Looking for cardiac athletes. I belong to a couple online groups of athletes who all have had some sort of heart surgery. Bypass, stent, pacemaker, valve replacement, or aneurysm. They are mostly runners, but many cycle, ski, climb mountains, play team sports, etc. We wrote a book about our experiences. I'm wondering if anyone knows of any swimmers who have come back to competition after heart surgery.
www.amazon.com/.../1500159638
I had a mechanical aortic valve replacement 25 years ago and continued to do road and track races and shot put. I only recently got more serious about swimming and wonder whether there are any others.
I've heard of Low QT but know nothing about it. Must be one or more of the denizens of the CardiacAthletes site has mentioned it. It's usually a source of pride to be the rare exception among your peer group, except when it involves the heart.
While I don't think I was born with a valve defect, it was detected very early, age 10, and I can remember the Dr telling my mother I should "take it easy" for the rest of my life. I was never allowed to participate in sports, and I was declared 4F during the Viet Nam draft, but sometime in the 1970s I decided otherwise on my own and started running. Swimming is a new obsession.
I've been on a beta blocker for more than 30 years now, it never gave me trouble, as I hear from so many others, but then I think my dosage has always been rather low.
Trust me Sumo, I experience no pride in having the diagnosis of Long QT. The idea of sudden cardiac death scares me beyond comprehension. My only saving grace is that I'm banking on the fact that I had a long career as a successful marathon runner and never experienced a symptom or problem so maybe I'm okay. I do play mind games with myself about this unfortunately before almost every workout or competition but in the end it's a quality of life thing. If I had to be sedentary my life would be horrible. I'm extremely ADHD and I'm sure the meds for that would be far worse for me than a daily medium to hard core swim workout. I'd even say turning 60 helped me on this because no matter what happens I feel like I've had a full life and have been able to meet most of my important life goals.
I've heard of Low QT but know nothing about it. Must be one or more of the denizens of the CardiacAthletes site has mentioned it. It's usually a source of pride to be the rare exception among your peer group, except when it involves the heart.
While I don't think I was born with a valve defect, it was detected very early, age 10, and I can remember the Dr telling my mother I should "take it easy" for the rest of my life. I was never allowed to participate in sports, and I was declared 4F during the Viet Nam draft, but sometime in the 1970s I decided otherwise on my own and started running. Swimming is a new obsession.
I've been on a beta blocker for more than 30 years now, it never gave me trouble, as I hear from so many others, but then I think my dosage has always been rather low.
Trust me Sumo, I experience no pride in having the diagnosis of Long QT. The idea of sudden cardiac death scares me beyond comprehension. My only saving grace is that I'm banking on the fact that I had a long career as a successful marathon runner and never experienced a symptom or problem so maybe I'm okay. I do play mind games with myself about this unfortunately before almost every workout or competition but in the end it's a quality of life thing. If I had to be sedentary my life would be horrible. I'm extremely ADHD and I'm sure the meds for that would be far worse for me than a daily medium to hard core swim workout. I'd even say turning 60 helped me on this because no matter what happens I feel like I've had a full life and have been able to meet most of my important life goals.
