Hello All,
Last night at 10 PM, after a nice dinner and a movie with my dear wife, I sat at the kitchen table to check my emails and my heart went into atrial fibrillation. This is the sixth time over the course of ten years. Initially it feels like a few skip heart beats, the difference is that it does not stop. My rest heart rate is usually around 40 beats per minute. In AFIB it is 70 to 80, which in comparison to other people is a pretty low still.
My first time in AFIB was April of 1996 a week before going to Europe to qualify for the Olympics. That first time I had no idea what was happening and I thought I was going to die for sure. Luckily, I met a great electro cardiologist, specializing in arrhythmia, his same is Dr. Dicran Baron. He told me that I had two choices. One to take a medication for two days and stay at the hospital, and the other to quickly check myself in as an outpatient and get cardio-verted. He assured me that I was going to be perfectly fine right after I wake up. I can still remember this first incident as if it were yesterday.
The origins of my AFIB episodes are unknown. Whether it is training induced or not remains a question mark. In my case one is certain. Each time I went into AFIB, I was NOT exercising. The first time I was standing at the barbecue in Corona Del Mar. The second time I was pouring a glass of OJ. The third time I was picking up excrement of my dog Skiff on the beach. The fourth time I was PACKING MY SUITCASE to go to the 2000 world cup in Vienna, to qualify for the Olympics. This was the most unbelievable one, because I had to reschedule my flight for the day after, because of the cardio version at the hospital and off I went to Europe to win the Vienna Cup.
My point in blogging this is to connect with people who may feel alone with such a cardiac situation. Well they are not. I am one of you and so is my good friend Rob Waddell who won the gold at the Olympics in the men’s single scull a second in front of me.
The pictures above show me laying in my hospital bed. My wife took both pictures because I asked her to. She couldn’t believe me, but I said it was for the blog and that others needed to know. The second picture is of the cardio version device which name was HEART START XL. I guess I was finding humor in my situation.
I am perfectly healthy again and pumping at 100% on my two pistons.
All the best
Sincerely, XENO MULLER, Olympic Gold and Silver medalist.
Key words for search engines, atrial fibrillation among athletes and endurance athletes.
Xeno Muller, Olympic gold and silver medalist, indoor rowing, rowing technique.
Hi Xeno
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this - your blog did just what it was supposed to - reassured someone out there. I am 34 and I have had several episodes of AFib over the last 10 years and was skiing last week and went back into it. My heart is otherwise OK. I spent a few days in the hospital and was electro cardioverted - feel much better now. Your comments have made me more confident I can head to Hawaii next week where I am supposed to attend a family wedding. It still really sucks when it kicks in but it seems the therapies are getting better. Have you looked at the ablation procedure?
Thanks
Mark Lu
Boston Ma
Hello Mark
ReplyDeleteI am very happy that you found my post. What type of search did you do to come across my entry.
My brother in law had the surgery that you talk about. In my case it is not necessary, cross my fingers, yet. Have a great time at the wedding. If you are interested, my doctor's name is DICRAN BARON here in Orange, California.
All the best,
XENO
Hi Xeno,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for posting your story. I actually found it through a link from the Concept2 forums. I'm 36 and have also suffered from atrial fibrilation on and off for the last 10 years. For much of that time I was overweight and unfit. Two years ago I started losing weight, and about six months after that I discovered the erg. Since then I've started rowing on the water. Now I'm completely hooked. I've even got my 6k avg. split down to 1:47.0. My only regret with rowing is that I didn't discover it earlier in life!
I hadn't had an afib episode for about four years, and with weight loss and increasing fitness my doctor took me off the medicine I had been taking to control it.
But a couple of months ago I had another episode. It lasted 20 hours, but finally reverted on its own to a normal rhythm. I was quite upset, as I had been hoping that I was done with these issues.
Reading your post has reassured me that this is just something that can happen to anyone, even Olympic athletes. Thanks again, and good luck with your afib in the future.
Hello everyone,
ReplyDeleteI was not aware that there was one more post. Quick update, I am doing perfectly fine. Oddly enough, a HOAG hospital MD, who sumerized my aFIB episode (he did not meet me) wrote that I was pretty much about to die... What a huge mistake. This became a problem for my application for life insurance. I had to do a stress test at the doctor in order to get a favorable rate... I am still waiting for a favorable rate. I am glad that my post helps.
XENO
Below is an article that is from FEB 08 2008.
ReplyDeleteAfib is not as "uncommon" as the article states below.
Tomkins' heart scare
Updated: 08:16, Friday February 8, 2008
Olympic rower James Tomkins has suffered a heart scare just six months out from the Beijing games. The triple gold medallist was diagnosed with a rare condition which affects the heartbeat of endurance athletes.
Tomkins discovered the condition after feeling out of breath at training, prompting medical staff to send him to hospital.
'You go under a general anaesthetic for thirty seconds and in that time they run a current through you and it re-aligns your heart, and I woke up feeling absolutely 100 per cent,' Tomkins said about the treatment.
He says he has recovered and is ready for next week's trials.
Hi Xeno,
ReplyDeleteI am a lightweight rower in semi retirement. I dont know whether to make that big come back or not. Thanks for posting the links on afib. i saw your links on youtube and found your site. I have had several episodes of afib but have been clear for four years now. Every so often my heart will do a little bounce but its rare and lasts for one heart beat. Its good to know that others have delt with this condition. At the moment I am resonably fit. One thing I have found with my afib is that it only happened the night after drinking too much at parties. I think alcohol is a big trigger factor for afib as well as dehydration; both being linked. This was obviously not the issue with rob or james but its something to be aware of. My doctor is brugada. He is probably the best in europe. I avoid caffeine and dont drink and this i believe has helped. We probably all have different trigger factors but information is always good.
Hello Robert,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment on our blog.
It is a pleasure to provide personal experience about AFIB, although I would choose not to have such episodes and of course no one does! For me AFIB occurred when I did next to nothing. For Rob and other rowers whom I have now heard of get it when they are going full tilt while rowing. A couple of weeks ago it happened to Olympic super star Jimmy Tomkins from Australia. My doctor said that it might be an occupational hazard of endurance athletes... I am certain that AFIB had to some extend cracked my mental armor for competition. How can it not when you are the main bread winner with soon four children and wonderful wife as your best friend. I keep my fingers crossed for Rob and his family. You are right about having different triggers for AFIB, here were mine and they will probably make you laugh: Evening at the barbeque, standing in the kitchen pouring a glass of OJ, packing my bag to go to Europe to qualify myself for the Sydney Olympics, picking up POO of my dog on the beach, and finally, and this one surprised me as much as my very first episode, one year ago, after MUCH less training, sitting at the kitchen table after having gone out with my wife to the movies... ridiculous! That last one is also the only one time I had myself cardioverted WITHOUT my doctor... The ER doctor at HOAG did the job. And guess what! The nurse put the electric stickers that discharge the shock in the wrong place. I spotted it, because of the DRAWING on stickers!!! They said it was OK like that. I trusted them. That too was the first time I got those stickers put on me. ALL THE OTHER cardioversion were done with the hand held paddles, it was done beautifully by my Doctor the great DICRAN BARON. So back to my last episode at HOAG, I ended up getting brun marks from the cardioversion because the doc did not use the paddles. Burn marks were only temporary but my Dr. Baron then immediately saw that the stickers were put at the wrong spot too. He then read the transcript of the procedure and saw that it took three shocks to get me out of AFIB, BECAUSE the started me out too low. Dr Baron immediately uses 200 Jules, one big ZAP and all is well again with the ticker. ONE LAST thing about my episode at HOAG.... (it is a top of the line hospital, in my case... St. Joseph with Dicran Baron did a much better job)... the anesthesia I got at the ER at HOAG was administrated by the ER doc, ANOTHER BLIND MISTAKE OF MINE, get an anesthesiologist to do the job, they have the stronger drugs, you don't wake up during the ZAPPING and they have the strong drug to get you out of the sleep drug FAST. And just as I thought I was done talking about my experience: Some medical transcriber ended up writing up my episode by saying that my outlook was really bad.... I ended up not getting the life insurance rate that I rightfully can get... The whole thing is ridiculous. So IF YOU HAVE AFIB and you need a CARDIOVERSION: GET AN ANESTHESIOLOGIST pure and SIMPLE.
If you are a fit individual with low resting heart rate, tell the nurse and the doc, because if they see AFIB with a lower heart rate they think you are about to have a heart attack.
OK I am done now.
Good night.
XENO