Hi,
Literary Update: I’ve written very little during this recovery period. I’m off my game, what else can I say?
Medical Update: The surgery was about five weeks ago (9-22-2025), so I’ve had plenty of time to recover. Before the surgery I was out of breath after I climbed our stairs (usually with a mug of coffee in hand). It was slight enough that I didn’t even think about it being connected to my AFib. I assumed it was just age-related until Minay pointed out the possibility. One of the first things we noticed was that I didn’t huff or puff at all when climbing the stairs. In fact, after the surgery, I didn’t feel like I’d had any surgery.
Five days after the surgery, Minay bought me a portable blood pressure monitor, and I started tracking my blood pressure and pulse. It was obvious right away that it was much better than before. During doctor’s visits they always took my blood pressure, and mentioned what it was, usually something in the neighborhood of 130 (systolic) / 70 (diastolic).
The systolic reading (the first number) is a measure of the pressure the heart creates on the artery walls when it’s squeezing blood out through them. High readings (way above 130) are bad. The diastolic reading (the second number) is the amount of pressure when the heart relaxes between contractions. It’s when the heart fills with blood before another pump. Very low readings (under 60) aren’t good. That could lead to dizziness and fainting.
After the surgery, my systolic readings have mostly been between 120 and 130, and my diastolic readings have mostly been between 60 and 70 (so, good readings that are close to my typical ones before surgery). The big difference was in my pulse rate. Before, my pulse rate would be all over the place, down as low as 40 beats per minute (BPM) sometimes, but that was rare; and as high as 160 BPM (I’ve only had that happen once that I know of, usually it went up and down between 55 and 104). After the surgery, my pulse rate has been between 52 and 61 BPM consistently. Average BPM for someone my age is between 60 and 100 BPM, although some athletes can have BPMs lower than that (maybe all my years running gave me an athlete’s heart? Cool!).
At any rate, aside from my slowly-worsening arthritis, and my still recovering hip replacement, I feel pretty good.
The next post is a side-story about my AFib itself. Now that’s it’s gone I guess I can speak about it behind its back. 😊
See you then,
Michael
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