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A PULSED FIELD ABLATION FOR A CHANGE (ABLATION #4)

  Adventures of a Racing Heart – A Pulsed Field Ablation this time! So, to the words of the old Whitesnake song “Here I go again now…”.   Back to Papworth for ablation number 4.   I’d previously had the cryoablation isolating the pulmonary veins in 2020, eleven months later in 2021 a Radio-Frequency ablation of Left atrium and then eight months after that another RF of Left Atrium.   Needless to say, I was not frightfully happy about having this done again and not very confident about the outcome, but I’d been warned I could not stay on amiodarone for years and years so felt I had no choice. This time I was not due to the hospital until 11 am which left a hideous amount of time to hang around the house being nervous especially as I had to be up to eat a light breakfast at 7 am. On and off since the Friday afternoon, three days earlier, I was in some sort of tachycardia – started after doing some crouching while weeding in the garden.   This continued off and, on all weekend, but
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A great Summer and then a FOURTH ABLATION!!

  A Great Summer and a fourth ablation What a great summer it was! Do you have to go through a few years of rubbish to make yourself appreciate the good times?   Maybe…   In June, just over a week after the latest Afib episode and admission to hospital I ran the FEN GALLOP 10 KM.   Nice flat course, out in the Fens north of Cambridge, partly on concrete farm tracks and some cross-country stuff – rough field edge paths and some rooted forest tracks.   Just my cuppa tea.   I ran about 1 second faster than the Ely NY 10k but that was all tarmac so I was pleased and felt like I had got back some of my fitness after the Whooping Cough and that visit to hospital.   Sadly, I never did to see just what I was capable of when I was at my fittest when I was doing running drills, plyometrics and proprioception work, but to be honest I was amazed I could do any of that stuff at all at my age and with my history (and, more especially, my dodgy right knee).   Towards the end of July, we wen
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A reminder about me, HHT, Afib and what I know about it - and a depressing list!

  A reminder about me and what I know about HHT and Afib So, what do I know? Well, firstly, I have them both!   HHT is a genetic bleeding disorder, characterised by malformations of the blood vessels which bleed – these can be in the nose (90% of patients) plus also could affect the lungs, brain, gut, mouth, liver, etc etc.   It can be a contributor to Afib as the mis-plumbing in the liver can lead to increased pressure in the heart and cause problems.   Nobody really knows and it is estimated that only 10% of people who have HHT are diagnosed.   I have seen many ENT specialists over the years and they are all pretty uninformed about it – I was lucky enough to know it was in my family via grandad, aunt and mum.   My nosebleeds have been treated at a specialist centre in London with a laser ablation.   I’ve had this done four times plus one skin-graft where they took skin from the thigh and patched the nose with it in the same manner as a puncture repair kit mends a puncture on a bi
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A summary of 2024 so far

  I managed to run consistently for months - so many months that I began to get bored!  After getting fit again after the sprained ankle in Summer 2024 I was fit enough to take part in the Ely New Years Eve 10k.  I finished in sub-68 which was as good as I could have expected. During my 'sprint' finish at Ely, I was so overwhelmed to have finally got back to 10k fitness that I  was whelling up and upon crossing the finish line I burst into great big sobs of joy.  Which, of course, set off the HHT nosebleeds.  So now I am sobbing and gushing blood and people are staring like anything.  The race director came over to see what help I needed (tissues, thanks) and I told her my story and then the next thing I know - she is crying too!!  She walked me to the finish area to collect my bottle of beer (gave to my patient husband) and everyone was avoiding me like the plague as I looked like an axe murderer with blood smeared all over me. Got fitter and fitter - started running drills an
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An update - 31 Oct 2023

  Hello dear reader (there is probably only one of you!) Well after my triumphal return to 'competition' in March I got fitter and fitter... Until I went camping in Wales and returned with my first bout of Covid - it wasn't too bad - worse than a cold, not as bad as the flu, but it was three weeks of training wiped out.  I just started training again when I went on holiday (it's a tough life being married to a teacher!) and when I got back I managed to fall while running and sprain my ankle - so that was six weeks without any running! Started again (all on the road which is killing my knees) with an accelerated version of Couch-to-5k but the very next week caught a nasty cold.  Managed two weeks running before a hiking trip to the Lake District and so I have just started the running yet again.  It feels like two steps forward and one step back (or sometimes three steps forward, four steps back!). In the meantime, however, I am having vision problems - I have a coloured
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A Layperson's look at Scientific papers about Afib and Exercise

A layperson’s look at 24 studies into exercise and Afib UPDATE - I added a few more at the end! I’m no scientist, but I have drawn together what I could find.   However, be sure to read the caveats at the end re the quality of some of the data plus an explanation of some terminology and abbreviations.  I tried hard not to be biased, but I'm only human so some may have crept in.  I also stopped at 24 studies because it was taking over my life!! 1.        1. Kunutsor et al 2021– Meta analysis of 23 cohort studies Excludes case controls; also excludes athletes or competitive or endurance sportspeople; quality of evidence low to medium; selection bias; lacks temporality ((i.e., lacks a link)) Most Physically active vs Least                    -1% risk of AF Men only                                                              +20% Women only                                                      -9%   Conclusion was that lower mortality in active people far outweighs
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