The past three months have been among the most difficult in my life. Usually, when times are hard, I turn to running to restore my equilibrium. But that has not been possible recently. Just when my toe healed around the beginning of 2013, my heart went into atrial flutter, an arrhythmia that makes running impossible. In a four week period I had two electric cardioversions, one failed attempt at a chemical cardioversion, a catheter ablation (my fifth) and a ten hour false alarm stay at UCLA emergency. Most recently, after the second cardioversion, I have been on beta blockers for two weeks.
In the good times, I thanked my friends for a great 2012. I owe a much greater debt to my friends this time. I've leaned very hard on several different people, and I am not a good patient. In earlier posts, I wrote about how easy it is to be gracious when everything goes your way, and and how hard it is when things go wrong. I re-learned that lesson recently, and found that I have a lot learn about dealing with adversity, among other things.
But the news is not all bad. My heart has been in a regular rhythm for two weeks now. I've just started running again and, if all goes well, I am off the beta blockers completely after this weekend. While I do not know what the future will bring, it certainly seems like the worst is over and running -- and life -- are getting back on track.
Here's to better times ahead, and lessons learned.
