Hello, again, everyone.
I've cobbled together a rambling update of what is happening to me. I'm not really asking for help - you've already been very good with that - just wanting to reconnect at what is a rather upsetting time for me. Sorry it's so long (it was written as therapy by a frustrated currently ex-cyclist).
I have stopped cycling.
Because of another blood-test, à propos very slight (and now non-existent) puffiness in ankles – a sign of heart trouble but also a side-effect of statins! - I was referred as a matter of urgency for another echo-cardiogram because the blood test showed my level of some protein (which indicates heart distress) to be 10 times the acceptable level. It is also an indication of inflammation in the body, so it occurs to me that it might be distorted by the level of my arthritis, which is very bad in my hands and significant in at least one of my several knees.
At this second echo-test, the technician expressed puzzlement that the results she was seeing did not seem to accord with the suave, light-footed, devil-may-care individual she had powerless on the couch before her. Where was the breathlessness, the puce skin and hesitant movement? I imagine that it is only the guidelines that prevented her from referring to me as an Adonis. Similar guidelines presumably prevent her from directly passing on bad news and she wouldn't tell me anything that I didn't ask directly, such as have I got an enlarged heart? (Yes.) This is common amongst champion athletes, so look on the bright side (my thoughts, not her words).
Rachel (for it was she) side-stepped my request to know what the Ejection Volume (EV) fraction was (it had been 30 – 35% in the test in August). She did mention that the previous reading had been sufficient for that technician to suggest referral to a cardiologist. For whatever reason, that didn't happen. Perhaps, as has been mentioned, I have been shunted onto an age-related siding? Rachel would only say that she'd have to calculate the EV fraction and that I would be hearing from my GP. It looked as if I was in trouble.
Sure enough, my doctor called me in within a couple of days. My EV fracion is 10%. That's a drop of two-thirds in an already severe reading – in three months. Both sides of my heart have “failed”
Even though I've been riding ten miles a day with absolutely no ill effects, I am now off the bike. What I'm on instead is statins, blood-thinners, ACE inhibitor and a beta-blocker. And I'm waiting for an urgent (within a fortnight?) referral to a cardiologist, which should have happened months ago.
My doctor is as baffled as I am to understand how this has happened, especially this sudden decline in EV – which has been mirrored by absolutely no change in performance or feeling of well-being. Less than 3 years ago, an MRI scan showed that my heart had no abnormalities, although I did have occasional ectopic beats. The GP confirms that my other tests indicate that I haven't got diseased arteries. My life-style and habits (those that can be openly discussed) have always been healthy. It's looking (to me) as if stress may be the significant factor: my wife and I are carers and neither of us can remember the last time we had eight hours – or even six of unbroken sleep. But my wife is fine, while I practically write this posthumously, according to science.
Even though I have been keen on fitness and adventure, and am not a fanatical athlete, I think it also possible that my level of exercise, though modest by the level of obsession displayed by most of the current crop of contributors to the Arrivée magazine, may have set up a chain, which is recognised amongst heart “observers”:-
Strenuous Exercise > Arrhythmia > L heart failure > R heart failure >
??
But what a jolt to go from 35 to 10 in 3 months! More graphically, I have read of surveys which indicate that 75% of people with an EV of 10% or less die within 3 years. Whoopee!
Still, that means 25% don't, and I intend to be in that 25%, so have been bloody-mindedly finished planting the tulips in case I'm around to see them. I've also read research that suggests that a patient's level of exercise is actually a better indicator of mortality than the EV itself, so I might be lucky there.
What a strange business!
I'm still getting out, just on foot. I see the same beautiful sights, wildlife, sunsets, Christmas lights, but at the moment I have a sort of misty filter and I realise that all these experiences are intensified for me by riding my bike. It's almost as if I am my bike! I am Flann O'Brian and you can keep your £5.
Today, I walked back from Rochdale, about three miles along roads and cycle-paths I would normally ride. I may have done more than I should have, I don't know, since I still haven't had the fabled “urgent” consultation with a cardiologist. But I did see and joyfully hear a flock of long-tailed tits as they flipped through the hawthorn hedge by one of the ponds near the sports goods exploitarium.
Without the advice from a specialist, I'm not sure how much exercise is enough and how much is too much. It's peculiar to think that I may actually have arrived at a stage in which, when I have got up, made the bed and walked say to the Co-op and back, I'll have done my exercise for the day. Actually, it's not just peculiar, it's horrid – one might say unhealthy!
Wish me luck!
ETA 11th December 2019
I have finally received the date for my urgent appointment with a cardiologist. It turns out to be with a Nurse Practitioner and is in six weeks time. I am being given the bum's rush here and have almost certainly been shunted onto the senile, waiting to die, don't waste resources on him siding. It's all very clever, because if I accept it and keep calm I'll possibly drop dead before I'm seen, therefore becoming an easily managed statistic. If I get agitated about it, I'll drop dead anyway. I'd rather die trying, so I rang several places to try and find out whether the departments involved actually considered this to be appropriate procedure for someone who has been referred urgently, as a result of a rapid and alarming deterioration in heart function. Nobody was answering any relevant phones, except to say they were away from their desk and by the way from Monday they'll be on holiday. I've managed to get a telephone appointment with my GP who is one of the people who think I should be seen urgently. Let's see what he thinks. In the meantime...... and breathe....!
Will it never stop raining? I need sun – and sunsets!