After a great ride of a local trail today, I felt compelled to post in this passion forum for the first time. Nothing too special about it, just wanted to post.
My "short" story begins several years ago, in my middle 30's. I was an enthusiastic rider, road, mountain, and I raced both when I could. I was riding everyday to some degree, whether hard or just an easy spin to relax and recover. I began to have problems during some of my rides. I'd feel tired and worn out, my gf would beat me to the top of hills, that never happened before
I got a heart rate monitor, and it would stay pegged at 240 during entire rides. "Throw it away" people said, it's just picking up interference. "Listen to your body instead". Well it turns out it was right, I went in at last feeling like I had bronchitis, or something.
Turns out I had atrial fibrillation and tachycardia, a rapid heart rate and a totally irregular heart rhythm. I went from being a supposedly healthy guy to being moved in a wheelchair and iv's stuck in both arms. There was talk of a "cardioversion" and "coumadin" and they had me watch a movie about living on blood thinners, what to eat and what to do etc. I was sent home on 4 different types of medication, with a follow-up echocardiogram the next day. During that the technician left the room, and came back with a doctor. Your echo looks bad they said, we want to move you to another building. My ejection fraction was under 10%, normal is 55-60%. (The percent blood your heart pumps with every beat)
I had had a heart failure, which can be worse than a heart attack so they said. My left ventricle was really dilated, they didn't know if it would ever recover. I was stuck in a bed, and only by *****ing could I get a pitcher and skooch myself to the side of the bed to pee in it, screw them catheters.
I was on amiodarone, which is toxic. I believe if you googled it back then it was the source of many lawsuits as it caused liver failure. Great. I went with pulmonary vein ablations, trying to get rid of it.
Anyway, to make a long story short, it is 4 years later. I have had numerous echocardiograms, transesophegael echocardiograms, cardioversions, two pulmonary vein ablations at the Mayo Clinic, and thousands of dollars in doctor bills. ($315,000 total over 3 years) I still get a-fib from time to time, but the cost of another ablation is too much right now. I simply pop an aspirin, the main worry is a greater chance of a stroke in a-fib.
Only last spring did I feel the urge to ride hard again. I gradually eased into it, even did a race last May and it felt good. I worried that it would go irregular during the race from any hard exertion. It held. I kept riding. Last fall I did the Chequamegon 40, and my time was right there with the ones I put up at 30, but I was now 40 with a known heart condition.
Today I am 41, and I guess what made me think of all this was the weather. I took off on a ride, with a line of thunderstorms moving in from the west. I came home from work, ate too much because I didn't think I'd get the chance to ride and I'd hit the couch.
But in the garage was a relatively new 29er, and I was feeling more or less healed from a crash 11 days ago that gave me wounds that are still weeping and healing. I looked outside, said heck, maybe it won't rain. Then I thought, heck, so what if it does rain? Who cares if it storms and winds hit 40-50 mph with hail like they were saying? I wanted to ride my bike so I went.
And the clouds moved in as I peddled up the hill, and I thought, if I'm struck by lightening, will it restart my heart? Huh. It never did rain, and as I listened to Tool "Vicarious" and some classic Faith No More (Epic) on the singletrack downhill, I knew I made the right choice by getting off the couch.
