Cardiac Swimmers

Thanks Rich. I'm 68, got a mechanical valve 25 years ago, and ran hundreds of road and track races before and since. If you're on Facebook, you can locate many more of us at www.facebook.com/.../ or at the C.A. web page www.cardiacathletes.com/ My drivers license says I'm a donor, but with a mechanical valve, I've been told they will not recycle the heart. Too bad since It's stronger than 99% of the unaltered ones out there. I have never competed in a swim race but yesterday I went to a swim clinic by a triathlon coach and got my butt kicked. I'm signed up for 10 weeks of masters swim classes but doubt I'll ever reach top 10 in anything. I have no interest in short distances since I have no fast-twitch fibers to speak of. I timed myself for a mile (1775yd) a couple times and did about 47 minutes, so I'm aiming for 40 by summer. Thanks for the offer but I am actively involved in a volunteer group that supports heart transplants and those waiting for a heart at my hospital.

I had open heart surgery in October, 1980, at 2 years old for atrial septal defect - a hole in my heart. With just a little more regurgatation in the area of the surgery than a normal person has, I have no real restrictions now and I have been swimming Masters since 2009. My dad used to tell me that I should spice up my story by saying that I had a chainsaw accident on the farm while growing up, but I (usually) just stick to the story have having a heart that was just a little too big. :groovy: Here are a couple of pics - click to see one of me with my mom right after surgery... 10244 And here is one from 2012 after the Peaks to Portland swim in Maine with my buddy Bob in the yack. My zipper has grown with me and blends in with my skin now... scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/.../557355_4489245157578_1816411917_n.jpg

Thanks Rich. I'm 68, got a mechanical valve 25 years ago, and ran hundreds of road and track races before and since. If you're on Facebook, you can locate many more of us at www.facebook.com/.../ or at the C.A. web page www.cardiacathletes.com/ My drivers license says I'm a donor, but with a mechanical valve, I've been told they will not recycle the heart. Too bad since It's stronger than 99% of the unaltered ones out there. I have never competed in a swim race but yesterday I went to a swim clinic by a triathlon coach and got my butt kicked. I'm signed up for 10 weeks of masters swim classes but doubt I'll ever reach top 10 in anything. I have no interest in short distances since I have no fast-twitch fibers to speak of. I timed myself for a mile (1775yd) a couple times and did about 47 minutes, so I'm aiming for 40 by summer.

I'm an old friend (marku) from valvereplacement.org. (Only visit there on rare occasions any more) Had my aortic valve replacement surgery 15 years ago. Started doing triathlons in 2004, but have been morphing into pretty much a full-time swimmer over the past year or so due to some orthopedic issues that limit my running. Was an age group swimmer until I was 15, and now at 62, have enjoyed getting back into masters swimming competition after a forty-some year break. I swim with the Sarasota Tsunami Masters team at 6AM 5 days per week. I've logged just under 100K yards so far this year. We've been fortunate to have Sheila Taormina coach our masters team since last June - She's really helped my stroke mechanics. I've done four masters meets in the past six months and am planning on at least four more before the end of the year. Been swimming 50 & 100 meter free, 50 ***, 50 fly and 100 IM in competition. My cardiac fitness is excellent. With all the endurance training I've done the past 15 years my resting heart rate is down to 49 bpm. Still building specific swimming endurance, but that has been improving rapidly as I've gotten some of my technique issues worked out. Mark

Someone recently posted on Facebook an event announcement of "The World Heart Games" by the American College of Sports Medicine in Charlotte NC. Some Cardiac Athletes started to get excited until we looked at their brochure. The events include things like golf putt, softball throw, soccer shoot, frisbee, and get ready for this, bean bag toss! There was one swim thing included, but not a race by any means. Now here's the kicker, the games are sponsored by Coca Cola whose products are probably more responsible for coronary heart disease than anything else and their purpose in backing it is to counter the negative publicity that sugar loading has been getting in recent years. For the most part, the people online were insulted by the lack of any true challenge in the event schedule, and upset that the ACSM would allow the backing of Coke of all companies. Although, most do understand the audience they are aiming this at, calling it world games was a big stretch. So a number of the more competitive souls among us posted their true feelings on the WHG web site, but they were promptly deleted.

One of my frequent lane partners just got some stints at the end of last year. When we swim together everyone jokes about how it is the "cardiac lane". For a while I think our coach was nervous about pushing us too hard - in spite of our assurances that we were both OK and fully cleared medically by our cardiologists. We've both set multiple PR's this year and both cleaned up at the Gulf Coast Senior Games a couple of weeks ago to qualify for the Florida Senior Games meet in December, so I guess we're doing OK. ;)

I had 66mm of stints put in Aug 2012 at the age of 38. I swim and coach 4-5 days a week, along with weight training and running. Ask anyone in my club if they think it has slowed me down any...

Update to this thread: I got a mechanical aortic valve back in December 2000. No problems and no restrictions since that time. About ten days ago I started developing some shortness of breath and some other symptoms and went to see my cardiologist this morning. Long story short, the electrical signals that fire my heart muscles have become "confused" due to my missing tissue valve and missing every other beat, so it won't beat faster than about 38 bpm. I'm scheduled to get a pacemaker implanted this coming Friday. Doc says that I have to stay out of the water for two weeks to let the incision heal, and only breaststroke & kicking for another two weeks. After that NO restrictions. It kind of screws up my summer long course season, but still hope to be at Indy for the spring Nationals in May 2018.

I have a rare, genetic condition called Long QT. I've had it my whole life and didn't know till I had my 55 year check-up. I come from a running background and was able to break 3 hours in the marathon twice so I was shocked when I discovered I had such a thing. The first EP I visited told me absolutely no working out. I was mortified and disgusted by this diagnosis. This Physician put me on a dosage of Beta Blockers that caused me to black-out when I was walking across the gym. I eventually got in with a research cardiology group who enabled me to get genetic testing. My LQT is a type they've never seen before and they are studying me. My EP and I think and hope my LQT is a non-problematic type so I continue to train and go to meets although I still take a very low dosage of Beta Blocker for protection.

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.