feeling better? I don't know yet.

It's been a week since my cardioversion procedure, but I'm still not in a position to say whether or not it has definitely made me feel better overall yet. 

I certainly felt the effects of having a massive electric shock applied to my chest area at first, with the pain from the between-the-ribs intercostal muscles making it more comfortable to keep the breathing light. It was not unlike the few times I've cracked a rib (yes, times, plural), but every day walking - with the heavier breathing when going uphill - gradually became a little more comfortable through the week as the muscular pains gradually subsided.

To complicate the feeling of improvement though, I seem to have picked up a chest infection (not that one... I tested... but it would have been typically ironic that having been Covid-free since the pandemic began that I finally picked it up in a hospital). This has given me a hacking cough, and, you guessed it, clogged up my lungs and made my breathing feel wheezy. And my chest hurts from all the coughing.

I took the dog out yesterday evening onto the old hill fort - which is probably the most favourite walk for both of us - with a steep climb from the car park area up to the first set of banks marking the iron age settlement remains. Great views for me, and pock-marked with rabbit burrow entrances for small white terriers to get very excited about, particularly towards dusk, when the rabbits have been starting to venture out.

It was difficult to tell whether the heavy breathing, and the need to stop and rest before we got up to the flatter ground, was due to my heart still having difficulties supplying enough oxygenated blood to my muscles fast enough, or whether the chest infection is getting in the way of getting the blood oxygenated enough in the first place.

I don't have my first post-op BP and pulse check ups until the week after next, over two weeks after the procedure. Hopefully by then I'll be clear of this cough and have more of an idea of where we are.