Three Beats

Love is Song

Created with Dall-e and edited by the author

Goldilocks and the three bears might be the first three things that made any sense to us as children, but as we age, three seems to appear again and again.

When the heart generates it’s first electric impulse, sodium and potassium exchange places through a third part called a membrane, the three forming a pump which generates ions and translates into energy via the Sinoatrial node at the top of the heart muscle. This contracts the top of the heart.

Meanwhile the Atrial Ventricular node located mid-heart is catching this electrical signal and slowing it down enough to translate into a workable contraction of the ventricles.

Finally, the impulse is released from the Atrial Ventricular node and into the bundle branches and distributed for repolarization.

So, while most people hear the double thwump, thwump of the human heart through a stethoscope. A cardiac monitor technician like myself sees Ba, Da, Bump, or a gallop, on our screens, as we watch the rhythm of life pass us by during our day-to-days.

You see, even the heart beats in threes.

Curiously, I didn't learn this from watching cardiac monitors, or by working as a decorated Florida EMT over the course of ten years. I learned this from breaking hearts.