tearin' up my heart

my heart is not fully n'sync.

back in late july i had a follow-up appointment with the cardiologist to go over the findings from the event monitor (which btw, cost a mere $1,200 for 30-days of use) and my echocardiogram (~$550). sadly they don't give you a picture of the heart ultrasound like you get when you have a baby ultrasound. the echo was cool though and i will be tagging along with all my friends to their ultrasounds so i can watch.

it's... twins!
just kidding. i'm not growing babies in my heart.

anyway. the doc said i had a sinus arrythmia and premature ventricular contractions (pvc's). he said that these are "common" abnormalities to have and not life-threatening. you can take medicine for them but it's a pill (or two) every day for the rest of your life (a beta blocker maybe? i don't remember), and you can't take them anyway if you have asthma (like me). my doctor said that i didn't need to take anything unless the episodes were interfering with my quality of life, so i'm glad i don't have to get any new prescriptions. they still wake me up in the middle of the night from time to time but happen less often overall.

i am still taking a magnesium supplement (500mg) daily; i started doing this after i had to have an iv of magnesium in the emergency room. a quick googling of "running+pvc's" landed me on the in motion blog. the runner (john) noticed his in the hot, humid weather and found that his magnesium levels were also low. low magnesium does not necessarily cause pvc's, but let this be a reminder to keep all of your electrolytes in check no matter what time of year!

in summary, i'll survive. hopefully these things will continue to subside and maybe even stop altogether one day. thanks for all the kind thoughts and prayers this summer.