The HHT and Afib Athlete

MY ELECTRIC BIKE I feel here I need to talk more about my electric bike.   It is an Orbea Gain F-30 and it is beautiful.   It is a hybrid style in a wonderful flame red/orange colour.   The battery is sneakily hidden in the downtube so it doesn’t look like an E-bike.   But because I am such an honest person I always confess if I overtake someone!! When, before my first ablation, a friend suggested I get an E-bike I was upset and insulted as I thought they were implying I’d never recovery enough to ride a ‘proper’ bike again. But, in fact, it is one of the best things I have ever purchased. It has three battery settings – red/amber/green or you can use it without any help. Red helps lots, I barely get out of breath when I use that setting and it races up the steep hills nearby (Suffolk steep that is!).   It’s perfect for early post-ablation riding.   The range is about 24 miles Amber is more hard work, but a huge help uphil

What have I learnt from my ablations so far I have now had a trio, a triplet, a triumvirate of ablations.     My first in May of 2020 followed a one-off Afib in August 2015, cardioverted within 48 hours, then an episode in August 2019 which saw me hospitalised locally for a total of 20 days, left drugged up and in Afib, barely able to walk for 5.5 weeks and finally cardioverted and referred to Papworth for an ablation.   It was about THREE months before I felt well enough to run again. Whilst waiting for the ablation I went back into Afib in March 2020 and spent another 8 days in the local hospital and left drugged up, barely able to walk for another 5.5 weeks – it was like Groundhog day. After paying to see a private EP who arranged for me to be cardioverted at Papworth as an urgent case on the NHS. I recovered much quicker this time and spent the day before my ablation out on my posh racing bike!   The first ablation came a month after the cardioversion and lasted 1.5 hours