AV Block

[SJCzar]

I guess I could have clarified my question more. Yes, first degree was the type that I was told was more common among athletes (but not caused by the exercise itself). So I figured if that statistic was accurate, and with the number of athletic women on these boards, there would be at least a few that had it.

I had not had any adverse effects from mine until recently when I had an incident where my rate dropped so low that I passed out. After a few days in the hospital and a repeat battery of tests I'm back to my normal routine. I learned to take the warning signs a bit more seriously next time .... before I get to the pass out stage.

Luckily I always feel my healthiest when I'm riding my bike so I don't have to stop doing that. Now I just need to convince my DH that I should probably quit my job and spend all day on my bike.

[Jolt]

I guess I could have clarified my question more. Yes, first degree was the type that I was told was more common among athletes (but not caused by the exercise itself). So I figured if that statistic was accurate, and with the number of athletic women on these boards, there would be at least a few that had it.

I had not had any adverse effects from mine until recently when I had an incident where my rate dropped so low that I passed out. After a few days in the hospital and a repeat battery of tests I'm back to my normal routine. I learned to take the warning signs a bit more seriously next time .... before I get to the pass out stage.

Luckily I always feel my healthiest when I'm riding my bike so I don't have to stop doing that. Now I just need to convince my DH that I should probably quit my job and spend all day on my bike.

Ugh, passing out is not cool! I almost did that a few weeks ago in clinical while watching a procedure (paracentesis, where they stick a big needle into someone's abdomen to drain fluid that has accumulated usually due to liver disease)--was fine until I started thinking about how painful it looked, next thing I knew I was really lightheaded, quickly checked my pulse and found it was really slow (like probably in the 30s!) and sat down before getting to the point of losing consciousness. Very embarrassing. Gotta love those vagal reactions--sometimes they happen in situations like that, and I know other people in my class who have done it as well. With your incident, what were you doing at the time and how did you know it was from a drop in heart rate? Did you get any sort of diagnosis? Here's hoping you don't have that happen again!

[Zen]

Jolt- thanks for the education we didn't go so far into conduction as the parasympathetic NS, just the SA-AV-Perkinje.

my mneumonic for that was to think of an advertisement for a grocery. It would say "SAAV a BUNDLE at Perkinje"

[SJCzar]

I fainted at the most convenient place ... on my doctor's exam table. I had went in because of a problem with my ear. She felt that overstimulation of the nerves when she was flushing out my ear helped bring on the fainting. My pulse and blood pressure would not come up enough, and after a few doses of anti-nausea meds I could still hardly stand to keep my eyes open. I had no strength to even try to sit up, so off to the hospital.

I had already been previously diagnosed with the AV block but they decided that they needed to monitor me further to be sure that I wouldn't randomly drop down to the fainting rate again. Besides all the usual blood tests, numerous EKGs, and ultrasound, they also ran another stress test to see if I'm still able to handle exercise well. Just like the last time I aced that test. My lungs always give out before my heart. I don't think they were able to get my heartrate above 152.