PVC's and Other Random Stuff

So, here's a collection of random bits of information that don't, by themselves, demand a full blog post.

• PVC's.  I finally was able to connect with my Mayo Clinic cardiologist on the phone.  After hearing the new, more thorough description I was able to give of the heart arrhythmia I experience during exercise--because I'm now getting it fairly regularly when not exercising, so I'm much better able to describe what I'm feeling and what my pulse is doing--he's confident that the arrhythmia is, indeed, PVC's.  Or maybe PAC's, which he described as "even more benign." Between my description and what he saw on my 48-hour Holter monitor (EKG) and stress EKG (even though neither actually caught the arrhythmia in question), he's sure that the arrhythmia is not dangerous, and the only reason I'd need further evaluation is if it got bothersome enough that I wanted to treat it to get rid of the symptoms.  "Getting rid of the symptoms" would be cool (especially the "I skate really slow when this is happening," but also the "it's hard to get to sleep at night when this is happening" symptom), but the three treatment options are not without issues.  The first, a medication class called beta blockers, is out--beta blockers limit your maximum heart rate.  I was on them for two days when I first got medicated for my old (since-fixed-by-ablation) arrhythmia; when my resting HR was 36 and my max with exercise was 135, I suggested we try something else.  Clearly, skating on beta blockers would suck. The next treatment option, anti-arrhythmic drugs, is not appealing because PVC's are not dangerous, but anti-arhythmics can be; they can actually cause arrhythmias (sometimes fatal ones).  The third option, another ablation, may or may not be possible, depending on the profile of the PVC's.  My previous ablation was successful, but was for an arrhythmia (AVNRT) that is very common and is typically easily ablated. PVC's are apparently a bit trickier.  So, bottom line on the heart stuff:  happily, it's not dangerous and needs no further intervention unless it gets to a point where it bothers me enough that I want to do something about it.  Unhappily, this means that I'm pretty much stuck with it for the foreseeable future, unless it decides to vanish as mysteriously as it came.  A girl can hope, right?
• I signed up for the North Shore Inline Marathon.  I am in no way ready to skate this thing as an actual race, but it should be fun to do it in a "let's see how much I can enjoy this" sort of way.  Except I probably won't be enjoying the "getting up at 4 am to drive to Duluth" aspect.  Still, I think that will work better for me than trying to get to Duluth on Friday after work.  I've done that in the past and it wasn't pretty.
• I also signed up for the Salt Lake City Master's Camp that I did last November.  It was a blast, and I'm looking forward to doing it again...except that I've since realized that the "epic fail" 3K I did in the camp was the first time I had the above-mentioned heart arrhythmia--and then, of course, once the arrhythmia showed up it didn't go away.  In fact, most of my "epic fail" races have come in Salt Lake.  Maybe the altitude doesn't agree with me.   I do fine in Calgary, though, and in my first two visits to SLC, in January of 2006 and December of 2007, I did very well. So who knows.
• Workouts have been going pretty well the past few days.  I'm feeling fine, energy-wise, and still don't have a need to "time" my thyroid meds relative to my workouts, which is good.  But I'm still slower than I was last year, and with a higher heartrate--which I believe translates to "you're out of shape."
• Workshop week for school starts next Tuesday.  I've been doing stuff to get ready for the beginning of the school year, but I'm kidding myself if I think I'm ready to start getting up at 5:40 am every weekday again.
• I'll close with a happy thought.  I can't remember if I posted this before, but I love the live 24-7 webcam at the oval.  Any time the weather is iffy, I can do a quick check and see if the oval is wet.  It's the little things in life that make us happy...