Here I am, all wired up

A few weeks ago, I got a little dizzy while riding my bike up a hill, causing me to run into a rock wall and skin my leg. Since then I’ve seen the Dr. a couple of times, had some blood tests, wore a heart monitor for a day, and had a treadmill test. During the treadmill test, the Dr. said everything looked good, but I don’t have the final results from that yet.

The results from wearing the heart monitor for a day showed that I has a couple of briefs episodes of “ectopic atrial rhythm”. I believe that means that my heart had some extra beats it shouldn’t have had. After reviewing those results, the Dr. decided I should wear a heart monitor for a month!

I went to the hospital and had the monitor “installed” a couple of days ago. The monitor box is a bit heavier and bulkier than my cell phone. It seems to always be in the way.  I’ve pulled the wires out a couple of times already. It is not my favorite thing to sleep with, that’s for sure. I can take it off to shower, thank goodness. I was given plenty of extra electrodes so I can replace them each time I take a bath.

The monitor has a button to push if I feel any symptoms. That causes the monitor to record for several seconds.  Otherwise, the monitor detects irregular heart beats and sends a wireless signal to record the data. I pushed the button this morning because I felt a little light-headed. About 30 minutes later, a person from the company that supplies the monitor called to ask what I was feeling and what was I doing when I pushed the button. I asked if she could see any irregular heart beats, but she said she didn’t know anything about that. She said the Dr. would be the one to discuss the results.

I wore the monitor yesterday while on a 53-mile bike ride. I worried the electrodes might come off when I got sweaty, but they didn’t. It was pretty cool yesterday, and I didn’t sweat much.

I’m glad I can ride while wearing the monitor. Otherwise, I would just take it off to ride, but I really didn’t want to do that. But, I don’t want to stop riding for a month just for this test.