Something is rattling the cage
After some weeks of messy heart rhythm I'm actually back in something approaching sinus and pulse rate has crept up a little. So it was something of a surprise when I finally collected my meds today ( should have been Friday :( ) that I had an extra one. The Bisoprolol Fumarate, which is designed to reduce pulse rate, had been added back in. Given that the last time I was on it I had problems where a ambulances had been called a few times, I don't think I will be taking it and the paperwork says don't take it 'If you have a slow heart rate ( less than 60 BPM )'. Apparently the hospital has reinstated it without any discussion, so just waiting to see if my own doctor rings back later about it.
I'm due another full blood count in a week or so as some of the readings there have been low, and I'm due another 24 hour ECG which this time will involve a couple of round trips to Worcester to get it fitted and recovered. WHY can't that be done by my local surgery as the last one was? These systems really arn't linked up at all yet. I would still like to establish just what level of exercise I should be doing daily. Having trimmed the morning cycle to 20ish minutes some days I touch band 3 rate wise, while others I only get a couple of minutes of band 2 so I don't want something which will affect that. The odd day rates are very high with no explanation as to why. The original 20 minutes 'brisk walk' has evolved into a more leisurely 45 minutes or so depending if I am also doing some food shopping. As with the exercise, heart rate can be a bit hit and miss, but the Samsung Health app has it all logged. It's nannying is irritating, or should that be 'stressful', anyway the idea that I need to go to bed between 19:15 and 20:20 tonight to improve my sleep score is definitely way out of line. I did give in and put my evening book down at 10PM last night, and then was awake around 5:30 waiting for the alarm to go off at 6:10 ... the Watch3 simply can't cope with low pulse rate readings, although there has obviously been a change to the software as it's reporting much lower 'HRV' despite data that matches previous periods when the count was several hundred mS. Many night in the last couple of weeks apparently I have not been asleep at all. While the watch says I only got 6hr 11min last night, while I was up for a quick toilet break, I know I got a good 7 hours+ which IS in the guide period.
As I have said before. I could do with a better monitor of heart rate that produces better sleep data, but it looks like even the latest Watch8 is finally admitting that if my pulse rate is below 50 they can't cope with it. Although we will have to wait until Wednesday to get the full details. not looking to buy a newer model, but if they affer money off for the old one as they have done in the past it may be worth an upgrade anyway.
One thing I have been doing better on is with my weight. I have to keep below 1800kcal to hold it stable and having had a couple of meals out it crept up, but it's back at 72kg again. The Health App on the mobile phone was screwed up for a few weeks with it not being able to search, but a recent update has fixed that. I mainly used the tablet which was not affected. What is somewhat irritating is the poor quality of the nutrition data that the app searches through. Often things like fibre are missing or simply wrong when it does find a match and filtering could be made a LOT better if one could simply select a supplier and filter on that first. At least the 'recently used' filter seems to help find ones I have loaded myself in the past but I would like a little more UK based bias to the information. 5-a-day monitoring in particular. Think I am doing OK on that count although 'fruit' does give the sugar levels a nasty hit. I do take that with a pinch of salt, as it is 'natural' rather than 'refined' it's not as bad? Also only having 1800kcal to play with makes other balances difficult, again something which the app could perhaps help with. One for my own data processing tools in bitweaver perhaps ...