Back to Semi-Normal

I’m feeling much better after my sickness during my vacation.  In fact, I’m pretty much back on track with my workouts and eating.

Tuesday was my first real workout with my trainer Steve after being on vacation and sick.  When I walked in the door of the gym, he said “Welcome back, Champ!”  It turned out I had won the Holiday Challenge, basically just a challenge to keep people active for 6 weeks surrounding Thanksgiving.  I won a $100 gift card!  In this case, I won for highest average MEP’s (MyZone Effort Points) during a workout.

I didn't mention here before that I had been seeing a cardiologist  for my AFib and she had me wearing a  heart monitor for week in early November.  This is the thing that they glue to your chest, and when you feel any heart symptoms, like fluttering or skipped beats, you push a button.  During the week I was wearing it, I was supposed to go about my normal business, including working out.  I really didn’t have many AFib symptoms except ONCE while I was on the treadmill, I felt my heart start jumping and so I pushed the button.  Then it calmed down right away so I kept working out, still it stuck in my mind so that I remembered later.

So when I looked at the stats and saw I had my max heart rate had been 189 (which is unusually high), I jokingly said to Steve “I’ll bet that max HR was when I was having AFib.”  Sure enough I checked later, and it was!

So I texted Steve along with a screen shot of that workout...

We've been working out together for almost 5 years, and I love this guy so much, he's like a brother to me.  Not only is he the best trainer ever, we have identical senses of humor when it comes to things that could be serious, but also we don’t take ourselves too seriously.

That said, on a truly serious note, turns out my AFib is getting to be a more regular occurrence (happens with age, I guess) so my cardiologist wants me to take a blood thinner.  She gave me Xarelto which I took for a week but I HATED it.  I felt like I was being poisoned.  So she prescribed Eliquis which I haven't started taking yet because I have a medical procedure scheduled for early January and the instructions say to stop taking blood thinners for a week beforehand.  I'm still not sure I even want to take it, maybe I'll just keep taking aspirin.  I guess it's a gamble, but I really don't have any other risk factors.  And my coronary artery calcium scan score was ZERO, which means I have no plaque in my arteries. 

Anyway, it's something to ponder over the holidays.   

Best Laid Vacation Plans

The day after Thanksgiving, my husband and I both started to get head colds.  

I tried to beat it by using Zicam and other cold medicines.  My symptoms remained mild, so I thought I had succeeded.  But then Saturday, when we were  supposed to fly to Palm Springs, I got a text first thing in the morning from Alaska Airlines that our flight had been cancelled due to the weather in San Francisco (high winds and rain). 

I started to try to figure out how to get to Palm Springs either later in the day or Sunday.  Of course, the weekend after Thanksgiving is the most traveled weekend in the year so I wasn’t having any luck.

About an hour after the first text, I got another text that the flight would now leave out of San Jose.  Yay, at least we were going but I had to figure out what it all meant.  We had to quickly pack and go to SFO to catch a shuttle to San Jose.  Shuttle turned out to be an Uber that was arranged for us by Alaska Airlines.  I will say that the staff at Alaska Airlines assistance was first rate and so helpful.  And I was very glad the we didn't have to get on a BUS to San Jose!  

It ended up working out fine, but I get very stressed over such things.  I’m sure that created an opportunity for my cold virus to kick into high gear.  By the time we got to Palm Springs, our colds were worse.  Over the course of 3 more days, my husband and I never left the condo we were using.

Then Tuesday night, I had an attack of Atrial Fibrillation that lasted about 2 hours.  Although I'm generally extremely healthy, I sometimes get AFib when if I’m sick or unduly stressed.  And now I have an App on my phone that can tell me if I'm really experiencing it and/or how bad it is.  Yup, it was bad. I felt like I had a fish flopping around in my chest. 

All those little red arrows are irregular beats, and the upper scratching is my heart rate changing between around 70 bpm to 150 bpm. 

My husband and I had just pulled into the ER parking lot, when it finally resolved on its own. At least we knew where the ER was, because oddly and coincidentally, the next night HE had an AFib attack and it didn’t resolve after 2 hours.  We ended up spending 5 hours in the ER and they had to give him an IV drug to get it to go back to normal rhythm.   Again, the ER staff was first class and he’s fine now but that was more stress, it was freezing in the ER and I think I got worn out. 

So the next morning, I was feeling really bad.  My husband said, why don’t we see if we can just go home early (rather than wait until Sunday).  I started looking to exchange our tickets when I got a call from my mom’s Adult Family Home that she was very sick with a UTI and might be on the verge of passing away.  I actually had to have the discussion with her doctor about what if she didn’t respond to antibiotics.

Enough said, we left that night and got home Thursday around midnight, exhausted.  I had told the dog sitter that we were coming home early so she had cleaned up to the best of her ability, but...she's not normally a very organized or tidy person.  She had turned the house into a doggie playland and didn't have a chance to regroup completely.  So our house was a mess.  But at that point, who cares?!?  At least we were home and I could be sick in my own bed! 

Friday morning, I felt terrible (sore throat, coughing, icky mucus, no voice).  I kept waiting to feel better, but I didn’t. I stopped in to see my mom, but I was afraid of passing on something to her in her weakened state, so I literally stayed 5 minutes and didn't touch her.  I don’t think she even knew who I was.

I ended up going to Urgent Care yesterday, turns out I had developed a sinus infection.  On antibiotics now, I’m finally feeling a bit better.  

As an update to my mom: She is in a very fragile state and any infection can cause her death.  Fortunately, they were able to get a urine sample and find a different kind of antibiotic to try.  So she has come back from the brink, she’s still very weak and can’t follow any commands, such as “eat” so she has to be fed.  Honestly, every time she has another one of these infections, she goes a little more down hill.  At some point, it will just be a matter of keeping her comfortable and not treating her.

The funny thing is, even thought this was a very unfortunate vacation, I’m so glad to be home and also so glad that my mom is in good hands.  So still thankful!

From the plane, a view of the mountains outside of Palm Springs...
this was the most "outdoors" we saw the whole time there

Thankful for My Life

On Tuesday afternoon, we flew down to San Francisco and will be staying a few days with my husband’s best friend of 50 years. 

Tuesday evening, we had dinner with friends and relatives at a favorite restaurant.  Yesterday afternoon, we went to the gym with our friend, and last night we had sushi for dinner.  This afternoon, we will be going for Thanksgiving dinner at our friend’s niece’s house. 

Tomorrow we’ll visit my husband’s brother, and then Saturday we’ll head to Palm Springs for a week for some sun and more relaxation. 

How lucky am I? 

Very.

My mother is now well cared in her Adult Family Home, for so that’s a lot of worry off my shoulders. 

The lady who stays with our dogs while we are gone is a good friend so no worries there either.   

I love that we can afford to travel and that we have fun places to go and friends in those places.

I love that I don’t hate my job (does that make sense? Lol) and that even if I did, I’ll be retiring in April. 

I have the best life.

So I’m thankful, very thankful.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving!