JBlog

Some time in early 2008 I decided to finally do something about my irregular heartbeat. An appointment with Carle’s cardiology department revealed that I had a worsening condition called cardiomyopathy, which is basically and enlarging and weakening of the heart wall. This was caused, it was surmised, by another condition called atrial fibrilation, which is:

a lack of coordination between the patches of muscle, which means that the whole chamber doesn’t contract at the same time. As a result, less blood is squeezed into the ventricle from the atrium. Because of this, blood can get backed up in the atrium, then into the blood vessel that leads into it, and, with time, even farther back throughout the rest of the body.

So I was prescribed two different medications, Coreg, a drug that helps to keep your heart from beating too rapidly and Lisinopril, a blood pressure medication. At the time the medicine was prescribed I was also pretty heavy, at around 250 pounds, so my cardiologist prescribed a fairly high dosage of 75 mg per day.

Even though my heart condition had nothing to do with my weight, I decided that it was enough of a wakeup call that I should consider doing something about it, so I began to exercise. I began with swimming, then added some cycling and a few months ago when I decided to sign up for the triathlon, I added running, too. So far I’ve been fine when swimming and running, but when cycling I’m typically out for 2-3 hours under sustained efforts, which causes my heart to work for long periods of time. I’ve been getting some chest pains as a result of this. I suspect that it may have something to do with the fact that I’m now, at 195 pounds, over 50 pounds lighter than I was when I began taking the high dosage of Coreg and I probably just don’t need as much to keep my heart in check. A call to my cardiologist’s nurse has helped to confirm this suspicion, and she made an appointment for me to see the department’s nurse practitioner who specializes in electrophysiology.

I have another group ride scheduled tonight. We’ll see how I hold up. I’ll go as long as I can and hopefully will not experience any chest pains. I have noticed that I tend to get them more on Saturday morning, which makes sense since my exercise takes place closer to the time I’ve last taken my Coreg. If I don’t get chest pains tonight, or at least as bad tonight, then I think it might make sense for me to back off the dosage. I really hope so, because I’d love to eventually be free of any prescription meds.