Running with a broken heart

When my role at the ABC was made redundant, I saw it as a reset moment. It felt like a good time to pause before starting the next phase of my life. And as part of that I went off to see my GP to request a battery of tests to make sure I was heading into this new phase in good shape.

Dr Roy did all the usual things - blood pressure, weight and so on - and then we talked about what I should get tested for. Prostate - yes, cholesterol - yes… Then we talked about calcium. Dr Roy was ambivalent, mostly because I’ve never had an issue with cholesterol, which is a lead indicator for calcium build up in blood vessels.

But we decided better safe than sorry so he referred me for calcium scan. Imagine our surprise when it came back with an unexpectedly high reading. High enough that my next appointment was with a cardiologist.

When I saw him, Dr Andrew, his team hooked me up for an ECG then he poked and prodded me for a bit and asked me about a thousand questions about risk factors and symptoms.

He then drew me a picture of my heart, using the metaphor of the heart as an engine requiring fuel (blood) via fuel lines (blood vessels). He said I’d need to come in for a stress test to be sure but the calcium build-up in my blood vessels shouldn’t prevent my heart from operating just fine either at rest or under the stress of vigorous exercise.

I would have to go on statins and blood pressure medication for the rest of my life though, to reduce the chance of further build up and to stabilise the calcium that’s already inside those blood vessels. This would reduce the chances of a heart attack.

The sudden fracturing of that calcium inside a blood vessel can cause a blockage that can lead to a sudden, massive heart attack. Dr Andrew told me that’s what killed Shane Warne.

My heart’s all aflutter

However, that was the good news. Dr Andrew then drew another picture of my heart, this time using the metaphor of an electrical pump. He said when your heart is operating properly, an electrical impulse causes the four chambers to beat in sequence, first the two smaller chambers at the top, then the two larger below. This is what pumps blood around your body.

Unfortunately, this is not what’s happening in my heart. Instead, my two top chambers are “fluttering” which means while blood is passing through them into the larger chambers, it’s not being pumped out of them in an efficient way. This is called atrial fibrillation.

This means blood can stagnate in those chambers, which can lead to clotting. And if a clot then travels up to your brain, that can cause a stroke. This, Dr Andrew understandably said, is way more serious than the calcium and needs to be dealt with straight away.

The treatment, he said, is to zap my heart to try to shock it back into a normal rhythm. To prepare for this I have to be on blood thinners to reduce the chances of a clot forming, and they have to stick a tube down my throat to see if they can detect any clots. There’s a small chance you could have a stroke during the procedure, Dr Andrew told me.

Then he said, of course, the problem with my atrial fibrillation is that I have no symptoms. No racing heart, palpitations, pain in the chest, dizziness or shortness of breath that often accompanies the condition.

Therefore, we might shock my heart back into a proper rhythm, then two days later it could go back into atrial fibrillation and I won’t have a clue it’s happened. And that is, according to Dr Andrew, “a pain in the arse” - which I’m not sure is strictly a medical term. But hard to argue. So I’m off to be zapped at the end of April.

Given it seems to monitor every other bodily function, I must admit I was a bit annoyed my Garmin doesn’t alert me to this (I realise this is ridiculous - it’s a watch, I should be amazed at what it CAN do, not disappointed it’s not a wrist-based cardiologist).

But I was tipped off by a friend to the fact Apple Watches now have an ECG function that can detect atrial fibrillation and via a quick bit of research I found it’s been approved by the therapeutic goods association for use in Australia. So depending on Dr Andrew’s advice, I may soon be swapping my Garmin for an Apple.

So, all of this has been a bit of a shock but as I’ve been telling everyone, better to know than not know because at least I can do something about it. And it quickly became clear atrial fibrillation is not an uncommon ailment - I’ve had a number of conversations in which people have said oh yes, my uncle/husband/son/wife has that. Not the symptom-less version though, it has to be said.

And thus far both doctors have told me to keep doing what I’m doing exercise-wise. So thus far no impact on my running, which certainly delivers more in benefit than in risk. The only downside is the side-effects of the statins - it feels like someone is pressing their knee into the top part of my stomach just below my sternum. So that’s not very pleasant. But on the upside, I only feel it when I’m awake!

So wish me luck. Hopefully I’ll be back in May to report on the next chapter. And if you’ve been putting off that trip to the doctor for your annual tests, put it off no longer. Ignorance might be bliss, but knowledge is power.