Sad, but true

It’s been a time of change… again.  No sooner have I begun to adapt to one new set of parameters when, flash, bang, hey presto, something else comes along to keep me on my toes. Those who know me will know I have been a yoga person for most of my life.  It helps focus the crazy mind and tones the old frame. Last Saturday I was doing my early morning session standing on my head (I love seeing the world upside down - it puts it all in a very different perspective!)  I felt something move in my chest.  Not a recreation of the scene from Alien but a feeling that my heart rate had changed.  I know some will say ‘Well, if you stand on your head what do you expect?’, but even after half an hour of relaxation and meditation it still felt changed and odd.  I phoned 111 and they recommended A&E.  The following hour found me in Countess of Chester Hospital ACU wired up to monitors and a rather unsettling time watching my heart rate on the monitor going fast one minute and slow the next.  I only needed to raise a hand and it accelerated as though I was running a marathon. And it was taking ages to go back down again.  The strange thing was that apart from being slightly aware of the change in my chest, I had no other symptoms at all.  No pain, dizziness, no abundant perspiration.  Nothing.  Just a trembly feeling whenever I did anything other than lie supine in the hospital bed.  So they kept me in. Four days followed waiting for the daily doctors’ rounds to find out what was wrong and in between blood pressure checks, blood tests, scans and X rays. I was very well cared for. All the staff, from clinical, cleaning, catering, were polite and considerate and they showed genuine compassion for all the patients and calm professionalism in everything they did.  I was very impressed.  No wonder we clapped them.  They deserve more than clapping. Anyway the upshot for me is that they don’t really know what it is.  It has a name - ‘atrial fibrillation’ - but this is a description rather than a diagnosis. The cardiologist had no idea of what might have caused it.  I don’t drink alcohol, I’ve given up coffee, I don’t smoke and I’m veggie.  But I do leap around and push myself. And I am 71 so it’s probably just an age thing.  Apparently the danger is not a heart attack but a stroke, caused by the blood moving differently creating the possibility of a clot leading to a stroke or worse.  So blood thinning tablets and beta blockers (to slow the heart).  They let me out with strict instructions to take it easy and to attend the coronary outpatients clinic for a follow up in two weeks. The words ‘Mr Alexander’ and ‘take it easy’ do not sit comfortably in the same sentence.  But I am being looked after with the same compassion, care and consideration that I had in hospital.  More actually. The heart has settled down in the week since I was released, but the whole affair has given me yet another cause for contemplation. Like so many things recently.  And I have made some decis