Two years ago I had this whole 'health & fitness thing' figured out! It had taken me 18 months, but I'd lost 130lbs, and I was starting to get in really decent shape. I was sleeping better than ever, I no longer needed Big & Tall clothes, and dammit, I felt AWESOME!
Once I fell off the clean-eating wagon, the weight came back astonishingly quick. My cool new skinny clothes no longer fit, I started sleeping worse, and I started feeling crummy. Within a year I'd regained every last pound, and six months after that I went back into A-Fib.
Once I was in A-Fib, I was constantly exhausted, sleeping worse than ever, all my joints were sore, and the slightest exertion had me all huffy-puffy & drenched in sweat. I was now on one perscription for my heart rhythm, and another for blood thinner.
Needless to say, I felt worse than ever. Add a stressful new job with a 3 hour commute everyday, and my weight beat it's all time high by ten pounds.
My primary Cardiologist attempted another Cardioversion, trying to get me in a good rhythm. It failed, and he referred me to a specialist Cardiologist, saying I needed an ablation on my heart. For this procedure, they go in through your groin, fish a wire through you, into your heart & they burn an electrically insulating scar around the ventricles with the electrical misfires.
I was not thrilled. Performing wound-care on my groin had never been a life goal...
It turned out to be a moot point. The Specialty Cardiologist gave me a high power heart medication as prep for the ablation. This medication was supposed to easily kick me back into rhythm. It didn't work. At this point, the Specialty Cardiologist decided to not purse the ablation. He then embarked on a tough love lecture. He explained that the whole issue was simply my damn weight. The weight was so bad, the ablation surgery would not only be risky, it'd likely fail.
He explained to me that he felt I was at a crossroads. If I continued down the same two year path, he felt I was rapidly approaching a cliff, and once my health dropped off, it would never come back.
The other road was one of rapid weight loss to prevent falling off the cliff, and he feels that once enough weight comes off, the A-Fib would likely cease to be an issue. The catch? He was recommending gastric bypass.
I'm reluctant to do irreversible surgery, but I also understand that he wants me to quit dicking around & get this shit under control. Since I'd been wrestling with this issue unsuccessfully for two decades, he felt it was time for The Nuclear Option. Knowing that I'd lose weight much easier once my heart was in rhythm, he scheduled me for another Cardioversion, and I scheduled an appointment with my GP to talk over weight loss options.
The good news? The cardioversion was a success! I'm now in good rhythm, although it took them two tries, WITH TWO MACHINES. That's right, my heart was SO stuck, it took twice the voltage to kick me back into rhythm. The Cardiologist laid that one directly on my weight.
My GP was much less concerned about my weight loss being 'rapid'. He looked at my chart, saw the weight loss notes from two years ago, and he told me point blank, "Dude, get your shit together!"
He immediately put me on additional prescriptions for blood pressure & cholesterol. Rather than gastric bypass, he suggested we start with a prescription to take the hunger down a notch, as long as I promised to get back to my healthy eating. He seemed more worried (especially with my family history) that I'd never had a colonoscopy. So - yay - I've got that to look forward to!
So, now I find myself back in the salad bar line, with good heart rhythm, more prescriptions than ever, but with a solid plan for good health. Maybe I've never been quite 'here', but it sure feels like familiar territory, and I know the path. I don't know where it ends, but I know the start, and most times in life it's simply starting that matters. I can figure out the rest later...
