Starting a Blog

What and who is the AFib Asian!

If you have stumbled across this blog then you may be wondering what the "Afib Asian" is referring to? Well that's me in a nutshell. It's hard to convey exactly to people on what has happened over the past few months so let's try to sum it up in this post here.

Where to begin? So about a month before race weekend I was helping my youngest shop for cloths and makeup for her dance recital. Our last stop was at Shoppers Drug Mart and I technically did not need to assist in choosing makeup so I decided to walk around the store and I came across the Blood pressure machine...hmm I think I'll test my blood pressure. I haven't done that in ages! So I sat down hit the magic button and boom! 196/119 OMG 😲that can't be right! I'll just walk around the store and try again in a few minutes. I went back for my 2nd reading...205/117 WTH! So I came home and talked to Kiera and she basically said call the doc and get checked out! This was on a Sunday. So two days later I got in and saw my GP and it took him five tries before he got me on the 5th attempt to lie down and see that my BP was way too high! This was puzzling as he knows that I am an endurance runner and I do a lot of activities. If you know me and follow me on Strava than you pretty much have seen my activities there or on any of the other social media channels! So of course he started me on my 1st blood pressure medication. My first prescription to lower my BP was done and was filled that day. So I started taking the medication at 1/2 dose and if it didn't lower within a week I was to take the full dose. After a week my BP did not go down drastically so I upped the dose to the full tablet. A month past and I was to visit him again for an update. Nope still too high so onto medication #2 😩 That same I received a call that I was going in for my fitness stress test at the Ottawa Heart Institute. This was on the 29th of June just before Canada day. So I went to the Heart Institute for a fitness stress test since my doc recommended I go and get one done since I have high blood pressure. Well that 30 min test turned into a 2 hr consultation as I have been diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation (AFib).
It's fairly common in older people, but for me it's not so common. It's my electrical system that's sending erratic signals to my heart and making it "flutter" and could cause a disruption in the blood flow and could cause a stroke.
I was like WHAT! As the docs are grilling me on symptoms do you have dizzy spells, headaches, thyroid and a whole gamut of issues and I'm like no I don't get these symptoms.
So they left and consulted with several other experts at the heart institute and then upon their return :"they" are lumping me into the category of potential stroke which shocked the hell out of me.😱 The discussion was long and a lot of denial on my part, but the evidence was clear on the ECG that I have a positive test and I need to act. So onto medication #3 and #4. That's right four pills! 😥
I mentioned that I had a race on the weekend a simple 5K. As well a trail race that month. They definitely did NOT want me to do the trail race! So I bartered for the 5K race. They hesitated and allowed me if I promised to walk it. Of course this was the weekend with the super high humidity and crazy extreme heat.
So on Canada Day I walked the 5k and they said they were ok so a guy who doesn't regularly take meds I was put on two new meds in addtion to the two for high BP. A blood thinner and a beta blocker.
So my training and running is somewhat on hold but I'm trying to stay active but at a much reduced volume and intensity.

I'll stop there for now and will continue with my timeline in another post.
But you now know where the AFib in the name of the blog comes from.
Thanks for reading.