It’s now about 3:30 am and my heart has been acting weird since noon yesterday. I took more readings using my Kardia EKG and my heart is basically beating twice as fast as normal and skipping beats. Here is the output from the EKG app:
Each horizontal division is one second so my heart is beating at ~120 bpm. It’s pretty evident in the short period above, it skipped two beats. Some of the EKG readings were pretty regular but still fast. My Fitbit is having problems reading the pulse, probably due to the arrhythmia.
You can see the trend is pretty normal on Sunday. Then yesterday around noon, the measured heart rate goes crazy. Sometimes the Fitbit picks up the rapid heart rate, other times due to the skipped beats, it’s still measuring bpm in the 60’s.
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I’m kind of frustrated and disappointed at all this. My heart will probably be like this tomorrow when I show up for dialysis. 50/50 chance they will make me go to the ER. Since there will be lots of sick people with COVID-19, I don’t really want to go. Even if my heart goes back to “normal”, I still need to talk to my cardiologist. I’m not sure what to tell the transplant cardiologist at UCLA on Wednesday either.
As I mentioned in my last a-fib post, this is just another problem in a long list of setbacks. Ever since I found out about my kidney disease, I (and a bunch of people) have been praying for healing. Five years later and stuck on dialysis, maybe God is using a live transplant to “heal” me. However, each time we get close, something comes up. Either my sister’s kidney CT scan, or my friend’s blood pressure. Last November, it seems like we were progressing towards a transplant, I had to go in for heart surgery. Now, in the midst of COVID-19 when I thought everything was on hold, I get the opportunity to be taken off transplant hold. Then two days before the appointment, this happens.
My hope for a normal life is already small yet it’s challenged daily. The only way I can get through some days when my neuropathy is acting up is to focus on a better future. However, I’m getting the feeling that this is my reality and there is no better future. I’m going to be stuck on dialysis for many years, with increasing health complications, until I die.
Life with chronic diseases 