Because I require more testing in an attempt to properly diagnose my “irritable heart,” I have been wearing a Holter Monitor for the past 22 hours. A Holter Monitor is a portable device used to continuously monitor, via a series of electrodes attached to the chest and abdomen, the electrical activity of the heart for 24 hours or more.

The one that I am currently wearing looks like this:

And that looks the exact same as the one I wore 13 years ago when I went through a similar round of heart tests and exams. Thirteen years and this thing has never changed. I was expecting the recording device to be more iPod Nano-ish and less cassette tape Walkman-ish. I was hoping that all the wires and nodes could have been comfortably inserted and concealed into a tight vest that I could wear under my clothes. But alas, in thirteen years, with all the other amazing technological changes that we have seen, this Holter Monitor remains the same. And I can’t wait to remove it at 11:30am this morning.