Probably a Premature Ventricular Contraction (PVC) or 2 in a row - they’re fairly common throughout the day and people may experience as many as 1-2 per hour and don’t even notice them.
Tom Seest's Latest Extended Learning (Fasting / Feasting) Experiment
jfricke
(Guardian of the bacon)
#42
I had to read that a couple of times to confirm there was no “deeper” meaning.
tdseest
(Tom Seest)
#44
No difference at all. I believe I was just getting more tired as the day progressed
rettakat
(Retta Stephenson)
#45
@tdseest Hi Tom. I’m glad to read you are recovering from the pneumonia.
I, too, have had pneumonia many times. It started years ago with chemical pneumonia, caused by repeated exposure to chlorine fumes from a public (YMCA) pool. Only, at the time, I didn’t know the cause. Later, happened again. The third time I finally put the clues together, and the doctor confirmed it, calling it chemical pneumonia (vs bacterial or viral). Said it caused damage to the delicate cells in the lungs, making me susceptible to lung infections in the future due to scarring and thickening. I now have mild asthma, episodes induced by exposure to chemicals of all kinds (MCS - multiple chemical sensitivity). All caused by that damage done earlier. So, for years I was constantly getting colds, flu, bronchitis, pnuemonia, etc etc.
Not lately. A couple of years ago I was doing research for something else, and came upon some info re micro-particle sized colloidal silver. I ended up buying a colloidal silver generator, and haven’t had pneumonia since. And any colds/bronchitis come and go faster and shorter. I use it for a lot of things. Am currently reading all the clinical studies as pertains to cancer research and colloidal silver. Fascinating stuff.
All that to say, I thought you might be interested, since you also seem to be susceptible to lung stuff, like I was. I am NOT an affiliate in any way whatsoever. I am just a very happy customer, and can honestly recommend this man and his company as an honest person to deal with, and a genuinely nice guy:
Steve Barwick at TheSilverEdge.com
https://www.facebook.com/Steve-Barwicks-Colloidal-Silver-Secrets-Community-182851985101064/
And in the spirit of “show me the science”, here are links to dozens of clinical studies on the efficacy of Colloidal Silver:
http://thesilveredge.com/studies.shtml#.WIAyQyMrInU
Overview of uses, abuses and doses:
Some pneumonias are caused by mycoplasma:
CS effective against many infectious microorganisms:
(hope it’s okay to post the links here; I didn’t want to just give anecdotal stuff, but to include info and links to studies)
Fiorella
#46
Hi Tom, I hope you are doing ok…no numbers for a while…tell me to go away if this bugs you…just want to let you know that I’m following your progress with great interest.
tdseest
(Tom Seest)
#47
Just sleeping a lot. My heart rate is much better while sleeping now but still not totally right.
tdseest
(Tom Seest)
#48
Ok. I wanted to bring you up to date on my progress, which has been slow.
Good news is that I’m still alive and kicking, and better. So, that’s a good thing.
Thanks to my friend Dave Feldman, I purchased a Pulse Oximeter today which gives me the ability to judge the oxygenation in my blood. Had I known this device existed, I would have bought it two weeks ago. A handy piece of equipment for $40.00 US.
I took many reading through out today and discovered that my level of Oxygen in the blood varied between 95 and 99%, but was pretty consistent.
So, it appears that I’ve gotten excellent recovery from my pneumonia and that my blood is getting proper levels of oxygen.
Now, the wierd thing was I noticed that the pulse or heart rate reading was way off compared to the heart rate strap which I’ve used for years while bicycling. I actually have two of these straps and have checked them both, as I was worried maybe one of them was having problems. But, they both seemed accurate. So, I now have three separate ways of measuring my heart rate:
1). Heart Rate Strap (Wahoo TICKR)
2). Apple Watch
3). Pulse Oximeter.
So, tonight, I decided to do a benchmark run on the bicycle again, as this is where I’m most comfortable with my heart rate measurements and history, as I’ve ridden while watching them for years.
So, I took a ride. I tried to keep a steady 60 RPM (slow for me), and did two sessions where I drove hard to get my heart rate up to see if it would recover. I also took two 10 minute breaks to give my heart a rest. Here are the results:
1). Heart Rate readings from the Chest Strap
2). Heart Rate readings from the Apple Watch worn on my left wrist
3). Pulse rate from the Oximeter.
No graphical data exists for this, as there is no interface to collect it. However, my heart rate never went above 110, and never went below 60 on this meter. The %O2 varied between 97 and 99 percent during the ride.
I also have a wrist BP meter that does a pulse and it indicates a normal pulse and BP for me.
I’ll discuss what I believe this means later on during this post.
Here is the remaining data from my ride:
.
Ok. So, it is my belief that I have probably have Supraventricular Tachycardia due to my bout with pneumonia. My feeling is that the heart rate strap is detecting it as a murmur because it is located near my chest. My Apple Watch doesn’t detect a high heart rate any more except for during exercise like this. The Pulse Oximeter and BP Cuff don’t seem to detect it either, and I can’t detect it by touch when measuring my pulse on the aorta. I will also note that I have no symptoms. I don’t feel bad, but get tired more quickly. I feel great during the ride, but not strained in any way. I don’t even feel bad when my heart rate hits 190 to 195 when I try to drive it up with a cadence in the 80 to 90 range.
So, what am I doing about it. For reasons I don’t want to discuss, getting formal medical treatment will be the last resort. In the mean time, I’ve done research for other options and so far; breathing exercises seem to work well in driving the heart rate down. So, I’m going to work with that for a couple of days just to see if I can return to normal. I’m also getting updated blood tests done to determine my inflammation levels, but I expect they’ll be fairly normalized by now with possibly a few exceptions. Once I collect more data, I’ll probably decide at that point if and when I need some form of treatment.
In the mean time, don’t worry about me as I’m definitely feeling better. I’ll continue to post updates as I have them.
Thank you for your concern.
DaveKeto
(Dave)
#49
In chatting with Dr Edwards, he says the pulse oximeter is far more accurate than even a chest strap due to how it acquires the pulse reading.
Your only other symptom of “getting tired more quickly” is kinda hard to narrow given you just recovered from pneumonia. (Hello!)
For me, this is one of those things that ranks higher on the Keep An Eye On It – but given all your other normal data in kind, I’m feeling much more confident this is likely transient.
tdseest
(Tom Seest)
#50
That’s kind of what I’m wondering. I may order a more sophisticated ECG machine this week to see if I can get a better handle on it. But, I’m definitely feeling better over the last two weeks. I feel like have better control of it. And, it never hurts to have more data.
tdseest
(Tom Seest)
#52
My conditioning would be off some too, but I wouldn’t expect it to be this bad. I would also expect that I would be much more out of breath if my conditioning were horrible.
The pulse oximeter and Apple Watch apparently are very similar. Rumor has it that the Apple Watch has an Oximeter built in and that future software updates will expose it for developers.
maryseest
(maryseest)
#53
Perhaps you inherited WPW from me and just now showing up. Mine was discovered accidentally first as a teen and not again till older. Could be the pneumonia though.
NelleG
(Bacon for the Win)
#54
@tdseest It’s very possible to have random runs of SVT and not be aware of it. If you were to have an EKG it would probably look pretty normal unless you happened to have a run while the test is being performed. Same with other heart dysrhythmia. You might also see a falsely high HR with dysrhythmia as irregular patterns can be hard to read.
Do you see a cardiologist? if so you could have a test done where you wear a Holter monitor for a few days. This would give you a more clear picture of what your heart is doing.
O2 over 92% is decent perfusion so no worries there.
tdseest
(Tom Seest)
#55
Yes. The problem with the Holter is that it requires that I be aware of symptoms, as it isn’t continuous, and I’m not aware of symptoms. Unless they have new Holters that are continous, I’m told that I have to press a button when I’m aware of symptoms, which I’m not. I’m short of breath when I exert myself, but I would expect to be since I’ve not been active and have been recovering from pneumonia. Literally the only extraordinary symptom I’m seeing is the high heart rate on the heart rate strap, which could be an indicator; not one to be ignored.
That said, I’m having more testing done this week. Should have a good idea if there is any remaining inflammation by the end of this week or early next week.
It also looks like I can get a Coronary Calcium Score done this week for between $49 and $99 so I’ll probably get that done.
Regarding the continuous monitoring, I’m looking into some devices that detect the arrhythmia and are continuous. If I can’t find that, I’ll probably go get an ECG or EKG done. But, I want to be sure the inflammation is gone first. Fortunately, I have a good baseline of blood work done so that I can see the changes in the inflammation markers; if any.
tdseest
(Tom Seest)
#56
It’s possible. I’ve read up a lot on WPW over the last week. But, my lack of symptoms are much different and the timing is suspect given the pneumonia. But, time will tell.
NelleG
(Bacon for the Win)
#57
it’s my understanding of the Holter monitor that it records same as an EKG would. I could be wrong but the idea of pushing a button when you feel symptomatic could be to see where it aligns with what’s being recorded at that time.
Love that you have affordable calcium scans available. There’s nowhere near me to get it done.
Stephanie
(Stephanie Hanson)
#58
As an ICU nurse, we monitor cardiac continuously on our pts. If they are conscious during an SVT run, we have them bear down, blow in a straw or sometimes just a strong cough is enough to break the rhythm. If you’re not having symptoms, I suspect it’s resolving itself. If we weren’t monitoring, we’d probably never know in most of these patients. Keep us updated.
carl
(carl)
#59
Tom, I want to set up a trainer for my recumbent trike. I’m definitely looking into your post here