MY HEALTH EXPERIENCE:Avril Condell considered herself very fit and active, until one day she felt her heart give three sharp thumps. She spoke to LORNA SIGGINS
I THOUGHT it most unfair that, just because I had my 65th birthday, I could not keep up with the exercises in my aquafit class. Instead of being able to do 20 repetitions, I had to stop after 10 on some exercises to take a few deep breaths.
Similarly, when crossing a stream that runs down to a beach where I was walking, I also had to stop. It was only when I was relaxing at the hairdresser and I felt my heart give three great thumps that I thought I might have a word with my doctor.
It took her 10 seconds, having put the stethoscope to my chest and two fingers to my wrist, to inform me that I had a condition known as atrial fibrillation, which is a fast and irregular heartbeat and has various causes. In my case, it was high cholesterol which runs in the family.
I was a bit taken aback because I am fit and not over-weight, and don’t have diabetes. I sail regularly on Lough Derg, having taken it up as a child growing up in Bantry, Co Cork. I’m very active, but it seems that with high cholesterol it doesn’t matter how healthy you are otherwise, if you have no protective mechanism for certain heart conditions.
Also, blood tests don’t automatically show up cholesterol levels and you have to request a test. My father and brother both have had high cholesterol – in my brother’s case, he has had two triple bypasses, and is as active as ever.
With a letter for AE from my doctor, I was on my way to the regional hospital after that appointment. The first ECG was pretty frightening, but an hour later, after resting, the second was normal.
However, I was advised to remain in hospital to have an angiogram, which I did, and that’s where I was advised that I should have a heart bypass.
I did have to wait in hospital for eight days for a bed to become available in the Mater Private Hospital, and then another three days for a slot in its very busy schedule. The staff there are so calm, kind and professional, and everything went well.
It is a bit like an assembly line, because you are in intensive care after the operation and then you are moved to another ward where you have regular monitoring. Eventually you find yourself in the ward beside the stairs and almost ready to go.
They told me I would be there for seven to 10 days, and so I was. Each day saw progress as the physiotherapist bullied me up and down the stairs – for my own good of course! After the operation, my son Jeff almost fainted when he saw me waving at him from the ward door. I was out of there and in a nursing home for a two-week recovery spell in just eight days.
It was Christmas and my husband, Alan, knew I wouldn’t stay still if I was at home during that time, so that’s why he was keen on the nursing home recuperation. They did let me out for Christmas Day and I went to my daughter’s house, which was lovely, but I was exhausted by the end of the day.
They encourage you to walk every day, and set yourself targets for a bit more each time. I saw myself making progress, and kept up walking at home, doing various levels of the North Circular Road circuit in Limerick where we live.
My surgery was on December 8th. I sing with the Limerick Choral Union and I missed their Christmas concert, but I was back at the two-hour choir practice in the second week of January.
As soon as I was able to drive, I was back at the swimming pool, and I was back on the water just in time for the first Sunday race in April on Lough Derg, at the helm of a First 24 yacht. We were first over the starting line and second over the finish!
I was up to Galway three times for the Volvo Ocean Race stopover in late May/early June. My son Jeff had been shore manager for the Limerick/Dutch entry, Delta Lloyd, and I was at the helm of NCB Ireland, Ireland’s last entry in what was then the Whitbread round-world yacht race, when it visited Kerry two decades ago, so I guess I had an interest in going to Galway.
I was very lucky, in that I hadn’t had a stroke or heart attack, and so my recovery was a lot quicker and I never experienced that level of pain. I know from talking to those who have that the pain is such it makes one nervous of exercising after an operation.
However, they do encourage you to take paracetamol at recommended doses now, and not to be suffering needlessly.
I suppose the fact is that I behaved myself for once in my life and went to the doctor to have myself checked out. It was a mechanical problem, and I am very fortunate that it has been fixed.
All in all, the whole experience was very positive. I told the choir that everyone should have a bypass – you feel terrific afterwards!
Getting to the heart of the matter
Atrial fibrillation is a common condition which can be detected if the heart races a lot faster than normal. It is abnormal and its force can vary in intensity.
This is a result of the normal controlling “timer” in the heart being over-ridden by random electrical impulses firing off from the heart muscle in the atria.
Nearly 50,000 cases are diagnosed annually in Britain and it is more likely to occur in older people, with an estimated one in 200 cases in the 50-60 year old age group.
High blood pressure is cited as the most common cause, but it can be triggered in people with other heart conditions.
It can also be a result of overactive thyroid, pneumonia, pulmonary embolus, obesity, lung cancer, excess alcohol consumption and excess caffeine consumption from tea and coffee.
There is also a condition known as “lone atrial fibrillation” which has no apparent cause, and which can be detected in an average one in nine cases.
Symptoms include palpitations, dizziness, angina or chest pain and breathlessness. Often there are no symptoms, particularly if the heart rate is not very fast, but the condition can be diagnosed when a doctor or nurse is taking a pulse.
Treatment ranges from medication to reduce or control heart rhythm, to surgical intervention.
- If you have had a health experience, good or bad, you would like to share, contact health supplement@irishtimes.com