INSTA-WIFE UPDATE: Several people have written over the past few days to ask how the Insta-Wife is doing. Thanks for your interest. The answer is, pretty well. She got the go-ahead to start cardiac rehab last week, and is extremely happy to be exercising. She’s always been very athletic, and went six months without getting much exercise, which she hated. Even a modest amount of exercise has made her feel better; last night she was doing light yoga before bed.

She’s on a new and powerful anti-arrhythmic called Tikosyn, which seems to be controlling her rhythm problems quite well — they monitor her during her exercise, and she shows no rhythm problems at all, which certainly wasn’t the case before — and the side effects are less than the beta blockers. She’s on a very high dosage now, but we’re hoping they’ll back it down a bit; she still feels rather ill for an hour or so after taking it.

She’s on the road to recovery, and the overall trend is clearly upward. If it weren’t for her allergies — sadly, a standard problem in East Tennessee, where “immense biodiversity” means “every kind of pollen you can imagine, and then some” — she’d be doing even better.

Thanks very much to everyone who has asked about her, and sent good wishes and prayers. It’s all much appreciated.