Heartbeat

Fleetwood Mac - Dreams
When my erratic heartbeat put me in the hospital 10 or 20 years ago, it was a bit of a surprise. But after a I'd thought about it for a while I realized that this had been going on for a long time. When I lived in Austin 30 odd years ago there were a couple of incidents where I felt my heart racing, which made me feel a little weak. I'd lie down and after a while, perhaps overnight, things would return to normal. And then I remembered my failure to acquire a Physical Fitness merit badge from the Boy Scouts when I was about 13. The one test that kept me from earning that badge was the mile run. Could not do it. I don't know how far I got, but I quickly got out of breath.
     This morning I'm out for my morning constitutional and I recalled an incident from elementary school. We were playing tag and I was unable to chase anyone else down, so I resorted to the old African 'persistence hunting' technique: I just kept walking toward my prey. Eventually they got worn out bolting away and I was able to tag them. I don't think we played that any more, couldn't have been much fun for anyone involved. So I'm thinking there was a problem with my heart even then.
    Then there is the terminology. Every time I visit the cardiologist (which is annually), he asks me if I have been 'short of breath'. Now short-of-breath, to me, means you can't catch your breath. No matter how much you breath, you are constantly out of breath. Out-of-breath to me means you are breathing heavily, presumably because you are suffering from an oxygen deficiency, but in a few minutes that deficiency has been corrected and your breathing returns to normal. I get out of breath often, just climbing a flight of stairs will do it, but I recover in a couple of minutes and I don't seem to be any worse for wear.

P.S. We have the tune because that's what I heard when the word 'heartbeat' popped into my head this AM.

Update November 2016 replaced missing video.
Update December 2018 replaced missing video.

Update June 2019 replaced missing video.