Ever been terrified??

just had the wosrst/scariest week of my life.
2 weeks ago i started feeling rough while out riding, pain in the chest/breathless sort of thing.
i thought i had a chest infection, because i did not feel too bad.
i had a week off the bike, using the van to commute.
last sunday i went for a ride to see if i had got over the problem.
i had not, i was left breathless/cold sweating within 5 minutes.

monday morning saw me at the doctors for a examination, he gave me a ecg (sp?) and within a hour i was in the coronary care thing at LGI.
after giving what seems like every bit of blood, i was told that my heart was not beating correctly, i was AF and it was beating out of synch, a bit like a dodgy fuel pump.

anyhow, after spending the week on a heart monitor i went for a angiagram yesterday morning, not a very nice thing too i will tell you.
i laid on the table watching my heart being filled with die and such and i was absolutly terrified.
when the consultant had finished the procedure he told me that my heart valves/tubes/pipes where fine and dandy.
no blockages, no furring up, and most of all no damage or scarring.

it turns out that the dodgy heartbeat might have been brought on my either a viral infection or just happened?
it can just come on for no reason.
so now on warfarin and beta blockers as preventative measures, but the consultant thinks that he may be gonna do a coronary trace (??), a thing where they put you to sleep, stop your heart and shock it back to a ( hopefully) normal rythm.
hopefully it will all end up ok……..but i have never been so terrified in my life… 🙁

all you big 29r riders….watch this space, there may be a couple of big 20niners in the classifieds if it all goes pearshaped……… 😉

Bloody hell big fella, hope it all works out. Sounds very scary!

Can’t believe they fix cardiac problems by actually “turning it off, then turning it back on again”!

all the best tony.

Sheesh Tony, Ive always put off going to the quacks with anything…

I kinda think thatn may have changed my mind.

Hope all works out fella..

Fixed with a reboot, must have a windows vista ticker!

Hope it all works okay big fella. My owd man had some of that done when he had a stens fitted. Not rebooting the heart though.

Jeez, Ton, that don’t sound nice. I hope you get well soon big fella! 😀

That’s one hell of a reboot, best of British to you.

Hi Ton,

My brother had that heart restart procedure twice and two of the most scary days of my life let alone his. Hope all goes well for you mate.

Good luck with that one!

Pedant humour, dark style:

my heart being filled with die

Die or dye?

Blimey Tony!
Thats scary stuff! I hope it all goes well and you recover fully. If not, maybe we can keep our eyes out for a new bulls heart for ya 😆

All the best Fella… hope and I’m sure it will all work out for you.

There is some truth in the saying that if the cold is in the chest put your feet up till its gone though.

Will you be coming on the 14th ? or taking it easy ?

That will explain the ignored email then8)

Take it easy for a while. You may need more rest than you think.

That does indeed sound scary, the human mind is incredible though, you can go through a massively traumatic/terrifying event and (most of the time) it does a really good job of compartmentalising the experience so you can get back to normality.

I’m also a big chap and whilst I’ve had no scares, I do sometimes think that as I get older, 37 now, I start to become a little neurotic whenever I get light headed or get pains in my arms. Scary stuff. Good to hear youre still with us though Ton.

Quack with an interest in Cardiology here.

Glad to hear it is electrics rather than plumbing. Much much better. But this is why I said you should get on and phone 999. It is good you were still in AF when they did the ECG at the surgery. Sometimes it can take a while to hunt this down properly and I am not surprised you had the angio done. Effectively you were getting a form of angina – but luckily because of the way the AF limited your coronary artery function rather than because of blocked arteries.

DC cardioversion is really nothing more than a reboot. Your heart restarts after a tiny pause. Totally routine. It isn’t a drama like people getting zapped in “Casualty”.

AF does just happen quite often, but can happen as a side effect of a chest infection. But some people do get it coming and going in which case we now have good drugs to keep it in rhythm, and techniques like RF ablation can be very successful.

You need to be on the Warfarin for 3-4 weeks before DC shock, except in emergencies or where you can prove the AF came on in the last 48 hours and for 4 weeks afterwards – and warfarin will probably be the biggest nuisance element. I have a couple of very active friends who have been through this and more who are still riding/running.

You’ll be fine.

Ton, get better soon my big wheeled friend.

I expect you to be healthy in about 18 months so we can get out for a ride on my return to the UK.

Or there will be trouble.

😉

cheers all for the positive vibes 8)
stoatsbrother……….i know i should have gone asap mate……..but like a lot of ignorant blokes who think they are tougher/invincible, i thought i knew better…… 😳

hopefully i will have learned a serious lesson from my ignorance.

They have had to restart my dads heart a couple of times to sort out his rhythm, but he didn’t blub about it like a big girl. He still can’t dance mind you.

Get well soon Tony, and just take it easy. The bikes will still be there when you’re well again.

Glad to hear you’re ok fella. My sister had something similar, but ended up with a pacemaker. All very scary at the time, but she has made a full recovery now, with only minor restrictions on her life.

The moral of the story being…she put off going to get it checked out for ages, because she thought it was nothing. It turned out to be serious, and without being too dramatic she’s lucky to be alive.

IF IN DOUBT, GET IT CHECKED OUT. DON’T PUT IT OFF.

Sorry for the caps, but sometimes it’s necessary to shout to make the point heard. Us blokes can sometimes be worse for not going to the doctors when we need to. I hope you make a full and speedy recovery.

Get well soon… and don’t watch Flatliners before you go for the procedure

Jeesus Ton – hope it’s all OK! Best wishes from down south.

Hope you don’t get better. 👿

I want to try a 29er 😆

Hope you get better

Hope it all goes well and you’re back on the bikes in no time

Good luck to you, hope it does prove to be a ‘blip’ and not a long term ailment.

To answer your question – yep I was terrified at the birth of my daughter. We had known for months before that scans had shown she had some fairly major problems in the womb, but until she was born the doctors just couldn’t say how bad. Thankfully the problems, although serious, were on the lighter end of serious and could all be sorted out in time.

She was operated on within 12 hours and had four more ops before she was one. Shes 8 now though and as fit as a fiddle, but those six months before and immediately after her birth were terrifying for both of us.

Sorry to hear this, but at least you’ve not ignored it.

I’m really resenting the frailty of my body now I’m getting on- I’ve got a couple of malfunctions I wish I’d had fixed a good few years back- sorting stuff out asap is the way to go.

Well as your bikes will be way too big for me I really hope you start feeling good again soon!

To answer your question… on this sort of scale of terrifed… No.

Hey up ton – glad youre feeling a bit better. As it happens, I ended up in BDGH about the same time you were in LGI, as a result of a chest infection that wouldnt clear up. My ECG was clear, the bit that really put the s***s up me was the chest x-ray (I’ve been smoking on and off since I was 14, and I’d convinced myself they were gonna find something untreatable). Needless to say, when the results came back clear, I treated it as a BIG wake up call. Feeling fine now after a course of steroids and a change of inhalers. Stay well big lad, I dont like 29ers anyroad !

mtfu 😉

Ton to answer your original question – at the end of last year there was a chance I had a type of benign brain tumour – only when the second scan came back ok did I leave a state of intense hyper-reality which I hadn’t experienced since the 5 minutes before I got married 21 years ago.

I can absolutely see why you didn’t do anything about this for a while. Glad you were found to have the best possible cardiac cause of your symptoms.

Ton,

I know exactly what you mean. I got diagnosed with Paroxsysmal Atrial Fibrilation back in 2000 and was a combination of scared and angry for a good long time afterwards. However, they found out what was causing things and fixed it three years ago. I’m now running 10ks and have got a large part of my life back.

Don’t sweat the jumpstart; I’ve had three and they have worked each time. If you do need to talk about it, PM me and I’ll give you a call or something. DO NOT read on the internet about things. Most of the info is from the US and they do things differently over there.

I suggest that you go and watch Flatliners.

ton, I know I give you a hard time sometimes, but go steady mate. Good to hear you’re on the mend. 😉

My brother in law had this and the proceedure you mention – in his early 30’s i think – all OK 🙂

My dad had the reboot – no bother.

I have however been terrified. When rock climbing. Both rationally and irrationally.

First dabs on the bikes if you don’t make it.

I hope I don’t get the bikes though

Definitely scary.

Had chest pains a few years ago and got the full A&E treatment. Fully wired and scanned including the one where you see inside your own heart – wierd! Turned out to be a nasty lung infection but they also picked up a heart murmur probably due to the infection. Didn’t die which was handy.

Got told off though – I tried to “run off” the pain (did a 4 miler) then when that didn’t work, tried to press up the pain away. A career in medicine was luckily a route I didn’t pursue.

Just read that last bit – now that IS scary. Hope it’s not needed.

Almost drowned twice when surfing – one was a proper “dark tunnel” job. Initially terrified then just went calm. Wierd how the mind deals with stuff.

Ton: I had a sort of similar thing this spring, Viral induced Pericarditis.

At 27 years of age, it’s a slightly surreal experience phoning 999 thinking you’re having a heart attack!

Bad news is it took 2 months and lot of meds to clear. The good news is I raced 24/12 a month after I recovered and have been fine since.

Having the odd bout of palpations every now and then i know how scary anything to do with your heart can be…Keep us posted, and good luck with it