicker than expected.  Exciting!  I think the whole recovery has just been easier this time (because they "didn't do much") and also I was doing weekly fast Nordic walks rather than just normal walking.

Generally I am 2-3 months (months!) ahead of all my other recoveries! I've even been skipping (ie with a rope, blooming hard work).  On the minus side my running is s-l-o-w.  I'm so slow compared to pre- all this Afib rubbish even allowing for the six years of aging that has also occurred.  

And despite all this good news I have suffered the odd bout of depression which is a truly dreadful thing to deal with even if, as in my case, it was over a few days and not that bad.  So difficult to deal with - my heart goes out to anyone who has to deal with that long-term.

 So I crammed in six weeks running and was up to over eight miles a week which is reasonable for me though it is in the form of 2.5 mins run/30 secs walk so far - adding 30s to the runs each week.  I started to feel fitter and faster (relatively speaking) but I was stressing my poor feet by doing so much so quickly so have just had two weeks off.

We went to the Netherlands which is a truly underrated country - I'd been lucky enough to go to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Breda before but this time we were in much less touristed places - Friesia and its islands, beautiful cities like Hoorn and Dokkum and Zwolle.  What a wonderfully clean, tidy, organised place with lovely people who speak impeccable English and like to laugh at our attempts at Dutch!  Absolutely loved it - and the cycling - OMG!

We hired bikes on the island of Ameland - whole day, no time limit, seven-speed 'sit-up-and-beg'/Dutch style town bikes for EIGHT EUROS.  No passport needed, no deposit needed and the bike impeccably maintained as were the cycle paths (as are the roads too).  There is a cycle path along the North of the island which consists of a mixture of concrete slabs, gravel or (hardest of all) crushed shells (!).  It was supposed to be an easy day, but once we saw the lovely lighthouse we HAD to cycle to that.  Once there I walked over to it for the obligatory photo and immediately my heart went tachycardic.  I don't mind admitting I was scared.  Luckily it corrected itself very quickly and we were able to cycle back and drop off the bikes having done an incredible 20 miles - my longest bike ride in ages.

The Tachycardia thing started happening 1-3 times per day - once or twice walking, mainly sitting in the car.  I really thought it was only a matter of time before I landed in a Dutch hospital and ruined our holiday.  And, whereas before it was always an enormous nuisance having to go to hospital and hope for a quick cardioversion, now it is scary after my terrible experience last time.  It was all not helped because, after having gone an incredible, record-breaking ten days without my usual HHT nosebleeds I ended up having 20 in nine days

Oddly, my other half was also having loads of ectopic beats daily lasting longer than normal and being more disruptive. We realised we were not drinking anywhere near as much as usual (I usually aim for 2-2.5 L per day plus three huge mugs of weak tea daily) and so we made an effort to drink more water and use the High5 hydration tablets I use at home.

Result?   Both improved and only 1-2 episodes in the 6-7 days since.  Fingers crossed this is all I have to deal with although time will tell...  I'm also taking Magnesium just in case that helps - fingers crossed!

I'll keep you posted.  Keep active!