Mary, lovely girls!!!

twocat, just for your information, I don't find number crunching fun at all, but oh well...it has to be done. 

Back from a 10 miler, last LR before Seattle R&R. I had to move my LR to today since we are having a graduation party for DS1 and I know for sure I will not be up to running much tomorrow after all the cooking and partying. So, 6 miles slow, stopping to pick and eat as much cherries as I could from the orchards and then 4 straight miles at MP. Weather was sticky and humid. I lost 2 pounds of sweat in the process.

Now, off to start the fun with cooking. To be done today: BBQ chicken marinaded in mango and chipotle sauce. Then make some sushi, empanadas and fresh muzzarella balls with cherry tomatoes for appetizers.
The potato, lentil and tabbouleh salads were done last night. Oh and green salad will come from my garden. Wanna come over for dinner?

Timbo just sent me this e-mail, and asked me to post it at RA:

My head is spinning because of all I had to go through. My Angiogram
went fine as there were no blockages, as I or the Doctor didn't think
there would be because of the good Tri I did last Sat (would have been
hard to do that with blocked arteries) But there was a small leak found
in my Mitral Valve, and was repaired much the same way a Angiogram is
performed. (I really don't know what I am really talking about with some
of this stuff, so I can only describe things the best I can) So, to
repair the leak in my Mitral Valve, a catheter was put into my groin
area and was ran in the leaky area of my heart, where an umbrella type
device was installed which fixed the leak. Luckily, my Hospital is only
one of a few in the Country who can perform this procedure, without it
being open heart surgery. The heart Doctor said that this is a good fix,
and shouldn't have any problems....but will need to monitored every year
of so, but no biggie really. But left alone, this could have been a huge
issue fairly quickly....I was lucky there.

The worse part was trying to find out why I was having Cardiac
Arrhythmia, and I think I got 100 different diagnoses. When I was in the
Hospital Sunday after my episode collapsing, I had to have a Cardiac
Defibrillation done a few times to get my heart beating properly again.
I remember that Sun morning while running, feeling those "funky" beats I
talk about sometimes, but didn't think a lot about it. Then that one
time at about 2 miles into my run, where I had that long hesitating
beat, then that pain in my chest that felt like someone hit me in the
chest with a bat...I was stunned and scared. The Cardiologist told me
that this was simple my heart jump starting itself much like jump
starting a car....simplistic I know. At one point they purposely caused
my heart to do the same think and they asked....is that the pain /
sensation that you felt Sunday morning...I said yes, that is the exact
pain or discomfort I felt.

During my Angiogram, the Nurse told the Doctor that my HR had dropped to
a very unsafe level... it was 42 bpm, which is where I am almost
everyday at some point. So based on that, he diagnosed me with
Bradycardia: where the HR and pulse is slow, and does not pump enough
blood for the bodies needs. He said that is why I had been having
problems with my running as of late. This jackass (sorry, but) told me
the normal HR for a man over 40 or so should be absolutely NO lower than
60 bpm and if it is, it's dangerous. I then thought about everyone at
RA, and most people there have lower heart rates because of being in
great shape. I told him my resting HR had been that low for many many
years due to cycling - triathlons - and running, and all the time spent
training for these events. He then tried to put me on a drug to speed my
HR up...and I told the ignorant - out of shape fatso no way.

While wearing a Holter monitor all day Monday, it showed I had around
65,000 beats in a 24 hour period. This particular Doctor told me that a
normal person should have at least 100,000 beat per day, so I was
lacking which was causing my problems. I then remembered having a
Colonoscopy about 4 years ago where the nurse told the doctor during the
procedure.....Doctor, his HR has dropped into the low 40's. The doctor
told the nurse....OH, he's a Triathlete so that is perfect for him. I
had my files pulled from that Colonoscopy and had this Heart Doctor look
at what my resting HR was then 4 years earlier. He didn't say much other
than, he had never treated anyone with such a low HR before. I thought
to myself...COME ON NOW, this is a trained Cardiologist that doesn't
know about fitness and low resting heart rates...unfreaking believable.

My regular Doctor Friend stopped in to see me, and I explained all of
this to him...he was appalled. He got me a new Cardiologist that
understood the heart and athletes. (hehe, does that make me smarter than
a 5th grader....and a Cardiologists, LOL)

During my time in the Holter Monitor, it was established - by my new
heart Doctor - that my 65,000 beats in 24 hours was perfectly normal for
me. But the big problem was, that around 25 to 30% of the beats where
considered irregular. I told the Doc about my acute awareness of my
heart beats and that I can feel these missed or funky beats all the time
- he said with a smile... that must be a Joy. One thing to consider is
having a few missed beat (he called them Ectopic Beats) is fairly
common, but most people are not aware they have them.

My problem was how many of these Ectopic Beats that I had in a row. He
said most of mine were 3 beats....then a missed beat, over and over for
fairly long periods of time, which was very dangerous and concerned him.
He did say that while my heart would be in this state of irregular
rhythm, that my heart could be about 50% less efficient and that could
very well be why my running has been suffering at times. I questioned
him about my Tri last Saturday and doing well. He said that I obviously
didn't have these kind of problems everyday, but he did say that hard
effort probably made things worse for me....but he said inevitably it
would have gotten worse anyways.

Boy, I am really trying to make this short.

I then had many many more tests done through out the week, and spent
quite a bit of time on the TM having my heart checked out while running.
(see, I was no a slacker even while in the hospital) I was put on many
different medications to try and find one, or a combination that would
make my heart beat normally on its own. There was also talk of a
Implanted Defibrillator, but they wanted to try and correct this with
Meds first.

During this whole time I was wearing another heart monitoring device
that tracked my heart beats 24/7 (forget the name of that one) Finally,
after 1 hour of doing another stress test on the TM yesterday (Thurs)
and 30 minutes this morning, every looked "fairly" normal. And they
think they my have found a good combination of drugs to help me.

As far as a technical name for my problem...they never really found out.
But I heard - Cardiac Arrhythmia - BradyCardia - Ventricular Tachycardia
- Atrial Fibrillation, but they never narrowed it down to me really
having any of these (I in no way remembered these on my own) But I had
the Doctors write a bunch of stuff down, so I could study on my own to
"kinda" try and understand.

So, here I am at home....relieved, but still nervous I guess. I can
exercise, but have to keep my HR at or below 120 bpm till my next check
up next Friday. I can run, but to keep my HR that low in the heat, I
will have to jog slowly and will probably have to combine slow running
with fast walking.....that's Kewl! And I will need to start wearing my
HRM, which I never do while running. Cycling will be a great option too,
because that is easy to keep my HR lower while spinning.

Oh yeah, I also was diagnose with an Enlarged heart. But was told by my
new Cardiologist that this in fairly normal with endurance
athletes...but could possibly be an issue way down the line some where.
But he told me not to worry about that at all. He said if all goes well,
I should be back doing what I was before - running wise -  in about 4 to
6 weeks. But he did encourage me to still workout everyday, but just
remember to keep my HR at 120 or below. Then after my next checkup he
will raise that to 130 bpm and so on.

Whew, what a ride....

Hey Holly, I can't copy and paste this for RA. And even if I did, it
wouldn't have paragraphs and separations which you and most people know.
Besides, my internet is messed up right now (MSN) so if you want to post
this at RA, that would be great. Did you mention my heart problems there
(never mind, as I received MANY Emails from the good RA folk) I have not
been to RA since this whole ordeal. I had internet access at the
Hospital, but had a problem with my password and logging in (sigh, as I
missed everyone.

Other than all of this, everything is fine, LOL.

wow - that sure is an ordeal!

Does Dr. Dale post here also? I know he is over at KR, but I sometimes forget who the dual posters are. I'd be curious if Dale would have any other type of feedback to all this.

I just returned from what was supposed to be a trip to the Urgent Clinic with my son, but because of the long wait even there, we just headed over to his pediatrician's office. Fell at home and cut his shin open. Needed a couple stitches. And then of course, the ice cream treat at DQ for being so brave.

So... is Tim still coming to Seattle?? If he has a paid-up ticket and a place to stay...?

I really can't believe what this guy will go through to get out of running a marathon...

 

marathon or no marathon, I guess his decision to come will depend on whether or not he can keep his HR below 120 bpm being in a house with a bunch of RA goddesses.

I had another absolutely wonderful trail run after work!  I sure love Colorado.  5 miles in just under an hour.  Not a super technical trail so most of it was runnable.  When the grade gets to a certain point (not sure exactly what it is) I walk, but this trail had lots of low-angle hills that I could run.  There was a beautiful early evening light on the hills, and it was so peaceful.  I saw 5 mountain bikers and a herd of mule deer.  Wow.  I wish all of you could come run this trail with me.  Freaking beautiful.

It's kewl that Holly and CNYrunner get to pal around on some runs.

Thanks for the picture Mary.

(((((Leslie's Kitty)))))

Tag and I are packing our capes WildChild

Rest day. Around twilight, I convinced DW to drive to a park/swamp the school kids have adopted. Each spring, all the grades are hauled out there and the evaluate what's happened since the previous spring. For example, what brush pile they gathered now houses wild life, what moved into what size bird house. The last few years, the older kids have set dock sections through the swamp. They're a little too tippy to try and run on. It's very kewl though. As it got darker, DW got closer. I carried her on my back though some of the softer parts. When we got to a pond on the return trip, we paused on a bridge and watched to fire flies dancing on the opposite shore. We circled the pond to join them. While we held each other close, I sang DW songs as we joined the fireflies dance.