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alfresco
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. . . as I see it now.
By my very nature, this is long winded post with a variety of
tangents along the way but I trust it will all come together at
the end, if not to your satisfaction, at least to mine.
As a dear friend of mine once wrote over forty years ago . . .
“while I am certainly no longer naive enough to think that I can
change the world, or even do much in the way of redirecting
fools -- I do think that the concentrated efforts of a few
reasonable people can do quite a lot in the way of halting the
spread of insanity; if we can't heal the sick, perhaps we can at
least inoculate the upcoming generation of young bodybuilders
with the needle of truth, -- and if the present unhealthy trend
can be reversed, perhaps weight training will someday be
accorded the reasonable consideration it truly deserves”
Having not contributed much of anything of real value in the last
six months for some of the reasons I am going to articulate here,
I now believe I have something to share.
Today I had a stress echocardiogram which I requested from my
primary care physician (thank you PM members who made me
aware of this test) because of some strange heart palpations –
“flutters” I started having back in May. And while they have both
diminished in both severity and frequency, I still experience them
from time to time, for reasons I will get to later.
The results of the tests were astonishing to me and the cardiologist.
He said that he has never seen anybody, in all his years of practice
(and he is my age), in the thousands and thousands of patients he
has tested, from geriatric and elite athletes, do what I did, perform
at a level that I performed at today. While my blood pressure was
being measured every three minutes and under constant EKG
monitoring they continued to increase both the speed and the slope
of the treadmill, until it was maxed out and I would not say stop and
they had to call it quits in the interest of time.
Long story short, my heart is healthy and strong with zero abnormalities.
He said don’t worry about it, the palpations and flutters are most likely
adrenaline induced (perhaps a side effect of some medication I was
taking which I will go into later) induced by the anxiety, fear and be-
wilderment associated with some health issues I have been dealing with
since the first of the year. He said he could give me some pills to help
sort out what I was feeling but he said pills are for sick people and clearly
I am not sick. Work on solving those other problems and what you are
feeling now, which is more of an annoyance than anything, and it will
go away. (All of which I believe to be true.) See you in four months.
For those interested in the numbers my resting ejection fraction was
>60, and thirty seconds after I got off the treadmill it was >90.
For greater part of 30 years I have trained with weights when I had
the chance, which in reality has pretty much been non-stop. I have always
trained with a high level of intensity and at a very fast pace, two to four
times per week and preceded each workout with ~ twenty minutes warm-
up; a stationary bike or a rowing machine. And when I was not in the gym,
I have always tried to do some cardio; walking / hiking outside or on my
road bike, riding the hills where I live for one hour or two minimum with
eight hours hikes not being uncommon. This I know has been at the
expense of muscular mass, but I knew my health was paramount, but until
now, did not know how important it really was. I am relieved to know I
have a healthy heart.
I have been on doctor approved TRT since early 2006. Prior to that I would
not have known a steroid if it hit me across the face like a used catfish. I
started on a low dose of Testosterone C @ 200mg every two weeks and
over the course of time was injecting up to 600mg every 10 days. Eventually
we settled on a dose of 400mg every week, which I had been doing for
over one year. I felt great on that dose and all my blood tests were always
fine; a few yellow flags, but no red flags, so sempre avanti.
Then I had a “bad” blood test. I had never seen so many out of range
numbers in my life. This scared me and I wasted no time in seeing my
doctor. We both decided I needed to reduce both the dosage and the
frequency of my TRT or take a “drug holiday” as she called it. We arrived
at 200mg every two weeks and to get a blood test in a couple of months.
We chose to reduce, not stop because we reasoned that absence of
testosterone during this time when I was dealing with other issues would
add another variable, could do more harm than good. Thankfully when I
got retested a few months later, everything was back within normal levels.
And I plan on keeping it that way.
Prior to the “bad” blood test, I had a bout of sudden hearing loss in my
left hear. That was easy and quickly remedied with high dose two week
tapering regime of Prednisone and an anti-viral and my hearing returning
to normal. Then it happened again, was told this is extremely rare, but
with one and only treatment available, so we did it again. And again,
after treatment my hearing returned to normal. And then it happened
again. Only this time, I was not the perfect responder I once was, my
hearing did not return to normal. And then it happened again, and again
the same treatment, only this time, no response. Then as they say, the
shit hit the fan.
Idiopathic (no known cause) sinusoidal sudden hearing loss was my diagnosis.
Why, over the course of the past five months, I have lost hearing in my
left ear four times no one knows and I have seen the world’s leading expert in
this field. But the resulting tinnitus in that ear has been enough to drive a
sane man crazy. And it damn near did. As a last resort, after seeing this
specialist at UCSF, I was put on another, bigger, longer than all other times
before dose of oral Prednisone along with four weekly Prednisone injections
through my tympanic membrane, all of which only served to increase my
anxiety and to escalate the tinnitus like never before. Then throw in all the
other adverse side effects of this drug and I think you are beginning to get
the picture.
Now add in the mix a diuretic, sleeping pills, and trying three different types
of anti-anxiety medications along the way to try put the tinnitus in the back-
ground, and as mentioned earlier, my hormones and other things being out
of whack . . well, it was not pretty. I was a walking science experiment. And
if I was not one, I sure felt like one. I often had long periods of time, weeks
actually, where I could barely eat or sleep, such was the effect of tinnitus and
various medications, some of them mind altering, which I had been on and off
since this whole fiasco started. It was a very slippery slope as anybody who
has been there can tell you.
The doctors want to help and can help, but you also must help yourself and
make sure everybody is up to speed on drug interactions. It’s a real eye opening
experience to get up each morning a look at a long row of medications, one
that takes a spread sheet to keep track of. I never in a million years thought
that would happen to me, but it did.
Things are just now starting to return to normal. The hearing in my left ear
will never be the same, being stuck with a mild to moderate loss. I am down
to one daily medication, another as required, with plans underway to get
off everything except testosterone, which at this stage in my life, is probably
going to a requirement.
So what in the hell does this have to do with bodybuilding you might ask.
Well . . . nothing actually. This small, insignificant experience of mine just
serves to underscore the importance of one’s health, my health in this case,
and the support of my wonderful wife, my family and friends, the people I
love and who love me, without which I would have nothing at all.
Be well,
alfresco
By my very nature, this is long winded post with a variety of
tangents along the way but I trust it will all come together at
the end, if not to your satisfaction, at least to mine.
As a dear friend of mine once wrote over forty years ago . . .
“while I am certainly no longer naive enough to think that I can
change the world, or even do much in the way of redirecting
fools -- I do think that the concentrated efforts of a few
reasonable people can do quite a lot in the way of halting the
spread of insanity; if we can't heal the sick, perhaps we can at
least inoculate the upcoming generation of young bodybuilders
with the needle of truth, -- and if the present unhealthy trend
can be reversed, perhaps weight training will someday be
accorded the reasonable consideration it truly deserves”
Having not contributed much of anything of real value in the last
six months for some of the reasons I am going to articulate here,
I now believe I have something to share.
Today I had a stress echocardiogram which I requested from my
primary care physician (thank you PM members who made me
aware of this test) because of some strange heart palpations –
“flutters” I started having back in May. And while they have both
diminished in both severity and frequency, I still experience them
from time to time, for reasons I will get to later.
The results of the tests were astonishing to me and the cardiologist.
He said that he has never seen anybody, in all his years of practice
(and he is my age), in the thousands and thousands of patients he
has tested, from geriatric and elite athletes, do what I did, perform
at a level that I performed at today. While my blood pressure was
being measured every three minutes and under constant EKG
monitoring they continued to increase both the speed and the slope
of the treadmill, until it was maxed out and I would not say stop and
they had to call it quits in the interest of time.
Long story short, my heart is healthy and strong with zero abnormalities.
He said don’t worry about it, the palpations and flutters are most likely
adrenaline induced (perhaps a side effect of some medication I was
taking which I will go into later) induced by the anxiety, fear and be-
wilderment associated with some health issues I have been dealing with
since the first of the year. He said he could give me some pills to help
sort out what I was feeling but he said pills are for sick people and clearly
I am not sick. Work on solving those other problems and what you are
feeling now, which is more of an annoyance than anything, and it will
go away. (All of which I believe to be true.) See you in four months.
For those interested in the numbers my resting ejection fraction was
>60, and thirty seconds after I got off the treadmill it was >90.
For greater part of 30 years I have trained with weights when I had
the chance, which in reality has pretty much been non-stop. I have always
trained with a high level of intensity and at a very fast pace, two to four
times per week and preceded each workout with ~ twenty minutes warm-
up; a stationary bike or a rowing machine. And when I was not in the gym,
I have always tried to do some cardio; walking / hiking outside or on my
road bike, riding the hills where I live for one hour or two minimum with
eight hours hikes not being uncommon. This I know has been at the
expense of muscular mass, but I knew my health was paramount, but until
now, did not know how important it really was. I am relieved to know I
have a healthy heart.
I have been on doctor approved TRT since early 2006. Prior to that I would
not have known a steroid if it hit me across the face like a used catfish. I
started on a low dose of Testosterone C @ 200mg every two weeks and
over the course of time was injecting up to 600mg every 10 days. Eventually
we settled on a dose of 400mg every week, which I had been doing for
over one year. I felt great on that dose and all my blood tests were always
fine; a few yellow flags, but no red flags, so sempre avanti.
Then I had a “bad” blood test. I had never seen so many out of range
numbers in my life. This scared me and I wasted no time in seeing my
doctor. We both decided I needed to reduce both the dosage and the
frequency of my TRT or take a “drug holiday” as she called it. We arrived
at 200mg every two weeks and to get a blood test in a couple of months.
We chose to reduce, not stop because we reasoned that absence of
testosterone during this time when I was dealing with other issues would
add another variable, could do more harm than good. Thankfully when I
got retested a few months later, everything was back within normal levels.
And I plan on keeping it that way.
Prior to the “bad” blood test, I had a bout of sudden hearing loss in my
left hear. That was easy and quickly remedied with high dose two week
tapering regime of Prednisone and an anti-viral and my hearing returning
to normal. Then it happened again, was told this is extremely rare, but
with one and only treatment available, so we did it again. And again,
after treatment my hearing returned to normal. And then it happened
again. Only this time, I was not the perfect responder I once was, my
hearing did not return to normal. And then it happened again, and again
the same treatment, only this time, no response. Then as they say, the
shit hit the fan.
Idiopathic (no known cause) sinusoidal sudden hearing loss was my diagnosis.
Why, over the course of the past five months, I have lost hearing in my
left ear four times no one knows and I have seen the world’s leading expert in
this field. But the resulting tinnitus in that ear has been enough to drive a
sane man crazy. And it damn near did. As a last resort, after seeing this
specialist at UCSF, I was put on another, bigger, longer than all other times
before dose of oral Prednisone along with four weekly Prednisone injections
through my tympanic membrane, all of which only served to increase my
anxiety and to escalate the tinnitus like never before. Then throw in all the
other adverse side effects of this drug and I think you are beginning to get
the picture.
Now add in the mix a diuretic, sleeping pills, and trying three different types
of anti-anxiety medications along the way to try put the tinnitus in the back-
ground, and as mentioned earlier, my hormones and other things being out
of whack . . well, it was not pretty. I was a walking science experiment. And
if I was not one, I sure felt like one. I often had long periods of time, weeks
actually, where I could barely eat or sleep, such was the effect of tinnitus and
various medications, some of them mind altering, which I had been on and off
since this whole fiasco started. It was a very slippery slope as anybody who
has been there can tell you.
The doctors want to help and can help, but you also must help yourself and
make sure everybody is up to speed on drug interactions. It’s a real eye opening
experience to get up each morning a look at a long row of medications, one
that takes a spread sheet to keep track of. I never in a million years thought
that would happen to me, but it did.
Things are just now starting to return to normal. The hearing in my left ear
will never be the same, being stuck with a mild to moderate loss. I am down
to one daily medication, another as required, with plans underway to get
off everything except testosterone, which at this stage in my life, is probably
going to a requirement.
So what in the hell does this have to do with bodybuilding you might ask.
Well . . . nothing actually. This small, insignificant experience of mine just
serves to underscore the importance of one’s health, my health in this case,
and the support of my wonderful wife, my family and friends, the people I
love and who love me, without which I would have nothing at all.
Be well,
alfresco
Hat trick?
