The last thing I expected to be doing this morning was hanging out at the hospital for six hours. So much for “only” three visits this month. But in fact, it all started about 25 years ago, back when I was living in Toronto.

I was at the gym and bent over to pick up my towel and my heart suddenly started racing like mad. Scared the hell out of me. And I was so scared two hours later when it hadn’t stopped that I ended up going to Emergency. Of course while I was in the waiting room my heart rate went back to normal. Since then I’ve had this happen on quite a regular basis, though I learned that if I lie down and pull my knees to my chest then the tachycardia stops. I’ve been to specialists, have had numerous EKGs, and once even wore a little “heartbeat recorder” for a couple of days, but nobody could discover why this happened to me. The usual trigger is me being overheated and/or bending over – it’s like flicking a switch. And it usually stops just as suddenly if I lie down.

Except last night it didn’t…

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