It takes a licking and keeps on ticking

 

Timex, the old watch commercial used the slogan "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking"  I thought it would be a good title for this post.The picture is not so great but it has a pretty good story to go along with it and you may notice that I decided to publish this post even though the picture is pretty unflattering. 

Some of you may know that I have episodes of what is called "atrial fibrillation".  I looked up the definition in an old medical dictionary (just as a little 'side' story, inside the cover it says:Della Lewis, Hurley Hospital School of Nursing and that was the fall of 1968)  The definition says: "condition in which contractions of the atria work independently of the ventricles"  It goes on and on more but I won't bore you more.  Anyway, what happened is my heart starts by beating in an irregular manner and then sometimes it goes into the 'fibrillation' which causes it to beat very rapidly.  My doctor is a very thorough man and has kept an eye on it for quite some time.  It is a nuisance but not life threatening unless it goes on for more than 24 hours.  The last month or so I was experiencing an episode almost every day and they would go on for a few hours.  It was getting a little annoying so I mentioned it again at my last visit to my doctor.  He put me on a medication that is helping to regulate my heart and sent me to my cardiologist for a check up.  I had a stress echo cardiogram last week in the office.  My lovely little heart decided it needed to 'perform' for the technicians there in the office.  After the treadmill portion of the test, I showed them how it loves to go into this A-Fib (doctors shorthand for this problem.)  My heart just didn't want to slow down after the test.  They scurried around the office and found another doctor to check me out and finally called my cardiologist over from the hospital to check me out too before sending me home.  Since this is a regular occurrence for me I wasn't too worried.  I guess if you are going to have any problem with your heart, the best place to 'show off' is at the office of your cardiologist right across the street from the hospital.  

SO, just like a Timex, my heart takes a licking and keeps on ticking.  I only hope that we are not just allowed so many heart beats for each person.  I would hate to waste them just sitting around.