normofthenorth
Well-known member
Last night or the night before, just after getting into bed, I stuck my fingers on my neck to check my pulse. Instead of going "beat, beat, beat, beat. . .", it was going "beat, beat, pause, beat, beat, pause. . ." consistently!
If you're a musician, it was like a piece in 3/4 time, with (quarter-) "note, note, rest" in every measure. If you're a ballroom dancer, it was a waltz with "step, step, hold" over and over again. The rhythm of the three "events" (beat, beat, NO beat) was completely even, and the pattern persisted for several minutes. I even fired up my BP-cuff and let my wife hear the pattern of "chirps", which was still that same pattern!
Once or twice, there were THREE beats in a row, then a pause, but all the rest were two.
My HR was relatively low -- maybe lower than 60 if you only count the actual beats, and maybe 80-ish or so if you count the skipped beats as beats.
I felt fine throughout -- OK, maybe a bit stressed, wondering what the @#$%& was going on with the ticker!

After I lay there for another couple of minutes, my HR & rhythm had returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.
ANYBODY??
For a month or so, I've had the feeling that my heart was still "finding its way" toward a "new normal", occasionally testing new low HR levels and occasionally still being higher than my "old normal" at rest, as it was for the first few months post-op. But while the RATE has been variable, and occasionally a smidge erratic and uneven, I've never before experienced this "regular irregularity". Has anybody else noticed it? (And should I worry?)
BTW, I'm continually returning to more-or-less full activity, including some pretty hard street cycling, though on relatively flat terrain. And generally feeling great when I do it. My cardiac rehab "prescription" is now 3 miles/d walk-jog (7:1), 5x/wk, with 2 weekly sessions of "resistance training", aka 10-rep weight lifting.
If you're a musician, it was like a piece in 3/4 time, with (quarter-) "note, note, rest" in every measure. If you're a ballroom dancer, it was a waltz with "step, step, hold" over and over again. The rhythm of the three "events" (beat, beat, NO beat) was completely even, and the pattern persisted for several minutes. I even fired up my BP-cuff and let my wife hear the pattern of "chirps", which was still that same pattern!
Once or twice, there were THREE beats in a row, then a pause, but all the rest were two.
My HR was relatively low -- maybe lower than 60 if you only count the actual beats, and maybe 80-ish or so if you count the skipped beats as beats.
I felt fine throughout -- OK, maybe a bit stressed, wondering what the @#$%& was going on with the ticker!
After I lay there for another couple of minutes, my HR & rhythm had returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.
ANYBODY??
For a month or so, I've had the feeling that my heart was still "finding its way" toward a "new normal", occasionally testing new low HR levels and occasionally still being higher than my "old normal" at rest, as it was for the first few months post-op. But while the RATE has been variable, and occasionally a smidge erratic and uneven, I've never before experienced this "regular irregularity". Has anybody else noticed it? (And should I worry?)
BTW, I'm continually returning to more-or-less full activity, including some pretty hard street cycling, though on relatively flat terrain. And generally feeling great when I do it. My cardiac rehab "prescription" is now 3 miles/d walk-jog (7:1), 5x/wk, with 2 weekly sessions of "resistance training", aka 10-rep weight lifting.