I got 9 months.  I guess that’s pretty good.  Sadly, though, my streak of steady sinus rhythms and normal heart rates was broken on Easter.  I spent my Easter Sunday not with the Easter Bunny or having Easter dinner, but in the Emergency Room.  My heart rate went wacky.  It wasn’t full blown Afib, it was Atrial Flutter, but that was discouraging enough.  Once again, my heart was on the fritz.  I was bummed.

Luckily, they didn’t keep me.  They cardioverted me and my heart rate snapped back to perfectly normal.  The working theory is that my magnesium and potassium levels were low.  Apparently this can sometimes cause atrial flutter.  I’m on a pretty strong diuertic and I tend to sweat a lot when I exercise, so it’s certainly not outside the realm of possibility that I could be losing quite a lot of minerals.  We upped my dosage of magnesium and potassium, and the doctor recommended that I get a sports drink for when I exercise.  That, of course, is a new problem.

Exercise is one of the things that depleted my levels.  Unfortunately for me, I’m not one of those women who gets “dewy” when I work out.  I sweat like a horse.  It isn’t uncommon for me to soak the neck of my t-shirt with sweat.  Of course some of that is probably attributable to the diuretic, but still, I lose a lot of fluid and a lot of minerals.  Since I know that, I’m now a little concerned about exercising hard.

If I think about it logically, I know that I’ve increased my dosages of the minerals in question and that should help.  I also know that the benefits of exercise far outweigh the risks to my heart.  Even if I do go in to atrial flutter or Afib itself, it’s not life threatening, it’s just uncomfortable and a nuisance.   Still, I’m a bit nervous.   I know it’s not logical, but the concern is still there.

Tonight I put in a DVD and exercised for the first time since Sunday.  It wasn’t one of my toughest full cardio tapes, but I worked up a sweat.  I took my meds almost directly afterward and I loaded up on the magnesium and potassium.  So far, I feel o.k.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things stay that way.