He was young, 35 to be exact. He kept in good shape, all his vitals were at target and he’d just had a great yearly physical. And yet there it was right in front of him on this damned fitness gizmo he’d bought just for kicks.
His resting was off the chart low and his workouts were what you’d expect. But for the last week his heart rate had spiked briefly every day to nearly 100. He was worried. He went online and typed a message to his doctor. A few hours later his doctor answered, “Those things are pretty unreliable, still, keep an eye on it. You’re probably doing something. Let me know if it continues.”
He watched it over the weekend: nothing unusual, no spikes. He played golf on Sunday and it never went over 70. Well… must have been a fluke.
Monday was a great day, worked out, chill day at work, and met some old buddies for some beer. Right before he turned in he checked the numbers on his watch. Damn! There it was again. 98 bpm sometime in the morning. What the hell.
“I want you to come in. Let’s see if we can get to the bottom of this.” His doctor was on it and he left the office with a more precise, robust monitor connected by WiFi with his doctor’s office. They watched it for a week and sure enough every morning around 10:15 there was the spike. And all he was ever doing was sitting at his desk.
They agreed to do a video visit while he sat in the normal office so his doctor could see him. They were chatting around 10:16 and there it went, right up again. “Wait! What are you looking at?” “I’m just looking out the window…uh oh”.
The next day he was back with his doctor turning in the monitor. “Can I give you a piece of advice?” He sighed, he’d been kind of embarrassed now over the whole thing “you’re the doctor”. “If she sets your heart racing like that, go out there and walk with her”.
© Glenn R Keller 2020, All Rights Reserved
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