grcolts

I have been reading through this thread and want to add my experience from several years ago. I love to bicycle and one day when out riding I had a strange feeling in my back shoulder. I stopped and stretched and it went away. The next day the same thing happened again. I thought maybe I had just pulled something and blew it off. A day or two later I was mowing the yard and it happened again. A weird twinge in my back shoulder area. My wife wanted me to go to the doctor to check it out but I was reluctant still thinking it was just a muscle thing. So, I was at work walking across the parking lot and it hit me again, this time much stronger. I called my wife and told her ok after work we will go visit the doctor. To make a long story short, they told me I had a heart attack ( I didn't) but the test was showing lots of abnormalities. They sent me to the emergency room where I was diagnosed with a blocked artery of 95 percent. I had a stint put in my artery and they told me if I had not come in when I did I would not be alive. Today, I am doing fine and still riding. Some of the doctors told me I most likely survived because of my bicycling. If something does not seem right, don't blow it off. Go get check out. Better safe than sorry.

Carbonfiberboy 

This and genejockey's post sound exactly like what my diagnosed-with-Afib riding buddies describe as their first experiences of same. Their Afib gradually got worse until warming up didn't help but keeping the HR down in general did help.

scottfsmith

Thanks for the heads-up. I wouldn't be super surprised if I had some Afib going on. I am in fact wearing a Holter monitor right now. The problem is my events are so far apart that I doubt it will find anything even though I am wearing it for two weeks.

Agreed! I probably should have mentioned I have been working with my doctor. So far nothing is off though.

beng1

The Cleveland Clinic doctors said I had a heart attack before the surgery according to my EKG, they could not tell exactly when or how many I had over the years, but I remember a number of times when I had chest-pain, irregular heartbeat and felt very tired afterwards, so it is a good thing I had some surgery or I probably would not be here right now, it was close.

I am sixty years old and have had heartbeat problems most of those years, since I was a little kid. Finally last year it got so bad I called the Cleveland Clinic where a 70 year-old pioneer in fixing irregular heartbeats still works. He burned an electrical circuit out of my heart and I feel better than I have felt since I was in my teens or 20s. Growing up I had atrial tachycardias, atrial fibrillation and super-ventricular tachycardia. I had to quit drinking alcohol, stop any food with MSG in it, quit eating red meat, get to bed early and absolutely stay hydrated and keep my potassium level up the last 30-plus years or I would put myself at high risk of ending up in the hospital because of being stuck in a bad heart rhythm. I probably was hospitalized a dozen times or more over thirty some years and was on different kinds of pills for the condition which made me drowsy and who knows what else they did to me. Now I don't take any meds for it at all !!!

I used to get myself out of irregular heartbeats by laying on my back on the floor and taking deep breaths, ten seconds in, hold for ten seconds, ten seconds out, or believe it or not, sexual orgasm stopped the irregular heartbeat too.

If you have a feeling of dread imagine what it was like for me to live with that crap for over a half-century. My advice to you is to first, clean up your act like I did as far as eating and sleeping and staying hydrated go, that should help a lot until you can get some real professional help. Stay away from all caffiene and sugary crap, they are stimulants that will add to you chances of a recurrence. You have to live straight-edge as can be for a while. It is good to exercise, but for now I would stay away from extreme stuff where you are getting very hot, dehydrated or your heart is pounding like a jackhammer.

Skip the small local hospitals and start calling world-class outfits like Cleveland Clinic, Mayo etc.. they will listen to your financial situation and help you out more than small crappy hospitals like I have in my hometown that are basically butcher shops where second-class doctors end up. If I would have got this work done decades ago my life would be incredibly different right now than it is. Not that I can complain at all, but heart problems can put a big damper of your life.

The main causes of irregular heartbeats before a few years go were either congenital electrical abnormalities as in my case, and also being big or tall and having a larger heart, especially a large atrial part of the heart, or an enlarged heart from some other cause, and high-blood pressure is also a factor. In the last few years it is pretty easy to find examples of athletes who have dropped dead, young athletes, in much greater numbers than before the covid pandemic and experimental vaccines pushed on the public world-wide. It is much easier to find information on this outside the USA's "free press".

So there you go, over a half-century of experience living with a crappy heartbeat. I ran track in HS with it, ran 10ks and raced bicycles with it too over a number of decades and worked construction in extremes of temperature etc. with it.

Good luck

big john

It's been several months since I experienced the irregular heartbeat and I've felt a lot better in general but I still feel bad sometimes if I overdo it chasing riders. I'm still riding 150 miles per week and I think being 68 might be part of the problem.

beng1

Yesterday I talked to a 70 year-old rider who just finished a sixty-mile ride in hot humid weather and he felt fine, but everyone's different. You know what makes you feel crummy, and I laid out lifestyle points to avoid irregular heartbeat. If it does not come back, or only happens when you abuse things great, if it starts to happen more and more I hope you will see a very good doctor about it.