Thanks for this. Funny you should mention a device for monitoring those things - I literally was looking into those when your message arrived, for the exact reasons you stated.
Not worried at all about the hip - it's doing well. I had a knee replacement some years back and have done 2 Nepal trips with it without a problem so am confident I can assess its readiness by next October.
My cardiologist tends to give me about 5 minutes of his time and just doesn't seem to understand that not everyone wants to live a sedentary lifestyle. When I saw him for hip surgery clearance and mentioned a future trekking trip he said I should take up swimming instead because of the hip and didn't even mention my heart! I really would like to find a cardiologist who has experience with this type of activity.
You make an excellent point about remoteness, but that is a factor for everyone doing these trips - there is always the risk of a problem (altitude sickness, injury, etc) and turning back or even helicopter rescues are quite common. I guess my risk would be somewhat higher due to AFib. From what I've read I might need a slower schedule in order to acclimatize going up; we are always very particular about that but would need to be even more so.
Sorry but I'm not familiar with PVC.