Wired Up!!

I spent 24 hours from yesterday lunchtime wired up to this little recorder to monitor my heart rhythm - I've been experiencing occasional episodes of palpitations for some time and this is one of the checks I've been advised to have. This is actually the second attempt - I had a similar 24-hour monitoring in November but (of course!) nothing much happened then so it wasn't very helpful.

This time I did have an episode of symptoms - triggered, would you believe, by the excitement yesterday evening of winning the colour print competition at my local camera club for the second consecutive time!! The winning picture was one I took in April 2014, very soon after I started blipping (the picture is here).

So although I didn't like having symptoms, it was good that they occurred while the monitor was in place this time. And I don't think anyone at the club was aware that I was feeling a little odd. Hopefully the consultant will now be able to work out what's happening and tell me what he can do about it. (It's a shame that having a medical degree doesn't stop you from needing to be a patient yourself from time to time!)

It's amazing how much smaller these cardiac monitors are nowadays compared with some time ago. One of our lads was born with a heart defect and he's been having these checks for years; in the old days they were at least as big as a cassette Walkman as they used to use the same technology - now they're about half the size of a modest smartphone. But they still seem to refer to the test as a "24-hour tape" even though the recording is now digital.