Something Good to report!

 TUESDAY, 28th March 2023

I saw my local cardiologist today.  He totally disagrees with the electrocardiologist at Royal Papworth who want to give me a fourth ablation.  Like me, he cannot see how a fourth will work where three failed after just a few months.  He reckons Amiodarone, which I have been on since February, has some horrid side-effects but on modern low doses these are rare indeed.

Rather chillingly, he told me to go away and enjoy my life as in two or three years I would probably be back in Afib and it would "challenging" to control it.  I, the pessimist, interpreted that as "You will be doomed in three years" but Hubby (optimist) took it differently as 'they will do something different in three years or longer'.  Interesting!  Let's hope it lasts for years and years as I cannot face a fourth ablation for a while.

As another interesting aside, he scoffed at the idea that my non-elite amounts of training would have caused my Afib.  He says my HHT (inherited genetic disease causing misshapen blood vessels) has caused some bad plumbing in my liver which means the blood returned from the liver to the heart is under too much pressure thus causing enlargement of the right side of my heart.  This, in turn, is causing the Afib. By contrast, Papworth say it is my Left Atrium and discount the HHT connection.  Proof indeed that medicine is something of an art as well as a science and subject to personal opinions.

BUT away from all that negativity I wanted to share something important and I'm going to holler it as loud as I can:

ON SATURDAY I RAN MY FIRST RACE FOR NEARLY FOUR YEARS!!!

Ok, it was only a fun run of 5 km but it was cross-country and I RAN THE WHOLE THING NON-STOP.  

The time was pretty terrible, but it was a tough course and I'd only really done about six weeks consistent training.  The organiser knew my Tale Of Woe and made a real fuss when I finished, so sweet.  People can be so kind!

Then today I ran my longest run since January 2021 - 3.5 miles with only two 30 second breaks for walking, and I felt a whole lot fitter than I did on Saturday!

It's not going to last for forever - Life is not going to last forever!  So I'm going to do what I can while I can.

Good Health everyone.  Don't give up the good fight!

 

 

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