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Cardiomegaly (enlarged heart - so I'm told)
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I'd certainly do that in the circumstances you are in & also if the patient was myself.
Best of luck
Thanks for all the advice and support. Things went a bit pear-shaped yesterday, largely as I couldn't take the calcium at regular times, so whatever is going on, I know that the calcium helps improve things.
I've no idea what the next steps are re the surgery, but I'm armed and ready for when they re-open
Maybe I'm missing something, but are you aware of Hyperventilation Syndrome? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperventilation_syndrome
An enlarged heart is very common amongst runners. You're a single parent with autistic kids; if I may say, statistically, an occupation that would rank highly in the list of stressful occupations (people in stressful occupations are far more prone to HVS).
What do I know? Do make sure to Google Hyperventilation Syndrome. If you think there's a chance, then try some exercises and see what happens.
Either way, I wish you the best of luck. As others have said, don't be afraid to make a PITA out of yourself; you have to keep pestering NHS bureaucrats.
If you were to have HVS, the symptoms won't go away when the 'stress' goes away. A typical scenario is for someone who's been fine all their life to go through a stressful event, such as a court case or bereavement, whereupon their natural breathing rhythm gets disturbed permanently, remaining so once the stressful period has passed.
I could be well off the mark here. Also consider that, although you may feel acclimatised to stress, some people (myself included) learn to live with stress and consider it normal - only to find out, when a comparison is made, that they are actually living a very stressful lifestyle, it just seems normal to them.
Even if HVS is well off the mark, have you looked into meditation / yoga / tai chi? It could be interesting to see how your symptoms are affected after several weeks of practising such a therapy.
Just going back though the thread: you haven't had an ECG yet? It strikes me as somewhat bizarre for a GP to suggest such a diagnosis prior to one having been made...
A few years back, they told my mother she probably had lung cancer... I never felt comfortable with the diagnosis and the biopsy was inconclusive. They even had her going into the cancer treatment centre to see specialists, putting the fear of God into us, prior to a decent diagnosis... It transpires that she had nothing of the sort. She now takes steroids (once a year or two) when it flares up and she's fine.
Sorry to hear about this Jeeps.
Big hugs and hope things improve for you soon. x
Jeepers - any more news?
Hope all is well.
x
Just had the diagnosis yesterday. Turns out I contracted a virus (back at the beginning of November) which has attacked the heart. I'm waiting for tests but hopefully, things are starting to improve slightly. I'm on total rest (whatever that might be!) and the GP thinks that it might sort itself out, I've just got to be patient. No decision re training, he's asked me to go back and see him in 4 - 6 weeks, so we'll see.
Thanks for asking, though and hope the mara training is going well.
Sounds nasty Jeepers but glad its finally diagnosed. Fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.
Marathon training going fine so far thanks. Pop in sometime - would be glad to see you.
Lurking all the time!
Glad it's going well, make sure that you take it easy, some of the "Super Sixers" seem to be picking up injuries already, possibly due to the sudden increase in distance and pace. There's also a lot of confusion about the plans and again, they don't appear to be adapting them to individuals, rather using the "one size fits all" approach, so looks as though the "Forum Six" got the better bet.
Glad you have a diagnosis Jeepers, I hope the doc's right and it just gets better on its own and you're back training soon
Thank you for the comments. It would be a bit of an understatement to say that I wouldn't like to be scared like that again.
Crikey, Jeepers - this one completely passed me by. I didn't realise you were having all this trouble
- apologies!
Sounds like it's been a pretty horrible, scary experience. Glad you do now have a diagnosis, and fingers crossed for a speedy recovery!
Evening
Good that you know now what it is. Hope things pick up soon.
I think you are probably right on the SS injury front. I'm pretty sure that with me the hamstring issue is down to increased speedwork rather than mileage as last winter I went from 50 in December to 127 in Jan with no problem. I started into the programme that was given without guidance and by the time anyone mentioned the idea that you didn't need to aim for those paces to start with the damage was done. Give me a number and I'll try to achieve it. Thankfully advice was given about osteo/chiro at the right time (although I opted for physio instead) and it looks like I've caught it in time to avoid major problems *crosses fingers* At the moment I do rather feel as if it is me who is adapting the programme using my past experience.
I do hope that things settle for you and hopefully they will as you've picked it up at niggle stage rather than more advanced. I also think that the physio was probably a good bet as they could perhaps diagnose more where it's coming from.
I changed to HR training and after a gap of 3 - 4 months (due to off-spring being at home and not being able to get out) returned to training, going from 0 - 45 m per week with no problem. I follow the J L Parker method, so when I started back in the summer, followed one of his programmes. I'm sensible (comes of my age
) but my weekly programme consists of one hard speed session (intervals) the others are all steadies or recovery runs. I did the January challenge last year and went from a weekly total of 25 - 30 ish m/wk to 50 m/wk in the second week,maintaining throughout the month, then continuing (childcare issues aside!) with that quite happily.
I'm sorry that you're not getting more assistance with the programme, I really hope that that will change and improve for you and that you'll get the level of advice that you were promised. Is it the same for the others? What about Steve, he seemed very helpful, is there any chance that he will be back to help? However, you have a wealth of experience yourself, lots of on-line support from forumites, so I'm confident that you can and will make it. And we'll all be there to celebrate with you
.