In most matters of the heart, Oysterville is the perfect place to live.  Our lives are fairly stress-free, we grow a garden and we have access to fish and other heart-healthy foods.  But, once in a while, Nyel’s big heart goes a little wonky and it’s necessary to go to the far-away city to get him zapped back into shape.

That’s where we were yesterday morning – in Portland for a ‘procedure’ known as a ‘cardioversion.’  Every three or four years for the past decade, Nyel’s heart seems to go off on a rhythm of its own and it is necessary for him to be zapped back into a regular rhythm (mysteriously called ‘sinus’ rhythm.)  The procedure is done with an electric shock and my dim understanding of the process is that they actually stop the heart and then immediately start it again, literally shocking it back into compliance.

Since his cardiologist is based in Portland, that’s where we go when needed.  Our routine is to go the day before, stay in a nearby motel (a nice one!), order dinner in, and go to the hospital the next morning for the procedure.  The prep time takes about two hours and involves several nurses, technicians, the anesthesiologist and lots of big, important looking machinery.  The procedure, itself, takes only minutes.

Shortly after noon, we were back in our trusty P.T. Cruiser, scarfing down left-overs from the previous night’s Mexican dinner and heading for the beach and home!  I was feeling much lighter of heart than on the trip up and I think Nyel was, too.  (I got that idea because he made a couple of “I was dead for a minute or so, you know” remarks just to yank my chain.)

Oysterville never looked so good as it did late yesterday afternoon!  And there was dinner waiting for us from our faithful friend Sandy Stonebreaker – chicken tetrazzini to heat up and salad makings to put together.  Fabulous!

In the next few days, we will see if this adjustment to Nyel’s heart rhythm will give him a little more hopping energy.  Literally.  He has at least two more weeks of hopping behind his trusty walker before he can put weight on his left leg – the one that has had the quadriceps reconstruction.  He has not uttered a single complaint in the four weeks he’s been perfecting this method of mobility.  What a guy!  And the beat goes on…