Q I have always had irregular heartbeats, but they have not caused any problems. I take digoxin [digitalis, a heart drug] and phenindione [an anticoagulant] daily, but I don’t like taking drugs and I am also allergic to aspirin, antihistamines...
It all began with a fever. So begins The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion’s extraordinary account of the events of 2003 and 2004, and memoir of her marriage to writer John Gregory Dunne.
Atherosclerosis has another sting in its tail. One of the effects of a restricted blood supply to the heart is to cause it to become unstable and go into arrhythmia - heart flutters or atrial fibrillation (AF). It may sound benign, but AF is, in...