Rein free heart?
Muse #440 - new plumbing makes a year
It is a year since I got my new plumbing. A quadruple bypass surgery. I guess with some fully blocked arteries there wasn’t much of an alternative then and the new plumbing recovered from other parts of the body has held up and adapted itself so far.
Do I feel the same? I certainly don’t. Do I feel somewhat similar to what I used to be? Maybe. The last few winter months have been hard on me. From maintaining my exercise regimen, routine, and energy perspectives. With a lack of energy, one does not know whether it is pathological or psychological, or a combination of several factors. So, all I could do is work through the process of eliminating some of the possibilities, while other invalidated hypotheses remain.
I met with my cardiologist a week ago and his premise was that he could help only with the cardio-related experiments and not with the motivation part. And understandably so. So we are validating his hypothesis that the suppressed heart function from the beta-blockers might be causing the energy and motivation issues. So he suggested that I try going after my blood thinners and my beta-blockers for 3-6 months and see what happens. Free-range heart. Or is it free rein heart? Or rein-free heart?
The initial week was turmoil with the withdrawal symptoms of these medicines and both my resting heart rate and my exertion heart rates have both increased. Expectedly. Simple things increase my heart rate to the fat-burn zone. But with exercise and repetition, the body slowly is supposed to learn that the heart can supply enough oxygen at lower heart rates as it progresses and bring down the pressure on the heart. And exercise builds the heart muscle, so that helps too. So the experiments continue.
For now, I am indeed one of the lucky ones. Unlike millions of lives cut short due to man-made and natural reasons, I am lucky to be around and amongst people who love me and need me in their lives. And so my journey continues, with the humbleness and thanks to all that I have had so far this lifetime.
And I got to eat cake, homemade and baked with love by my daughter with limited sugar and protein pancake powder mixed in it. The healthy kind, or at least that is the story I tell myself. And in my own flamboyant style, I stabbed the little gel-icing heart on it with a knife before we all ate it.
