Friday 21 October 2005

Pic of the day: Would you believe this dish could cause anyone to call medical emergency? No? Well, perhaps it was the cola then.

Minor heart scare

Generally life is good. Regular readers will know that since late spring I have avoided eating fat (except in very small doses) and also exercised more than before, to avoid a very unpleasant syndrome which is still not diagnosed. After this lifestyle change, those symptoms have virtually disappeared. On the other hand, I keep losing weight and am more hungry than before. My new and slimmer me is hungry by default: Unless I actually feel full, I want food. As I have said before, I feel a newfound sympathy for women. (In addition to the other things I feel for them, but those are beyond the scope of this entry.)

I have started eating dinner again from time to time. Pretty much without exception this is boiled pasta which I stir-fry in my new non- stick frying pan along with potato salad, raisins or apple pieces and herbs & spices. This is a meal of mostly carbs, although there is some mayonnaise in the salad. (I fry the salad first until the fat sweats out, then remove that free fat, but there is always a little left.) There is also some fat in the cheese I add at the end of the frying. I don’t like to eat dinner much later than 20 (8PM) because of the risk of acid reflux if I go to bed with a large meal still in my stomach.

Today was one of these dinner days. (If I am less hungry, I typically just eat some yogurt.) A while after dinner my brain (no doubt having read the disturbing news from my body's fat depots) decided it was still hungry, even though my stomach was full. I then made the big mistake of adding some more food, half a cup of cola and a small cup of yogurt. While finishing the yogurt I felt uncomfortably stuffed, and this continued for hours. Around 1 in the night the discomfort grew worse, and my heart began to race out of control.

I stood up and put on my pulse measuring belt and watch. At the time my pulse was 169, just a little below its maximum of 178. So I called medical emergency. A friendly lady took the phone. I told her of the racing heart and she asked about other heart-related issues. I explained that my doctor had told me to call if it happened again, but that the local medical center was closed. She immediately gave me the number to a corresponding center in the city and told me to call them. However at this time my pulse was once again slowing down, so I told her so and apologized for taking up her time. (It was the night between Friday and Saturday, when most of the week's alcohol is consumed here in Norway. I am sure they had enough to do without me.)

Some minutes later I got a call from the medical center in Kristiansand. She had called them anyway. I explained again that the pulse was now slowed down again so there was no longer a point in taking a cardiogram. The guy agreed, unless it happened again this night. It didn't, and it will probably be a while before I overeat in the night again.