I wear a Polar arm band that tracks my heart rate throughout the day and equates it to exertion in an app called Visible that lives on my phone. I do this because I have ME/CFS and POTS, both of which are energy-limiting chronic illnesses.
The app uses a tool called “PacePoints” that converts exertion into a simple number to make it easier to understand how much energy I’m using throughout the day. The concept is similar to how Weight Watchers uses Points to make it simpler to understand what you’re eating and how much you should be eating to lose weight.
Generally speaking, a day spent mostly resting in bed will give me a PacePoint count of under 10, give or take a little depending on the day. In recent days, I’ve been noticing that my PacePoints are coming in at around 16 to 18 or so, which is much higher than usual, considering I’m mostly just sitting in bed or napping during recovery.
I decided to do a little research to try to figure out what I’m doing that’s causing this increased energy usage. Turns out, it’s not unheard of for a person’s heart rate to be higher than usual during surgical recovery. And I’m guessing the reason I didn’t have this issue during the first few days of recovery was the Percocet. As a central nervous system depressant, it helped with keeping my heart rate down.
Now that I’m using Tylenol instead, I don’t have the extra help with my heart rate. And while my usual heart rate moderating meds are surely helping overall, they’re not keeping my heart at its usual resting rate. And because my heart rate is faster than usual, I’m burning through energy more quickly than I usually do and my PacePoints are higher as a result.
It’s fascinating to have data that illustrates this. I love data!
I have read a couple of somewhat alarming articles that say postoperative tachycardia can precede adverse outcomes, like heart issues. For me, it’s one of those unfortunately all-too-common occurrences where you wonder whether it’s the chronic illness(es) or a separate issue that needs attention. I’m going with chronic illness(es) for now.