Ninjutsu with a heart condition

[exile]

Originally Posted by tellner

Arrythmias are notoriously tricky and can be like that funny noise your car makes - trouble out on the road but disappears whenever you pull into the mechanic's garage.

One of the reasons we all said "See a doctor, see several doctors" was the vagueness of the symptoms. We can't diagnose and some sort of "heart or lungs" problem is mysterious enough to warrant having a professional take a look.

Yes, and the other thing about arrhythmias is that they are really insidious. Some regulatory mechanism in the body has failed, for whatever reason, and it's completely unpredictable when the disorder will kick in under chaotic conditions that can have fatal consequences. From other people's experience, I know that physicians often try to get you into hospital where you can be monitored over a prolonged period of time for these things, for precisely the reason you mention—a single random sample of data will very likely not identify anything as being off-color.

Originally Posted by tellner

"Hello, and welcome back to another hour of Carnal Talk with your hosts Snick and Snack the Stitch-it brothers."

It's dangerous for me to listen to them while I'm driving—I laugh so much I can't keep the car going straight!

Even their manic thank-yous at the end of the program are hilarious... acknowledging among others, say, 'our Russian driver, Pikop Andropov'... ad infinitum...

[Kacey]

I had a friend who had an arrythmia at one point; the doctor put a set of sensor and a portable recorder on him and told him to go about his day as normal, including (especially including, actually) the physical activity that seemed to set it off - that's how they diagnosed it. Turned out to be a minor valve irregularity (congenital) that only caused problems in times of high physical activity - it was fixed with an outpatient procedure involving microtools through a catheter, with only a couple of days of downtime... but until you see a doctor, tell them the symptoms and what's going on when you experience them, they can't do anything.

[kwaichang]

You have to get and take your doctors advice. At one point I had to stop all falling/tumbling for fear of permanent paralysis. Believe me, that was a terrifying two years.

Heart problems and breathing problems aren't any less threatening or frightening.

Do get all the advice from medical professionals you can.

[shesulsa]

My mom's arrhythmia resulted from bad electrolyte balance and depletion due to three blood pressure medications containing diuretics. She developed a "sick sinus node." As a result, she later developed atrial fibrillation (a-fib) - a condition for which she really *should* have gotten a pacemaker. A-fib can cause reduced oxygen delivery to the brain bringing about a host of other problems as well as poor circulation to the periphery leading to congestive heart failure - a slow, debilitating, torturous death.

In some people and some cases, cardio aversion (sp? - shocking the heart and node mildly) can fix the problem for years and years.

But ... again ... if you are out of breath because of your heart, you have a heart condition which requires immediate attention. If you have a heart condition because of a pulmonary condition, you require immediate attention. If you have both, you definitely need immediate attention.

You're probably getting the idea that this is serious business and that arrhythmias can lead to nasty things if left untreated. I think the people telling you to go to the doctor either directly or indirectly have experience with this problem and YOU SHOULD LISTEN AND GO TO THE DOCTOR.

Let us know how it turns out.

[kwaichang]

Originally Posted by shesulsa

But ... again ... if you are out of breath because of your heart, you have a heart condition which requires immediate attention..

Those symptoms are inclusive of degerative heart failure also. That is something you do not want to wait and see; get thee to a physician.

[exile]

I've never had an arrhythmia, but I used to get very dizzy—maybe lightheaded is the better way to put it—under various conditions, none of them easily explained, and yes, a couple of times I did have to walk around for 24 hours at a time with a monitor. They eventually localized the problem as seriously low blood pressure, which has always been something I've had; but the point is, as soon as I mentioned the problem to my MD, she was on top of it in every direction. Anything, anything at all, out of the ordinary in terms of fatigue, balance, heartbeat, whatever, and any competent physician will mandate every test in the book till the cause is identified.

Here's the thing, which may be a problem that the OPer, like many other people, has: most of us are trained to listen to what our doctor says, meekly accept it, and feel embarrassed to push aggressively for followup investigation or in-depth testing. We don't feel it's polite, or respectful, or something. But again, think of your doctor as a car mechanic for the human automobile: you wouldn't accept it if your mechanic told you that that persistent crashing sound coming from the engine was just one of those things, eh? and there's nothing to be done about it. Assume you're fortunate enough to be driving a late-model Lambourghini. Would you take a chance on something happening to it mechanically? Well, your body is worth an infinite amount more than that Lambo—why wouldn't you be at least as persistent in looking after it as you would with an ultra-fancy—but still, ultimately replaceable—car?

[nitflegal]

Originally Posted by exile

Here's the thing, which may be a problem that the OPer, like many other people, has: most of us are trained to listen to what our doctor says, meekly accept it, and feel embarrassed to push aggressively for followup investigation or in-depth testing. We don't feel it's polite, or respectful, or something. But again, think of your doctor as a car mechanic for the human automobile: you wouldn't accept it if your mechanic told you that that persistent crashing sound coming from the engine was just one of those things, eh? and there's nothing to be done about it. Assume you're fortunate enough to be driving a late-model Lambourghini. Would you take a chance on something happening to it mechanically? Well, your body is worth an infinite amount more than that Lambo—why wouldn't you be at least as persistent in looking after it as you would with an ultra-fancy—but still, ultimately replaceable—car?

Sound advice. Look, if something is going on in class that is worrying, than you know something is going on. If the doctor says "nope, there's nothing going on" you know they're wrong because you were there when you felt light-headed or disoriented or whatever. By the same token, you need to give the doctor as much data as possible. Next time you train, write down what you did. If you feel symptoms, stop right then and (as soon as you can) record exactly what you were doing or the entire class, what you were doing when the symptoms appeared, and exactly what they were. Were you weak? If so; localized or general? Difficulty catching a breath? Can you take your own pulse or can your instructor? If so, what was your pulse rate? Did you feel skips in the beat? If so, how often? Tingling in a limb? If so, which one? Exactly where was the tingling (fingers, lower arm, outer side or inner?, etc) and how long did it last? The more data you can provide the doctor the more data they have to evaluate you. In addition, the more data you have the more seriously they're going to take the situation.

For what it's worth.

Matt

[exile]

Originally Posted by nitflegal

Sound advice. Look, if something is going on in class that is worrying, than you know something is going on. If the doctor says "nope, there's nothing going on" you know they're wrong because you were there when you felt light-headed or disoriented or whatever. By the same token, you need to give the doctor as much data as possible. Next time you train, write down what you did. If you feel symptoms, stop right then and (as soon as you can) record exactly what you were doing or the entire class, what you were doing when the symptoms appeared, and exactly what they were. Were you weak? If so; localized or general? Difficulty catching a breath? Can you take your own pulse or can your instructor? If so, what was your pulse rate? Did you feel skips in the beat? If so, how often? Tingling in a limb? If so, which one? Exactly where was the tingling (fingers, lower arm, outer side or inner?, etc) and how long did it last? The more data you can provide the doctor the more data they have to evaluate you. In addition, the more data you have the more seriously they're going to take the situation.

For what it's worth.

Matt

Excellent points, all of them. The part in bold is especially critical.

With the best will in the world, it's often not possible to bring even serious, very dicey conditions to light with a simple test, or battery of tests. Symptoms don't come equipped with little post-it notes on them telling you what they are. A rash can mean anything from an allergic reaction to an STD to a dangerous internal growth. And just about every symptom has a comparably vast range of possible sources. If a very obvious source doesn't jump out at the physician, then you have to go to the next level of scrutiny, and that involves a lot of tests to triangulate on the true source.

Fortunately, that's not necessary in most cases. But how many times have we read stories about people whose gut response to a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis was that it wasn't quite right, and after enough persistence, the victim of the condition was diagnosed with something very, very unusual and nonobvious? The moral of that kind of story is that it often takes very persistent and careful detective work to uncover the nature of an anomaly... and no one is going to keep looking if the patient doesn't insist on it.

[SensibleManiac]

This advice goes to you and anyone else in a similar situation.
If one specialist doesn't find anything, then go to another until you find out exactly what's wrong.
You went to see a cardiologist and nothing, ok then go see a pulmonary specialist. An arrythmia can be linkied to several other factors like stress, lung problems and any other medications you can be taking.
Follow this until you solve it and stop training in the meantime.
Don't train until you know you're ok.

[ElfTengu]

Ahem.

Can we ask who diagnosed this 'arrythmia' in the first place?

If it was a doctor, ask them more about it and to be referred on if possible. They will also have a better idea of what physical activities you can undertake.

If it wasn't a doctor, how do you know you have it?

Not one of those 10,000 Symptoms books I hope!

A lot of advice has been given without establishing the facts of the original diagnosis.

We should start from the beginning.