Bother......

Last Tuesday, I went to see another cardiologist at Glasgow Royal Infirmary expecting to be told to slow down a bit - what he said was a bit of a shock.

From the printout from my 24 hour recording, he could see that during the football match last Thursday, my heart rate suddenly jumped up to 270 bpm and for the next 6 hours, was "all over the place". He explained to me all of the options, the upshot being that I'm on the waiting list for an operation in around 3 months time. As of now, I'm on beta blockers, which have made me feel crap:-( He reckoned I'd been very lucky not to have had a more serious outcome to any of the events I've had over the past 15 months. I've tried to work it out, and it must be close to 120 times I've had to deal with my irregular heartbeat.

So, no exercise for the past 10 days and it's driving me nuts - hopefully I'll get the all clear to resume some sort of training soon.

It's all been a bit of a shock, but it should all be sorted out soon.


On the MMGW front, there have been no takers - surprise, surprise............

The Emperor's New Clothes

Once again, we are being told that global warming is man made, and this time they're 90% sure. Well forgive me if I'm a little sceptical, but last Friday's publication was only the summary for policymakers. It seems strange to me that they give us the politicised, dumbed down version, months before the main paper. That didn't stop the media from using to forecast, in some cases, that life as we know it is doomed. Well, if they're 90% sure that means its 9/1 that global warming is not man made - I'll take that bet, to the tune of £1,000.00. Yep, I'll put up a grand of my hard earned that around 10 years from now, we will be seeing the signs of us entering a cooling phase. So, any of you MMGW proponents willing to back your claims?

The whole idea that CO2 is a major forcing of climate warming just doesn't seem to fit the data (not the model:-)). Even with current computing power, modelling a chaotic massive system like the global climate is like using chainsaw to trim a bonsai tree.

Have a look at:


Graph showing CO2 increase lagging temerature increase over thousands of years


Graph showing Temperature change, CO2 change and sunspot cycle length


On a personal note, for the last year or so I've been getting an irregular hear beat during competitive exercise (football and racing). Well, it's been getting worse, so a few weeks ago I went to see my GP who referred me to a cardiologist at the local hospital. I got all the tests including Doppler ultrasound, blood tests and static/stress ECG using the Bruce protocol. All was fine, with me reaching a maximal heart rate of 168 on the stress ECG. My resting pulse was just under 50, which is pretty good for an old bloke like me.
Prior to the test I'd said that it usually took 30 mins+ of competitive exercise before the symptoms became apparent, so on Thursday morning I went back to have a 24 hour 'tape' fitted. The 'tape' is what they call a heart rate recording device which is around the size of a walkman/orig iPod with 6 electrodes which are placed around the chest area, and hurt like hell when they're removed. I went straight to my regular Thursday lunchtime football game and as expected, after about 40 minutes, the irregular beat kicked in. As usual it lasted for around 6 hours and the settled back to normal. I returned the 'tape' on Friday morning and thought no more of it.

I got a 'phone call from the cardiologist on Saturday to tell me that they had identified that I was suffering from an Atrial flutter, and that I should immediately cease any form of strenuous exercise until they see me again this week. Seems I should have gone to see the doctor a lot sooner:-( Still, I should be able to go to the gym as long as I keep my heart rate below 150.

Anyway, back to the serious stuff - If anyone has the courage of their convictions, I'm happy to put my stake,along with theirs, in a neutral bank account.....I wait with baited breath..........