Digital Choke Daynotes

 Monday, September 20, 2004       mail    link

We had a good weekend up at the cabin, but it was a bit cool. The cabin is at the 6000 foot level. During the summer, the daytime temperature gets into the 80's F; at night it cools down in the 50's. This weekend the high was in the 60's, and down in the 40's at night. So we had the fireplace going the whole time.

On Saturday, we all went to Lake Tahoe, and took the nature walk at the center just past Camp Richardson. It's a nice paved walking trail through meadow, stream, and forest area. One part was next to the stream, where we saw several dozen Coho salmon making their way up for spawning. They were a bright red. I forgot to bring the camera, so no pictures, but the grandkids were very excited to see them.

Another part of the trail dips below ground level into a building with a clear window into a stream area. There you can see several salmon, some crawdads, and a very large frog. The grandkids enjoyed that part.

We also saw a pair of chipmunks, and a small snake. Not sure what kind it was; it was about the diameter of a pencil, black with a single yellow stripe. We watched them for a few minutes.

Back at the cabin with some new toys for the grandkids (play-doh and dolls). We did get them outside for a bit to throw rocks into the river, which they enjoyed.

We decided to leave Sunday morning. After a general cleanup, we also did the 'close the cabin' tasks. The main task is draining the water pipes, water heater, and the toilet to minimize freezing damage. And we put out some rat poison for any critters that might want to visit for the winter.

It was colder on Sunday, with highs at the cabin barely reaching 50. We left about 10:30, and on the way home ran into a good sized rainstorm. Turns out there was a pretty large thunderstorm system, very heavy in some areas. There was some localized flooding in Sacramento; the storm dumped about 2 inches in an hour. There were reports of a bit of snow in the mountains. It was nice to get home to a warmer house and hot showers.

Today was routine stuff at work. But in the afternoon, I got another episode of atrial fibrillation. Since my cardiologist wanted to get an echocardiogram during the next one, we wandered over to the ER. The initial 'echo' showed irregular heartbeat. So I got admitted to the ER section, got hooked up to the monitor, IV needle in the back of my hand, and waited around a bit.

The monitor showed an irregular heart rate of around 140-150, normal blood pressure. I've been through this before (I've had this problem intermittently for 8-10 years), so it was the usual. A dose of diltizam got the rhythm back to normal. This episode only lasted about 4 hours. In the past, they have lasted 14-28 hours, so this is much better. The Rhythmol medicine I am taking has it more under control.

The result of the whole thing is a general tiredness. An episode of atrial fibrillation is like exercising without moving, so it's normal to be tired afterwards. I'm thinking a day off tomorrow might be a good thing; it is sort of tiring.

This condition is becoming more prevalent among older people. Current research indicates that 1/4 of the population over 40 will get episodes of a-fib. I've done a bit of research on this over the years. One possible cause (or related condition) is sleep apnea, which is another problem I've had over the years.

More about all this later. I'm a bit tired (but OK -- a-fib is not life-threatening, although there is an increased risk of stroke if an a-fib episode lasts for more than about 24 hours; which is why I also take a blood thinner to reduce the stroke risk).

 Tuesday, September 21, 2004       mail    link

I stayed home today. Nothing terribly exciting happened. Worked a bit with Crystal Reports. Watched a bunch of TV. Sprayed some weed killer on a few weeds. Talked to the neighbors. Got the mail (no, the pavement wasn't too hot, so I didn't need my shoes). Wandered around the Daynotes Gang sites.

That's about it.