What better day than Valentine’s Day to tell you about what has been going on and why I took a bit of a sabbatical from posting?
As you, my dear reader know, I feel very strongly about people taking the reins with their health and doing something to improve it. If you are overweight, sedentary, smoking and eating things that you really shouldn’t, I urge you to start making changes now… the health of your heart is far too important to put off. Love yourself enough to do something good for health today. Your heart will love you for it. Had I not been so pro-active with my own health, I’d be telling you a much different story right now (that is if I was alive to tell it).
Back in the middle of December I decided to ask my family doctor about my resting heart rate which is usually around 50 beats per minute. I realized that this can be quite normal in athletes but I had only been running for a month and not at the intensity or duration of a seasoned athlete. At the appointment my doctor noticed that my blood pressure was high too. That morning I had received word that I was to have laser surgery in both eyes to deal with macular edema. I was pretty stressed out about the whole thing. So with the low heart rate, high blood pressure under stress, and a family history of heart problems, my doctor agreed that maybe I should go for an ECG.
The results were finally revealed to me a month later because my family doctor dropped the ball. The evening before my eye procedure, which I was totally freaked out about, Dr. R. called me with news that my ECG was showing “borderline inferior Q waves” and that she believed that I had a past myocardial infarction which in layperson’s terms is a heart attack. What?!
She referred me to a cardiologist, Dr. J., and said that I would need an echocardiogram as soon as possible. I was to stop running and all other heart rate raising activity immediately and until further notice. She put me on a very low dose of Coversyl, an ACE inhibitor for blood pressure control.
The eye procedure went well but now I was very stressed out about this possible heart issue. I was devastated to think that I may have had a heart attack and not even known it. Silent heart attacks can happen in people with diabetes. I was very disappointed that I was told I couldn’t run and that I had worked so hard for naught. I was wallowing—it happens.
So, I went to Dr. J’s for the ECG and the echocardiogram the following week. The ECG came back normal and it was confirmed that I have never had a heart attack but the echocardiogram showed a tiny bit of thickening of the heart wall on the left side. This is known as LVH or Left Ventricular Hypertrophy (enlargement of the left side of the heart). Dr. J. indicated that he felt this was reversible and that I was probably already reversing a more serious case of it but without a previous echo to compare it with, he could not be 100% certain. You see, the heart is like any other muscle and when you work it hard it becomes thick. The thing is, you don’t want to do that with your heart. Being morbidly obese for so long meant that my heart had to work really hard to support my large body. High blood pressure makes your heart work harder too. In fact, obesity and high blood pressure are two of the major causes of this condition. Like any muscle you can reverse this problem by not working it out so much.
Then he asked about my medical history as well as my family history of heart disease. He smiled when I told him that I had lost an entire person already and that I try to eat well and be active. I mentioned that I am training for my first 5K race. Then came the family history part. Dr. J. started writing. I told him that my Grandfather was diabetic and may have died of heart failure. I told him that my Dad had his first heart attack at my age as well as a triple-bypass about age 53 and that he died when he was 67. The doctor put his pen down. I said, “I’m not done yet” and I told him about the rest of our family along with how little certain people in my family care for their health by doing detrimental things like smoking, excessive drinking, making poor food choices, being sedentary, and the like.
The man looked quite worried and I asked him what was wrong. He replied, “Laurie, you have one of the worst family histories of premature coronary artery disease that I have ever seen. With that and the fact that you are diabetic, I’d like you to refrain from running until we can do an exercise stress test on the treadmill with a nuclear isotope called Cardiolite.” I started to cry. Then Dr. J. promised to have the testing done and results to me by the end of the next week. I asked a little more about the test and he said that essentially they want to make sure that I don’t have any issues with blood flow to the heart when under the strain of exercise. He’d be looking for blockages and clots.
To say I was scared would be an understatement. I read up on the procedure and learned everything I could about LVH. I finally decided that there wasn’t anything more that I could do for my health beyond what I am already doing. I would deal with whatever comes out of this last test with the same determination and care that I take with being a diabetic.
I donned my ever-so-cute running clothes and headed to the cardiology lab this past Thursday morning. I was in a waiting room with a group of heart patients in various states of poor health and I was excited about being able to run, even if medically supervised. Everyone else looked like they were dreading the treadmill test. I figured it wouldn’t do me any good to be stressed about it, so I put on my best smile and slipped my feet into my running shoes. To make a long story short, I maxed out the test duration which in this lab is 12 minutes. I was a little disappointed—I didn’t even break a good sweat. My lab tech was a former ultra-marathon runner so he totally understood my exuberance. And I went home to wait.
Normally these test results take 10 to 14 business days but Jen called from Dr. J.’s office that afternoon to tell me they’d have results in the morning and that as a precaution with my family history, Dr. J. would like me to start taking the lowest dose of a statin used for cholesterol control. He figured that with the way I am eating and the amount of exercise, I shouldn’t have an issue but he has concerns about familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) which is a genetic defect where there is a lack of LDL receptors to remove cholesterol from the blood (um… thanks Dad). I’ve also inherited teeny-tiny blood vessels. When I asked about the medication he basically said that I could have a perfect diet, be active every day, and be at the ideal weight and still end up with cholesterol issues. With my tiny vascular system this medication is even more crucial because a little arterial plaque for me would be considerably more dangerous than it would be for someone with larger vessels.
I barely slept Thursday night, and by Friday morning I was quite anxious. I wanted to run again and the treadmill test the day before made me realize just how much I missed it. 11:00 am came and went so I called Jen at Dr. J.’s office and left a message. Forty minutes later the phone rang. It was the doctor and he had my results. I was dead silent, bracing myself to hear the bad news. But the news was better than I could have hoped for.
My blood flow is good. He mentioned that I should continue to try and lose the rest of the weight which he knows I am working hard at. I was told I have the all-clear to run even a half-marathon if I like. “Enjoy and remember to stay conversational when you run”, the doctor said. He wants to see me in six months just to follow-up on the medications and check on the LVH to ensure that this is indeed the reversal in progress that he thinks it is. He told me to keep up the good work and mentioned that if I hadn’t been so tenacious with my lifestyle changes we’d be dealing with a much different outcome.
So… there I have it… I can run to my heart’s content. Literally, because exercise is good for the heart. I have to say that knowing I can resume my training was a very happy moment.
