A trip to the doctors in late October to figure out why I had been dealing with a shortness of breath for 3 weeks revealed my heart had been slacking. It was only beating about about 50% of the rate it should have been resulting in a build up of fluid which was why I was having shortness of breath.
My first reaction was "C'mon!" I spent this year fasting and losing 40 lbs and walking and riding my bike and my reward is heart issues! not fair (you can hear the whine in that complaint). And then after awhile I thought that maybe all that work meant things turned out less bad than they could have....and as long as I am still breathing I can start over with weight loss and fitness etc.
My cardiologist thinks I have a good chance to get my heart beating again like it should, a new range of meds have helped and all the water weight I gained has gone, I have been squeezed like sponge lol and am back to where I was after the weight loss. The biggest thing besides not feeling short of breath is sleep, I could not lie down to sleep in October without the need after a few minutes to sit up to breathe so I slept sitting up and only got about 2 hours of disjointed rest, but now I am sleeping 7 to 8 hours again - lying down. Bliss.
For now I am neither drinking alcohol or riding my bike per doctors orders so I will not complete this years Coffeeneuring challenge - sad trombone, but I am doing some easy walking and hope to be back on the bike, and drinking the occasional adult beverage again in 2021. And when I am feeling up to it I have a few Mountain bikes to tinker with and numerous small projects on the rest of the fleet.
Until then I hope YOU will ride. Smile. and Repeat.
