2 Days, everything changes.

Well, just read about the Alpine, would have loved to have been on that
by the sounds of it, but I start back my exercising next saturday after
all I can say is a very depressing/thankful time all in the 1 weekend.

Had organised to meet my brother for a ride saturday morning, but did
not feel good Friday night, felt very strange, chest felt weird, felt
like I had a REALLY bad case of nerves. GOod night sleep I will be
right, wake up saturday morning, man dont feel much better, but I have
done rides not feeling 100% so anyway, I will go out and see how I
start to feel.

Crossed Kings Way on park Street, which is where I live, past BikeNow
and my heart rate is already, 140 bpm, no this cant be good, did a ride
up Lake Mountain with my brother on New Years Eve and my Heart rate was
sitting on 120 while he was in the 150s gasping his way up the
mountain, so I was fairly concerned, I had never felt this like or seen
my heart behave like this before.

Go back home, wake up the wife, "im not feeling very well, she kind of
grunted at me, it was 5.00 am, go to sleep then she said, no im going
to the hospital I dont feel well at all"

so after spending 3 hours waiting in emergency at the Alfred, I finally
get into see a Doctor, I explain my symptons, he looks at me, "Gee you
look ok, but I will check your heart rate"

Takes my heart rate and steps back, looks at me and says ok we need to
give you an ECG, right away.

so long story shorter, I spend the weekend in a hospital bed,
recovering from a "atiral fibulation", causing an "irregular heartbeat"
*sigh*

Doctor at Private Hospital, Cabrini, said tablets was the next course
of action as it had not reverted back itself. Tablets that evening,
wake up next morning and I was basically back to my normal self, I
could not believe how I felt, compared to the day before, it was like I
had no problems, I decided to take an extra day, get a heart ultrasound,
that is "freaky", seeing your heart beating away... and they said
everything looks ok, cant explain it, it just something that happens
sometimes.

so I have tablets, 5 days of complete rest and then it is basically up
to me, to monitor my exercise and guide myself back into things again.

very frustrating, I have my first Ironman in April, that I was really
starting to crank up my training for and this happens, it always seems
like something gets in my way, but still have the goal, I just have to
re-adjust my goal posts slightly.

Anybody else suffer/suffered from this problem and have any advice or
rough guidelines I can base on, I pretty much am very nervous now about
heading out again, how long to go for, I obivously wont be pushing the
heart to hard, but I need to get training again.

Hope everyone else is ticking on well!

Thinking/resting, Mikey.


--
MikeyOz

MikeyOz wrote:

[chomp]

Anybody else suffer/suffered from this problem and have any advice or
rough guidelines I can base on, I pretty much am very nervous now about
heading out again, how long to go for, I obivously wont be pushing the
heart to hard, but I need to get training again.

A friend of mine's dad has it, he has so far had 3 lots of a general
and a whack with a defib to get it back to normal again. That's about
all I know about it. Not much fun at all. Hope yours is ok from now
on.

Be sure to tell any coaches or anyone else involved with your training
& racing about it so they know to plan carefully around any high
intensity stuff.

MikeyOz wrote:


Snip

Hope everyone else is ticking on well!

Thinking/resting, Mikey.



Can't offer any advice, but from what you said, it highlights the
importance of getting some early advice when things don't feel right.
Hope you get it all under control and make it to Port Macquarie in April.

jh

MikeyOz wrote:

snip
so long story shorter, I spend the weekend in a hospital bed,
recovering from a "atiral fibulation", causing an "irregular heartbeat"
*sigh*
snip
Anybody else suffer/suffered from this problem and have any advice or
rough guidelines I can base on, I pretty much am very nervous now about
heading out again, how long to go for, I obivously wont be pushing the
heart to hard, but I need to get training again.

Firstly, thank you so much for listening to your body and not going for
that ride, you're too valuable to lose to stupidity! Good on you and I'm
glad you're okay.

Secondly, I had a stint of chest pain last year (or the year before?),
no fibrillation but enough that I went to have a whole lot of tests done
and everything came back normal. The brain controls everything,
including the release of various signallers that make your heart react
differently. You may have had an allergic reaction to something, you may
have had a viral infection (did they check your blood?) or maybe been
low on salt or something.

I rested for a bit, monitored my diet, and particularly fluid intake,
and never had a problem again. But it was really scary at the time. (I
think it must have been late 2004, because it was when I was ironman
training, 22hrs per week)

I hope things work out for you in this one. Try to figure out anything
you did that was different in the leadup to what happened, and I'd
recommend keeping a detailed diet/activity diary for a few weeks in case
you get another bout, so you can identify possible causes.

Tam

MikeyOz Wrote:

Anybody else suffer/suffered from this problem and have any advice or
rough guidelines I can base on, I pretty much am very nervous now about
heading out again, how long to go for, I obivously wont be pushing the
heart to hard, but I need to get training again.

I had a similar experience 4 years ago. Felt real weird sitting at work
so I felt my pulse - up above 120 for no apparent reason. There was no
shortness of breath, but a bit of a dull ache in my chest. Went to the
doc and ECG showed an arythmia. It was worked out to be caused by
Sudafed.

It did correct itself without medication. In the meantime I had
multiple ECG's over a number of days because of ongoing chest pain. I
also had an echocardiogram, which showed my heart was in good shape -
that was a real positive.

After one of the final ECG's the doctor referred me for a stress test
(run on a tread mill up to your max heart rate). This showed good
health and the tech told me my maximum heart rate. It was quite
reassuring to push my heart to the maximum in a controlled environment.
I would certainly encourage that for your own peace of mind.

I wouldn't be suprised if all my chest pain was anxiety, but it is sure
scary and makes you feel very mortal. And I know not to use Sudafed any
more. Did you have any triggers: environmental, health, viruses etc.?


--
sinus

MikeyOz Wrote:
Well, just read about the Alpine, would have loved to have been on that
by the sounds of it, but I start back my exercising next saturday after
all I can say is a very depressing/thankful time all in the 1 weekend.


Geez Mikey, that sounds very worrying. Hopefully like you say it's just
a blip and it won't affect you at all in the future.

At least being fit if you do have a serious heart problem you stand a
much better chance of surviving. Not to say it's anything like your
current condition but did you see Greg Welch (I think that's right) the
ironman on "Australian Story" who has tachycardia? Doctors said the
attacks would have killing him if his heart wasn't so strong.

Anyhow take it easy (literally!)

Adam


--
adam85

sinus wrote:
snip
I wouldn't be suprised if all my chest pain was anxiety, but it is sure
scary and makes you feel very mortal. And I know not to use Sudafed any
more. Did you have any triggers: environmental, health, viruses etc.?

That's a very good point... once I noticed my chest pain, I knew it
wouldn't go away until I got it checked out, because I'd keep freaking
out about it. And it's hell scary. Especially when you're young and fit
and there's no excuse for it.

Tam'

Hey MikeyOz,

Glad that things are under-control - sounds like you took the most
sensible course of action (how many of us would've NOT gone to the
hospital!!), and so the result was a best-case one for you...

But remember the obvious silver-lining in this 'grey cloud' - next time
someone cruises up to you at a red light, and suggests a 'sprint', you
can always smile and say, "Well I WOULD - but I'm recovering from
atrial fibulation..." and then give a dismissive wave... *grins*

Stay well dude!
Abby

adam85 wrote:
MikeyOz Wrote:

Well, just read about the Alpine, would have loved to have been on that
by the sounds of it, but I start back my exercising next saturday after
all I can say is a very depressing/thankful time all in the 1 weekend.



Geez Mikey, that sounds very worrying. Hopefully like you say it's just
a blip and it won't affect you at all in the future.

At least being fit if you do have a serious heart problem you stand a
much better chance of surviving. Not to say it's anything like your
current condition but did you see Greg Welch (I think that's right) the
ironman on "Australian Story" who has tachycardia? Doctors said the
attacks would have killing him if his heart wasn't so strong.

Anyhow take it easy (literally!)

Adam


That was a good interview with Greg Welch , the transcript is available
at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/enoughrope/...s/s1198680.htm

jh

MikeyOz Wrote:
Well, just read about the Alpine, would have loved to have been on that
by the sounds of it, but I start back my exercising next saturday after
all I can say is a very depressing/thankful time all in the 1 weekend.

snip

Anybody else suffer/suffered from this problem and have any advice or
rough guidelines I can base on, I pretty much am very nervous now about
heading out again, how long to go for, I obivously wont be pushing the
heart to hard, but I need to get training again.

Hope everyone else is ticking on well!

Thinking/resting, Mikey.
Glad to hear you are back to normal. And that you did not do the
'bloke thing' and ignore it.

A few years ago, I got severe chest pains. I was a few kg over my
ideal weight and the age at which 2 of my Mum's brothers had died from
heart attacks (very early forties). I got checked out. Could not find
anything. The docs at Royal Perth put it down to a chest infection I
had had a few months earlier as part of a bout of flu. Has never
recurred.

I don't have many suggestions for you, other than:

1. don't drive yourself or get wife to drive you to hospital if this
happens again - ring the ambos. At the least, they will have a
defibrilator;

2. if you are feeling nervous about getting back into training, do
some kms on the trainer at home while there is someone there with you

Again, glad to hear you are OK

SteveA


--
SteveA