Watching my heart

The watch shifted me from vague fear to specific information and helped me deal with panic. I have not had unnecessary trips to the emergency room.

- MARVIN TORT

A quiet, nagging question always lingered in the back of my mind: Was that flutter just stress, or was I having a heart attack? I would feel a skip, a thud, or sometimes a rush. I would try to “listen” to my own chest. It struck anytime, anywhere: in the middle of a meeting or while stuck in traffic.

For a long time, the only way to answer that question was to wait. Either I waited for my next medical appointment, or I rushed to the hospital and hoped that by the time I got there, my heart was still “misbehaving” enough for a diagnostic machine to catch it. But the ECG always read normal.

You can imagine my anxiety every time it happened. With the accompanying shortness of breath, it would temporarily cripple me. I did not know what to do. I was feeling something, often mistaking it for symptoms of hypertension, when in fact my heart was out of rhythm, beating out of sync.

Things changed after I put on my Apple Watch, a gift from my wife, after my cardiologist noted its advantages for someone like me. It replaced a fitness watch that measured beats per minute but had no ECG (electrocardiogram) function.

Having lived with the Apple Watch for almost two years now, I can honestly share how it has helped change my life. No, this is not an advertorial. Apple had not part in writing this. My intent is simply to share how technology is helping me improve my healthcare, and perhaps encourage others to explore what might work for them.

To most people, a smartwatch is nothing more than a sleek gadget for fitness and notifications. It counts steps, tracks workouts, and lights up with messages and calls. But to those of us managing chronic conditions, it can be something else entirely. With mobile apps and builtin monitoring, my watch has evolved far beyond a fitness accessory. To me, it is the sentinel on my wrist watching my heart.