By bike
Was: 55
Occupation: Content Strategist
Hometown: Sparta, New Jersey
Starting weight: 220 pounds
Final weight: 170 pounds
Time cycle: 18 years
Reason for cycling: I just love it – it doesn’t feel like exercise most of the time. When I started, it was to lose weight and now it is to continue living.
In 2002, I weighed almost 100 kg (I was 36 years old and I was 1.50 meters). I had health problems and, although I had a family history of heart disease, I was very sedentary. My wife told me that I was too young to be in such a difficult shape and that I needed to take care of our young children.
So, I started exercising and eating better – healthier, wholesome foods and more fruits and vegetables – but it was only when I rediscovered cycling that everything really changed for me. I owe most of the improvements in my health to cycling. But most importantly, it was responsible for boosting my cardiovascular health and even protected me from being another victim of a widow.
In March 2020, between the stress of the pandemic and some other things happening in my life, I started to have chronic heart palpitations, so I went to my cardiologist to have a checkout. Tests showed that I was producing too much adrenaline, so I was prescribed some medications and my symptoms disappeared after that. However, my cardiologist said that since I had a family history of heart problems, I should do a thorough cardiac investigation, including an exercise test and an echocardiogram.
As my symptoms disappeared and the coronavirus pandemic disrupted many non-urgent procedures, we decided to wait to do the stress test until the office was reopened in June. He showed an abnormality, so I was sent for a nuclear stress test. Still, I had no symptoms. While this was going on, I continued riding. I took a 60-mile benefit tour – I live in northwestern New Jersey, where there are some monstrous hills. But there were no abnormalities in my heart rate during these climbs.
For a while, I had to go back and forth with insurance to get more tests passed, as I was asymptomatic and, at one point, I almost gave up.
Finally, I was able to scan the heart in late October 2020. Cardiac CT scan showed 95% and 70% of blocks in my lateral anterior descending artery (LAD). Total blockage of this artery causes what is known as a widow’s heart attack. I had to put on two stents immediately, so I went to surgery on November 3rd. My cardiologist told me that riding a bicycle was probably the reason I survived until my condition was discovered.
After about two weeks of recovery, my doctor authorized some moderate exercise and I was able to return to cycling. As it is cold where I live now, I didn’t go out for a walk as much as in spring and summer. I have walked about 170 miles since my procedure in November.
My treatment going forward is complicated. Since I was never symptomatic, I don’t have the typical markers – I don’t get out of breath, I don’t have chest pain and my heart rate doesn’t increase, so I need to be monitored more closely by my doctor.
He said I can continue cycling, even in the cold. I don’t notice much difference, maybe I can recover more quickly at the top of the hills after a lot of effort, but nothing else has changed.
I don’t think there are centuries in the future, although technically I probably could, I don’t think I’ll take that risk. My wife and I have planned a bicycle vacation in Vermont and we plan to cycle as we did in 2020 – a few days for lunch for a ride and 30 to 35 miles on weekends, as well as some charity rides.
I really want to emphasize the importance of having a cardiac exam if you have a family history of heart problems. Even if you are active and have no symptoms, don’t think you are okay. It could literally save your life, as it saved mine.
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