Glad I can make you laugh Paul...move along then.
I went through the code to systematically eliminate things and the delay wasn't the problem with it taking so long. Deleting it made no real difference in the reaction time. It did need the delay to detect the pulse though, without it it couldn't pick it up.
It's people like you that make this difficult to learn with your quick judgments and snarky comments. I'm new to this while you've probably been at it a couple days.
Thanks for your help!