Ninjutsu with a heart condition

exile

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.
 

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