I started with a Fitbit in 2019 and a mountaineering friend gifted me with a Garmin Fenix 6S in late 2023. The Fenix lost its Bluetooth around New Years but it still worked via USB so I kept using it. Then a little windfall came in late May and got a Vivoactive 5. The big motivation for this was not the sync, it was the fact that the Vivoactive 5 will detect naps, which the Fenix is relentlessly bad at doing.

Today is the first time I have a crystal clear example of why the nap detection is so important. 

The green underlined time is when I actually slept, just a bit more than four hours. You can see the little man on the timeline, which shows a 45 minute walk to the grocery store. I got back, ate a bowl of cereal, and then by 5:45 I was laying down, that's the yellow underline. The tachycardia kicked in ten minutes later and lasted the whole time I was laying there.

Now I've been up for an hour, I'm writing this, and I'm still in MCAS tachycardia hangover mode. Coming out of an episode feels about like going into one, hands/feet/face feel funny, heart feels strangely pressured. My stress, as measured by the Garmin, is solidly around a 70 reading. That's the red vertical lines.

If you are struggling to explain what MCAS means - dealing with accusations that you're lazy, or it's just in your head, perhaps the $190 for a Vivoactive 5 is the way to showing those around you what your lived experience is.



MCAS as seen by Garmin Vivoactive 5