good news on the heart front

There's nothing quite as fine as a follow-up visit with your cardiologist to hear the results of a stress test, and having him smile and say, "looks good!"

The point of all this was to see if my heart is trying to tell me something after going into atrial fibrillation on New Year's Day, for the third time in seven years. The best guess for the cause of it, this time, seems to be self-induced upchucking, and I promise not to do that again if I can avoid it.

The stress test sort of stressed me out because they quit on phase 3 before launching into phase 4, which has you jogging up an incline. Phase 3 is a fast walk up an incline. She didn't think I was picking up my feet fast enough in phase 3 and cut the machine, but I was doing fine in terms of not dying aerobically. I want a rematch with the machine.

So today I asked if I have the heart of an 80-year-old, an 18-year-old, or something in between. He said I have the heart of a 60-year-old, which makes perfect sense because I see 61 around the corner. Blocked arteries? Not an issue. Now for the important question: Is there any reason I can't go Scuba diving? No, he said, but he'd rather I wait for the water to warm up. Now, that's the kind of medical advice I like to hear!