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 and doing plyometrics - it was difficult to see much improvement in times as it was so wet and muddy and most of my running is done cross-country but I wanted to test myself and the next local races were in May - bit of a time to wait.  Lost a few pounds too which is always a bonus.

Easter holiday husband went done with what later turned out to the dreaded "100 day cough" (whooping cough, I believe).  It's now 90 days later and he is still coughing.  Ten days later I caught it.  Naturally, coughing until you vomit plays havoc with the nosebleeds....

Seven weeks off training.  Missed both the races I had entered :-(.  But managed to run a Friday 5 race at Bury St Edmunds where I was slow (very slow) but did it non-stop and as well as could be expected after just two weeks back training.

I was pleased by how well my fitness came back after those weeks off and my plan was to run another race in July before the break for summer and the dreaded ablation still on the horizon.

Last week (end of June 2024) I got the call from Papworth.  I need to be off the amiodarone for what will be a nerve-wracking 6 weeks prior to the ablation - this took me to the middle of August when I am away.  So we decided I would stop the drug in September and they would arrange a date six weeks later.  So at least I get my summer holidays.

They must have put the mockers on me for just two days later I was out running in a place I do not know.  I was a bit tired and was wearing a bumbag around my middle which was really cutting in and affecting my breathing.  I just felt like I could not get my breath but that happens sometimes in running.  It wasn't helped by the fact it was all slightly uphill and that I did not know where I was going so had to constantly stop and look at my phone, meaning it was stop/start and I never really got into any rhythm or got a Second Wind.

Once the 'top' of the run was reached there was a flat bit which I plodded along and then a lovely green lane all the way back to the town where I parked - over two miles and all downhill.  I was really struggling straight away with my breathing and checked my pulse to find it was 150.  It seemed far too high for what I was doing  and so I walked for a bit.  In fact I walked all the way back with it pounding at 120 bpm.  Far too high.  And I was panicking too - what if it got worse, what if I collapsed here on my own in the middle of nowehere, what if what if what if.

Obviously, that never happened and I drove myself home.  Heart was fast but even and so I was not quite sure what to do as this had never happened before without then flipping straight into Afib.

When my husband got in, I noticed it had become uneven and since in the past it tends to get faster and faster we decided to go to the big teaching hospital an hour away (I do not trust my local hospital with my Afib - see previous posts!).  

My first visit to A&E for my heart in 18 months but the NHS has improved not at all. Despite being a cardiac patient with chest pain it was 45 minutes before I was triaged.  Eventually after two hours I was moved to wait again in EAU.  It was ages before I saw a doctor who said it was flipping between Afib and a regular, but very fast heart rate.  It was around 100-120 bpm.  So low compared to my previous episodes where it rose to 195 sometimes!

At about 10.15, so 11 hours after it started, it flipped back into normal rhythm!  I was kept in overnight and all the next day (SCREAM!) as my Troponin levels were high before I nagged them into letting me go.

Spoke to Papworth a few days later and they have doubled my amiodarone back to 200 mcg and I am now back on the 'blood thinners'.  Ablation date will be sometime after mid-October as mentioned already.

To say I am disappointed would be an understatement. I am depressed, shell shocked (I thought the amiodarone would always be my back-up friend), demoralised and just dragged down.  Was it the bumbag irritating the Vagus Nerve?  Am I clutching at straws?

However, just four days later I did a short row and some weights.  Then I taught two classes for Active Seniors (so about 20 mins aerobic dance stuff in total).  I ran a hilly 3.3 miles non-stop and then came home and used a Maxiclimber (like a Versaclimber but cheap!) for 10 minutes and did a 12 min Reebox Step workout.  I FELT GREAT...

Until yesterday when I was worn out.  Yes, I was a bit stupid to do so much but that's me.  So now two days complete rest.  Short run tomorrow and a multi-terrain, flat 10k race on Sunday.....

My last chance to see how the fitness is, nearly five years after all this Afib c**p first happened and a few weeks before the Summer Holidays.  Hopefully, that will be three weeks hiking the the Alps then a week walking in Cornwall - Afib permitting.  Keep all your fingers and toes crossed for me.......