Your Heart is Strong

A week ago I posted about what I perceived as my Treadmill Disaster at the Cardiologists office. At that time I promised to update you on the second portion of the test, the Echocardiogram. That is the purpose of this post.

Regarding the stress test, I am a CrossFitter, I expected that compared to a typical MetCon WOD, a treadmill test which never even required breaking into a trot, would be a cakewalk. It wasn’t, and it left me gasping for breath and my blood pressure and heart rate elevated.

My impression of the test results were quite different from my doctor’s. He was quite impressed and he claimed the test was an overwhelming success. He told me the Echocardiogram showed that my heart is very strong and is up to the task of the intensity of CrossFit. That’s good news, but…

But specialists are narrowly focused. I am concerned with a larger picture, a holistic picture.

While I am grateful that I am blessed with a strong heart, I am still concerned with erratic blood pressure when under physical stress, such as MetCons. I know, “of course your BP is gonna rise, you’re working hard.” I get it. But it shouldn’t take two days to return to normal. Blood Sugar is off. Sleep patterns are off. Weight is off. Actually weight is on, and stays on.

As I suggested in my previous blogpost, it is possible that these are all symptomatic of a single over arching issue – Stress Management. Presently WODs are simply another stressor, messing with cortisol and insulin, impacting my weight, etc.

Since the Treadmill/Echo Stress Test, I am tweaking my eating habits, I have lost a couple pounds, I have been more vigilant about getting sleep and I have taken time off from CrossFit. I attempted to cut my work hours, but that didn’t fly well. I guess I’ll focus on controlling the things I actually have control over.

In a future post I’ll share my revised schedule as I strive to be the New and Improved me.

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