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CABG & climbing - random thread for campfire talks 21-Nov-2017 At 6:04:03 PM IdratherbeclimbingM9

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Okay, I know there isn't anything unique to my circumstances, though the topic hasn't arisen in any detail on Chockstone previously.

A couple of statistics.

1,400 CABG operations are performed per month in Australia with <2% of patients having issues arising from same.
The Australian health system if fantastic as most of the significant cost (around $50,000), of each operation is covered...

~ ~ ~

In the middle of August just gone, I went climbing to a beginner friendly location, as I was introducing a couple of semi experienced (some sport climbing background) climbers to 'trad' climbing for their first time.

The area had suffered from bushfire a couple of years back, and we had to bushwhack through regrowth over disappeared tracks to access the base of the climb we intended to do.
A good warmup it proved to be, though not overly strenuous.

At the base of the climb while we unpacked our gear in preparation for it, I then experienced a strong and highly irregular heartbeat...
When next I meet those folk, I shall have to ask them if they noticed anything unusual in my behaviour/demeanor at that time, though as events flowed on the day, they didn't indicate anything was unusual with me.

It (my heartbeat) was erratic but this only lasted for less than a minute.
It was a very hammer-like pounding (without pain, numbness, slurring of speech or any other 'classic' symptoms), thump, thump, thump, thump, thump. Then nothing! ... just long enough for my mind to think "is it going to start again"? It started again, but like ye olde clown car in a circus, you know the ones, they have wheels of different sizes and shapes, so that as they travel along they are wonking all over the shop...

Then thump, thump, thump, thump, thump again, once again followed by the pregnant pause, and clown car start-up.

And a third time, again the same; all up the total of the three combined was less than a minute.
I felt a bit light headed and slight nausea just afterward, but it quickly passed while I sipped on some water.
I was on my feet the whole time during this, as we were donning our harnesses etc.
It was mid morning on a pleasant day weather wise.

I then led an easy rope-length climb; slab start to a low angle finger crack, which I deliberately broke into two pitches by incorporating a semi-hanging belay at the base of the finger crack.
We swapped leads amongst each other, descending off the top double bolt anchor to the semi hanging belay each time, and ran laps on the upper half, practicing placing and cleaning gear.

We continued the learning / sharing of trad experience till late afternoon, and I experienced nothing further out of the ordinary on the day, nor indeed, ongoing to date; though as one will see with subsequent updates to this post / thread the further the incident was investigated the further into the 'boiling' I went!

To be continued.