Chris, I can't believe a similar situation happened to me. I used to be a bike racer as well. One day, when I was 48 years old, I started vomiting uncontrollably and experienced unbearable pain in my abdominal area. My wife rushed me to the emergency room, but on the way, we had to stop three times because I couldn't stop throwing up. After four hours at the emergency room, they were finally able to alleviate my pain. They performed a gastric lavage to wash out my stomach, and the pain subsided, and I stopped vomiting. They told me I was okay, diagnosing it as a case of food poisoning, and sent me home. However, two months later, I found myself in the same situation, with intense pain and vomiting. This time, I didn't go to the emergency room. I had a friend who was a doctor, so I called him and went straight to his office. He immediately recognized the problem-I had an infected gallbladder that needed to be removed urgently.
I've had a similar situation with a Cat Scan last year. I have about 60 kidney stones from being dehydrated over the last 40 plus years competing in running and cycling events. I have yearly exams to make sure the stones aren't getting to big to pass. Last year they did a cat scan on me for a better picture of the stones. Shortly after I was contacted by my family doctor telling me I needed to see a specialist because I have several aneurysms. I was afraid my days of endurance sports were over. The specialist took a better look at the cat scan and found that my arteries are 2-3 times the size of the average human being. They told me to keep doing what I do. I was never so happy to come out of a doctors office. I'm 56 years old with a resting heart rate around 37-38. I run about 1,600 miles a year and cycle about 4,000 a year. I can still run a 16:10(5k) on the track.
It's fascinating that Doctors can't make the sort of mental leap to understand that Pro cyclists are in an entirely different category than almost any other athlete. Training like crazy and then riding high mountains like the Hors category climbs during races, and doing so for years makes you (and other pros) an entirely different animal. Maybe there should be Doctors who specialize in treating cyclists exclusively! Thanks for sharing your story Chris!
Great story time on this one! I had a buddy (top level marathon runner) who had to take the silly Air Force stationary bike test to measure fitness. The crank up the resistance and watch your heart rate. The resistance got high, his heart rate didn't go up much. He failed. The chubby, mostly out of shape, never works out to any extent guy on the bike next to him passed with flying colors. I took the same test - I was a bit older and somewhat out of shape. Many years experience riding bicycles, including some casual racing. I hopped on, spun my legs up to 95 rpm or so, and the person administering the test asked "what are you doing." I said, "it's a bike, and I'm riding it." Answer - "no, no, you have to pedal at exactly 50 rpm." That is glacially slow and it was very awkward to do it. I passed, but I realized the whole test was flawed from the very beginnning.
Great story! So glad that you are addressing this. I'm 56 never a CAT rider but I train hard and have been an Indoor Cycling instructor for 10 of the last 30 years. Recently I had a physical with a new Primary Care Physician. Typical routine ECG BP HR CR/Prostate. Everything was wonky! I'm told that one issue was my resting HR was 51. (Like that's a problem?) I say No. I'm athletic, practice meditation and yoga, and am an avid cyclist. I do not eat a lot of meat or shrimp. They rerun the tests. HR on the second run was still 51. The last full-on physical I had was at age 50. My resting HR was 41 but, the PCP at the time had known me for years, and they knew that was normal. If I'd got proper sleep, trained steadily, and stop consuming mass amounts of fine ales ... I could have easily dropped to a 40-45 HR this year. The results of my CR and prostrate were also so good that the nurse who contacted me with the results, made me confirm that I was 56. I don't need to be checked again till I'm 60! Cycling Saves Lives! Thanks Chris! This vid was really important for all serious endurance athletes.
I’m assuming you had a PSA (prostate specific antigen) Interesting your number was low, as bicycle and motorcycle seats are associated with higher numbers, just because of the pressure.
Chris, you're spot on about informing MDs what your normal vital signs are (which are not what an average 50 y/o American male's are). I bump into this a lot...having a 58 bpm heart rate at an annual physical (I'm not an elite cyclist, but definitely more fit than an average male my age−72 y/o) and staff gets concerned. You have to explain what YOUR normal is, and be adamant about its importance. Another good example of MDs not being aware of elite athletes' issues...I remember when you suffered a serious concussion at the TDF (year?) and had to abandon even though you finished the stage. The medical professionals who put you on a plane back to the US (a LONG flight) completely did not consider that you were high risk for developing a pulmonary embolism, and isn't that exactly what happened? I thought they were stupid for missing that one, and put your life at risk to boot. So yes, elite athletes have their own norms that have to be respected, and it's up to the athlete to be a self-advocate and educate healthcare professionals about what 'box' they're in.
I got hit by a car while riding on Christmas Eve 2018. Spent a bit of time in hospital. I was woken up by a nurse in the middle of the night. She was concerned that my heart rate was thirty beats a minute. Freaked her right out.
I was only ever a weekend warrior, but I learned to tell my nurses and doctors upfront that I was a cyclist. Otherwise, they would start to panic when they saw my HR in the 48-52 range at rest. I agree, Chris, this is good advice, particularly for endurance athletes.
I lived in CO for 21 years at about 8300 elev. and I moved back to MN and went in for a check-up. The nurse is flipping out wondering what drugs I was on I said none your HR is 38! I told I do a lot of cycling and hiking at altitude she grabs the DR., and he tells her you've never did a physical on someone's who's in shape before.
I always tell the doc my resting HR 1st thing & in this day & age in American medicine, it's wise to educate your self as much as possible, especially if you running a body fat around 6% or lower.
My wife is an amateur ultra runner. By no means, elite. But, definitely an avid amateur. She had full-blown Graves disease - her thyroid was destroying her body. She could not get doctors to acknowledge she was sick because she was still running 20 mile days on the weekend. She would tell them she was feeling awful and they would just tell her she obviously wasn't feeling that awful or she wouldn't be running. It took months to diagnose and the only reason she finally got taken seriously was they checked her Vitamin B levels. They were non-existent. She had the Vitamin B of someone who was severely anemic because her body couldn't absorb any nutrients and what it could absorb her thyroid was burning through immediately. She now has a doctor that understands she needs to be diagnosed from a certain perspective.
Hi Chris, I was I was friend with Danilo Hondo and Petacchi and living in Lake Como when you were riding with Lampre. I remember your accident there and the people talking about the guy that hit you and drove off. So bad what that did to your career.
The physiological wonder of Chris Huge Hands Horner continues to baffle doctors around the country. Great to see you're alive and well, Chris Horner. You are the only person on earth who can make a bike race sound exciting with 188 km's remaining, and I have no clue why you aren't the go-to top broadcaster in cycling. Keep well.
I hope this vid makes the rounds and more Doctors see it. They don't usually see endurance athletes too often, and can dismiss something that appears normal but often isn't. We are also way more in tune with what our body is doing and familiar it's normal operating conditions. So even if you've seen Olympic athletes before that doesn't mean what im telling you isn't true. Great message 👍 Experienced similar problems myself Nurse always asking me if i am on drugs due to low HR and other bazaar comments and attitudes 🙄
X years back I had some issues with my right knee after a sport related incident. It took me awhile to get sorted out and finally I had a minor operation done. During the procedure I was under for less than 30 minutes in the hospital. At the time of surgery I hadn't been training properly for an entire year. When I woke from surgery my rest heartrate was 34 bpm. I have always had a lower than usual heartrate but at this time I am in my thirties and also out of my usual amateur shape.
So glad you are on the mend. I have had an issue that plays out in the middle of the season away from the bike with quad pain. 4 years now. 6 specialists later and no answers.
Important story to recount, Chris. Alarming that you were misdiagnosed so many times. Kudos to the female physician who made the correct diagnosis. Someone not nearly as fit and conditioned as you may not have survived. If a healthcare professional does not follow cycling, he or she would be clearly unaware that the elite cyclist is an outlier among professional athletes. You’re looking good! Expecting a full recovery. All the best!
A buddy of mine went to the doc for a regular checkup. She sent him to the cardiologist to get a pacemaker just because he's 53 with a resting heart rate of 45bpm.
Also had to explain to a new doctor.... I'm not "average".. 61 years old with a resting HR of 50. Told him that I train 5 to 6 days a week for sprint triathlons... I'm not your average patient.
I’ve gone through the same thing. I’ve had a resting pulse in the 40s all my life and they doctors want to put a pace maker in me. They just want to compare you in a cohort group that doesn’t fit your life long fitness.
I went through the same frustrating with a lung doctor. The tests parameter are not designed for athletes. Getting proper treatment is impossible if they conclude that everything is better than ok. They can't seem to understand that not only your condition is way above normal but so are your expectations in terms of performances. They don't trust your knowledge of your own body.
When my friend went to see a doc about getting feeling better so he could get back out on his bike and ride 100 miles again, the doctor told him that maybe he should just act his age (my friend was 60) and live with his problems. My friend got up and walked out the door and found a new doctor, rides big miles still ten years later.
Exactly the same for me. Have been an endurance rider for over 40 years. Have had some issues in the last year but because I blow the tests away “for a man of my age” doctors discount what I’m telling them. Lol. Maybe it’s because I’m part of the Scripps system in SD where you were seen. Frustrating!
Hi Chris, I'm not a pro cyclist but ride a lot. Here in Italy we must have an annual check up and have a certificate to do local races. The doctor told me after the tests that my blood pressure was too high, my resting heart rate was really low and I should visit my doctor immediately! Your post was extremely interesting! Thanks.
Super scary story Chris. As a mediocre at best weekend warrior here, I also got misdiagnosed twice at the urgent care and got sent home and told to rest and hydrate to get my fever down. It was not until I ended up in the ER that I was coached by nurse sister in law to insist that I get an xray. Lo and behold my lung was full of pneumonia and could have easily sat at home and drowned in my lungs at the advice of the doctor. We have to be assertive with our health sometimes especially since we are the ones who know our bodies the best.
I'm not a pro but I've been an endurance athlete most of my adult life. In 2013 I had a similar experience with a stress test. It's on a treadmill as your heart is being monitored. The attempt if I remember correctly was to get my heartbeat/rate above 140 (I believe). Most people walk it, then if needed the speed is increased and the elevation. My heartbeat/rate stayed relatively low. The speed and elevation was increased until I literally was jogging. Now this was in hospital socks and a robe. I viewed it as a small workout. 😁 Eventually my heartbeat/rate got to where the medical staff was satisfied. I actually had a sweat going. The tech said he never saw that before. I then told him I was an endurance athlete...he said "oh, that's why". I was 48 at the time. Great video Chris, thanks for sharing!! 😎🤙
Haha I've had almost the same stress treadmill experience for a weird arrythmia (nothing major thankfully). I had to get over 150bpm (for me just entering tempo, I'm 52 then, raced cat1 till 40, still train well) for it to kick in, and I told the nurse "You're going to have to crank this thing" cause it was meant for walking. She set the incline at max and I started taking giant strides, holding my breath and pushing the treadmill belt faster than it could go until she yelled at me to stop "wrecking the machine". Eventually I broke 150bpm and the nurse started yelling for the Dr when the arrythmia kicked in. I thought I was going to drop dead from her reaction, but she just said "No. He's just never around when I need him". Everything was ok with me, hopefully for you as well Christian. Chris, thanks for posting this video. Endurance athletes put weird stresses on our bodies, it's really important we express our baseline values to doctors and our sensations in these moments. It doesn't come across as condescending to them when you're informed. If they take offense for some reason, find another doctor.
Yeah, my first time in my employer's "executive physical" program they had me do the treadmill stress test, increasing the speed and elevation every three minutes. I was cranked pretty well to the max when they shut it down and said I'd made it to the end and I was only the second person they'd seen do that. The doctor's response as he laughed was, "the goal isn't to break the machine." He was a doctor who understood how to correctly assess baseline for the individual, and not just the average. I have 40 years of medical test result history loaded into Excel. For the last couple of years my RBC and hematocrit have been right at the low edge of the "normal" range, which for me is noticeably low and it coincided with about a +15bps heart rate for a given effort. Lots of doctor visits, lots of "you're not sick, why are you here." In November I stopped taking sulfasalazine (which I started for gut and RA issues, you guessed it, 2 years ago) and last week, guess what, my RBC and hematocrit are where they were 10 years ago. My rheumatologist understands me and my physical condition, but he was in total denial about a connection between sulfasalazine and hemolysis, and his response is still, "well, that's not a terrible result so the tradeoff should be worth it." Uh, no thanks, not satisfied with that answer!
Honestly, I don't think it is just professional athletes. I am a young guy with some very odd genetics. The doctors don't care and don't really understand the body. I have some really weird issues with weird labs. The issue is, when I switch jobs / insurance, the doctors have never once looked at the charts / labs, and they look at you as if you are the same as everyone even though I am way younger than the people with these issues, and the only thing they do is prescribe tons and tons of drugs to treat "symptoms" while being completely uninterested in the why. They also judge on things that don't matter in my case. When I am in perfect shape and skinny, they find my numbers really weird, but when I gain weight, they will suddenly blame it on weight even though I have had the issues since High School. Also, I can self monitor and know my situation and numbers better than any doctor but the second I am on a new insurer / doctor, they will immediately freak out and recommend I see a cardiologist, a nephrologist and endocrinologist, etc. It is like, look, I came only for a prescription, I have done your ring around since High School and I have no interest. You didn't even care when I came in. Oh and one more part to the rant. I have had doctors tell me to cease taking a prescription before doing a lab test, but then when I mention my numbers, they immediately are like, wait, don't stop the prescription. And to me it is insane, how can a doctor say one thing without even knowing the situation, only to say the opposite once I tell them one detail. It is like, are you even a doctor. Anyway, I know this is rambly ranty, but I just don't think doctors really evaluate people. They just make guesses off the norms they see and everything that isn't normal, they write off.
Exactly. I have seen that same thing since 2014 when my lung issue first started. I stopped even going to see a doctor for my lung issue now for all those exact reason. I would rather have the free time to do something fun during the day then spend another day wasting hours plus money at the doctors office. It’s so frustrating.
Great video Chris. I recently ended up in the hospital due to a bike accident. I had multiple rib fractures and it took over a day for them to find the collapsed lung, because I wasn't presenting as having a collapsed lung. It took about 36 hours and me walking around the hospital for my O2 levels to crash enough for them to think there was an issue. The medical team told me, my cycling kept me out of ICU but also masked some of the injuries. I spent 8 days in the hospital. At 57 I would not be mistaken for a pro cyclist, but I manage to get in 6,000 miles a year in on the bike.
I had almost that exact same thing happen to with a collapsed lung. I went for an X-ray because something felt wrong. Later the same afternoon I got the call from the doc office while I was walking around Target, Come Back Here Right NOW, you got a collapsed lung. 😳👍
Yeah, this is a real problem. Recent EKG freaked out my newish doctor, "This waveform indicates you have an enlarged heart and we need to medicate you right now!" Now wait a second doc, I've been an endurance athlete for 50+ years, so yeah, I certainly expect to have an enlarged heart. Plus, I didn't finish in the top 50 of 12500 runners to win my age group at a recent half marathon with a /diseased/ heart.
Good to hear from you, Chris, and so thankful you are doing better. I'm so sorry for what you had to go through but I'm a big believer in everything happens for a reason. This happened to you not only to educate you, but also so you could share it with other athletes. We HAVE TO BE our own advocates when it comes to our health. No one else will be. This is especially true when we don't fit in those boxes you mentioned. I'll preface what I'm about to say by saying I am not an athlete. I watch your channel because my husband is a road cyclist and we follow the season, and you, every year. You do not have to be an athlete to be misdiagnosed. So all of you athletes here who are married or partnered with someone who is not one, understand this; DOCTORS ARE NOT INFALLIBLE AND ARE OFTEN OVERWORKED. Or they're just lazy to be quite honest. I was misdiagnosed with endometriosis and was told over and over this was what I had and I knew damn well I didn't. Something was definitely wrong but that wasn't it. It took me hiring and firing several specialists and doing my own research on my signs and symptoms and talking with others to finally discover I had tissue from a previous surgery that had attached itself to my abdominal wall and was wrapping around my sigmoid colon. Had I not fought for myself I would have eventually ended up in emergency surgery and with a colostomy bag the rest of my life. Or I possibly would have died. As it is, I found the doctor who finally listened to me and I had the life saving surgery from a surgeon who knew what he was doing and 5+ years later have had no issues. You know yourself better than any doctor because no one spends more time with you than you do. Don't be afraid to voice your concerns. I had to tell a doctor, "I've known myself 45 years and you've known me for 5 minutes." Their expertise doesn't always trump your life experience with yourself and your health. Stay frosty folks.
That's awful what you have dealt with! Yeah I think you should ALWAYS advocate for yourself and NOT trust the Dr's. My mom was diagnosed with cancer and they missed several markers from tests and my dad and family were too shy to say something and as a result the Dr's gave my mom the WRONG concoction and strength of radiation and chemo, and she became very ill, unconscious for 4 months, and then developed MERSA from having to be in the hospital so long. During this time, they were unable to treat her cancer which continued to spread, and eventually she passed away due to lack of treatment. :( Dr's are like other professionals.. overworked and they can miss things so I always recommend arming yourself with your own research, trusting your 'gut' with your own health and how you feel, and making sure to communicate with Dr's and RN's when you just know something isn't right! They're no longer experts, but YOU ARE. You live in YOUR body and know what feels right and what doesn't so trust yourself when it comes to that and don't be afraid to advocate for yourself in front of the medical 'experts'.
Spot on! Great advice. Don't be afraid to speak up. Advocate on your behalf and trust your instincts. Don't be afraid to say "I know my body. Something is not right." A doctor who is listening will continue to dig trying to figure it out. Bocca luppo with your upcoming surgery. BTW, 105 temp is insane. Usually associated with fungal infection or something worse. You had a strong immune response. Again elite athlete stuff. Tough to diagnose kidney stones without flank pain/abd pain, bloody urine, or urinary symptoms.
Chris I feel you buddy. I'm a retired professional strongman that's taken up cycling/triathlon as a hobby. I got rhabdomyolysis last summer from heat exhaustion. I was admitted to the ER with a CK value beyond detection limits. They told me I could go home when the test came back below 1000, which should take 2-3 days. It ended up taking 7 days before I got a measurable value of 20,000 and they let me go after 10 days with my values still at 8,000. Normal range is 150-350. 20 years of adaptation caused my mitochondria to significantly increase the amount of Creatine Kinase being produced and when the cells popped it all got dumped into my system. I got a fist bump from the specialist because he had never seen values so high in his life haha
Glad you are feeling better. I’m seven weeks post surgery on my foot/Achilles. Actually my third surgery during last six years. I’ve got six anchors in my heel holding everything together. I’m 67 years old with an endurance history- Ironman, 20 marathons, 2021 Race Across America with my team, 2022 Race Across the West with my team. (2020 with 9,000 bike miles, 2021 with 9,400 miles, and 7000 miles in 2022 with a lot of pain 🤦🏽♂️). I’m also a fortunate cancer survivor. When I was in pre-op, the nurse looks at me strangely saying ahh, your pulse is 52 but your blood pressures is really high. I replied that I’m an endurance athlete and I’m scared as shit. 😂 Good news is that I got off crutches two weeks ago and I am back on my trainer trying to be patient. I’ve got a flat pedal on the right side with a stool to help get on and off the bike. There’s no way to go but forward. Keep your videos coming. Outstanding job you to do. Thanks.
I really appreciate this story. I am neither an elite, amateur, or possibly even a weekend warrior athlete. But I am a mid 50's veteran who takes care of himself and still exercises regularly. When I get my care at the VA, I often feel that the doctors and nurses are so used to dealing with vets much older and in much worse shape than myself, that they tend to dismiss or overlook my health concerns. Client population bias. Love all of your videos!
So happy you, fingers crossed have got it figured out, and keep getting better 🤞…The season is about to start, and “We” need Chris back at 100%, and full of Knuckle Heads for the Up and Coming Races…I’m 66, and when I go to the Doctor with a concern…99% of most Doctors keep Say’n … Well you know your getting older, and maybe you should Stop doing what you’re doing, and just get Old 😳…Never the Answer we’re looking for 🤔😢🚴♂️🚴♀️🚴♂️👍
I got friend and his doc said the same thing to him. So he said, I guess we are done here, then got up and left. Found a new doctor and is back at. That was ten years ago. 👊
I've experience these same sort of issues when I was much younger. I can remember going to the ER for some lacerations and the ER nurses thought I was in shock because my HR was so low. I was stopped one night and being interrogated for a DUI. I was in my early 40's at the time and the DUI investigator thought I was on crystal meth because I was jacking with my HR and blood pressure while they were taking the measurements. Totally blew his mind. I've come out of anesthesia 3x times in the middle of surgeries. The last time I even told the anesthesiologist to not leave the room and to be cautious. He laughed at me before surgery. In the recovery room afterwards he wasn't laughing anymore. thanks for sharing your personal experience Chris. Brings back memories.
The theme here is real. Everytime I go to the dentist, they check my pulse and BP. My pulse is always low 40s, my BP is slightly low. They say this thing must be off, and they manual check my pulse. I tell them every single time I'm a lifetime endurance athlete I'm good. You'd think they'd update the chart at this point....
I remember exercise stress testing a bunch of middle managers when I was a newly qualified physio. One guy’s HR hardly budged, even with the resistance on max. Turned out he was a recently retired Commonwealth cyclist and, like you say, testing him under normal parameters was pointless.
Sorry you went through this Chris and glad you are recovering. If I remember correctly you had pulmonary embolisms at one point in your life. Would sure like to hear your story about that. I had them on two separate occasions and was never the same on the bike after.
Thanks for the video Chris. I am almost 60 and went out mountain biking in Oct. 2022. Two weeks later I went to the same place and I could tell something was wrong. Over the next 2 months I didn't feel well, would go into the doctor and they would do blood pressure 134 over 84 and pulse 65 and say it was great. I would tell them that was high for me. Know one seemed to listen. In January after some blood tests they realized I had a bacterial infection from a tick bite. I am just an avid biker but because I am older, the medical staff only looked at what a normal 60 year old guy might get. It has been a will be a long recovery. I am happy you brought this up because people are more active these days and there needs to be a shift in medical thinking of what a older person can be.
Good advice! Glad they found out what was wrong and you're now on the mend :) Last time I went to hospital after a bad crash, even with a punctured collapsed lung my O2 saturation was still 98% which surprised the Drs. At least they wrote "athlete low heart rate" on my chart so they knew I didn't have bradycardia. As even with all my injuries, broken ribs etc etc my HR was still in the mid 40's. Up from my usual 40.
Thanks for this Chris, really interesting story. I'm a professor at a medical school - infectious disease MD - and one of your "weekend warrior" athletes. Like the other commentators, I've also had my vital signs and lab values misinterpreted by other MDs. Your story is a great cautionary tale - what we'd call an "exemplar" in teaching. Your message to advocate for yourself is spot on. Most doctors will (or should) listen when told, but none of them can yet read minds, so it is really, really important to speak up, otherwise they will put you in whatever box they think you belong in. The challenge, which your story tells, is that most doctors have a "normal range" boxes for patient that they see, and at National Jewish, you were outside their normal boxes, which threw them for a loop, and your first visit to Bend urgent care, you looked just like their normal box, and both interpretations were misses, as you describe. On the MD training side, of course we emphasize the importance of getting a patient history, as some of your other commentators have said, and if you're not satisfied that they have the history right, you should always try to set the record straight. So yeah, they're doctors, but you're the patient, and you know the patient better than the doctors do! Thanks again for this one!
I doubt he had a stone that whole time as well. Stones are painful and are rarely ever missed. If anything, we may attribute someones presentation to kidney stones (if you have a history of such) and miss a new/similar diagnosis. If he had urosepsis from a kidney stone he didn’t go home for 3 days, ride his bike, then represent septic again. Diarrhea also isn’t a symptom of kidney stones! There’s more to this story than meets the eye. As a fellow doc you should appreciate that as well! With that said, I did laugh a bit at the pulmonary work up. I’m frequently over 10k feet doing training rides and think I would do just fine with a sat in the 80s. Hell, I practice medicine at 8k feet and we see people in the 80s all the time without pulmonary complaints.
@@ColoradoBiker Thanks for that. I don't think we need to torture Chris with our differential diagnoses for his various issues as the main point remains throughout his story that it's good to advocate for your unique self, esp when you sense something is being missed by MDs.
My brother in law just went through this, serious stuff. If I get a fever after chemo, that's what they're looking for. I now know why they take the slightest fever so seriously. Sepsis is no joke, good to see you recovering well.
Best wishes for a healthy recovery, Chris. Here is a cautionary tale to add to yours. I am not an elite athlete, but I still have a slow resting pulse (I've been thoroughly checked out and it's definitely not pathological.) One time, I needed surgery for a broken collarbone. It was early in the morning, and you know how it is: you can't eat or drink anything, so no coffee. I walked to the hospital, which got me going a bit, but after they had me prepped and connected to monitors I had to wait a while, flat on my back, in a dimly lit area, so my pulse steadily dropped. The HR monitor had a low HR alarm, but it couldn't be set below 35. Fortunately, I was conscious and able to explain that this was expected; otherwise, they probably would have taken action to speed it up. Instead they just disabled the alarm. So it's worth warning medical people in advance in this situation.
Make sure your primary doc understands your level of fitness. Then if you are remote, make sure the attending doc consults with your primary. Glad to hear you are on the mend.
So glad you are doing better. I think some of your doctors would have figured out you were septic long before they did had they listened to you and realized that an “elite athlete” would not present like the “normal” patient would. Good info to share. I enjoy your channel very much. 😊
Get well soon Chris, thnx for the cautionary tale, very valuable as we (amateur) athletes also like to downplay our symptoms until they’re become unbearable.
Thank you for putting out this video. You are absolutely right that young athletes need to understand this. I had to go to an ex-cycling team doctor (Max Testa) to get my heart problem diagnosed. Normal doctors couldn't understand why someone as fit as I was could possibly think there was anything wrong.
Thanks for posting this video Chris. This really hits close to home for me. When I was younger, I was what you call an "elite weekend warrior". I was one of Eddy B's juniors at the original Colorado Springs OTC. During my final year as a junior, I developed a weird respiratory condition where I had a hard time breathing, almost asthma-like. I remember throwing up chunks of stuff in the parking lot of the velodrome during the district championships (still won 5 medals though!). My doctor checked my breathing and heart rate, and said I was fine, yet I knew it wasn't right. They couldn't figure it out and simply said "just take it easy" which doesn't work when you're racing Cat 1/2/Pro races. Finally, they just ruled it as "Sinusitis" which I later learned is the ubiquitous term for when they couldn't truly identify it. I never got back to the same level of fitness partly due to it, and quit racing a year later. I still suffer from respiratory issue when doing moderate to harder workouts (now as an old man!) and have been using an inhaler, though I technically don't have asthma.
Broke 6 ribs and, most importantly, punctured a lung. Paramedics didn't think anything was wrong with me because my vitals were "normal." In the ER it took a while before a nurse actually listened to me tell her that I could feel that nothing was happening in my left lung when I inhaled. X-ray then CT and my left lung is 90% collapsed. They never deal with elite level endurance athletes whose cardiac an pulmonary systems are simply not the same as almost everyone else.
I had some issue my strange breathing feeling and told the doc they better do an x-ray. They let me leave and then called me while I was out shopping and said to come back immediately. I asked if I could grab lunch before hand and they said NO, you got a collapsed lung. I was 65 heart rate and walking around shopping still. 😂😬😳
Hi Chris. You make a couple good points, but as a cyclist and physician, I want to comment from my perspective. I hope you don't mind the length. First, quantitative testing relies on "normals". Most individuals have a resting heart rate around 60 or so. However, you're correct in that endurance athletes often condition themselves, such that their resting heartrate is slower than typically measured. Similarly, what may be a normal heartrate for the average person (such as 77 or certainly 95) could be fast for highly conditioned athletes. It is important for you to emphasize to your doctors and nurses that you are an elite endurance athlete. I think this point is very reasonable to make to your subscribers. Second, you ask how long you've dealt with sepsis and kidney stones? In regards to sepsis, it is likely that you developed sepsis on January 15th, which was the day you had a very high fever. By your description, that is the first time you mentioned having a fever. Sepsis is a clinical diagnosis. Sepsis is caused by a systemic infection, often with high fever, high pulse and low blood pressure along with laboratory data such as an elevated white blood cell count. It is possible that you have an underlying and perhaps recurring infection from your kidney stones intermittently leading up to January 15th, but by your description, it is not obvious that you had sepsis. It's impossible to know how long you'd had kidney stones. The size of the stone(s) might be helpful in guessing. Keep in mind that kidney stones can present only with infection, but perhaps more commonly with pain and blood in the urine. Interesting, the Mayo Clinic lists nausea and vomiting as a manifestation of kidney stones. I would expect that vomiting as the sole symptom of kidney stones would be much less common than blood in the urine or pain. For you, nausea and vomiting may be your main symptom of kidney stones, so if those symptoms recur by themselves, you should point that out to your doctors. For the average person though, if they complained of nausea and vomiting, kidney stones would be really low on my list of what to be concerned about. I would like to know if professional cyclists have a greater incidence of kidney stones? It seems like intermittent dehydration during a ride could play a role? What about nutrition and hydration playing a role in forming kidney stones in professional cyclists? What kind of kidney stone did you have and what recommendations did the urologist recommend to try to prevent more? Your description of your adaption to low oxygen is very interesting, reminding me of a Sherpa. This video came to my attention on a ride with a friend when he asked me how to CONTROL HIS BREATHING like you do. My suspicion is, like a Sherpa, your ability to tolerate low oxygen is part conditioning and partly genetic. For one or both of those reasons, the vast majority of people cannot safely tolerate such oxygen levels. I imagine the technician was rightly a little freaked out. I would like to have you educate us more on how we can control our breathing and adapt to low oxygen. Is there an exercise to "control breathing"? Perhaps one of your lung doctors could help explain? I'd love to have an oxygen saturation monitor of some of the Tour riders as they go up the major climbs. That would be fascinating. In regards to using the term "flat lining", it is an unfortunate description. In medicine, "flat lining" typically means that the EKG is flat, meaning no active heart activity, death. I realize your doctor used that term with you. Again, it would be helpful for a doctor to explain that unfortunate choice of words. Finally, I would encourage a bit of empathy for your doctors, nurses and techs. Jym Tym has the most liked comment on this video, in which he uses the term "knuckleheads". The doctors and nurses who cared for you cannot reply to your video. To do so would be to risk violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, risking termination and tens of thousands of dollars in fines. You, as is every patient, are a unique individual and I believe your presentation was out of the ordinary. My experience is that the vast majority of doctors, nurses and technicians work very hard to try to be elite caregivers. They may crash or bonk at times, but I hope you don't want to insult them. It is the art of medicine and it takes practice. Thanks for your entertaining video.
Glad they found and resolved your issue. This is such a frustrating story that I’ve experienced too many times myself. The medical profession need to know they are failing these clients. I’m not a professional but have been an endurance athlete my whole life. The doctors don’t listen. Lots of stories including one like yours. At age 61 my concern was dismissed when my resting HR went from 32/34 to 66-70. “Now you are normal!” So frustrating.
Thanks for the insights. I was elite in my sport and geez it was hard to explain things to doctors who didn't "get" what athletes at that level do, and what they deal with. I used to start every visit with an explanation of what I did for training, what I ate, etc. Tedious. Having the right people/ good team is so crucial!
The most important video you ever did. Your strong heart and lungs most probably kept you alive after coming in with 105 f . No regular person could have survived that high fever. Wish you all the best with your surgery and recovery after that. Remember we need you out there for tour de france and such to get us trough knucklehead stages .💪
Your cautionary tale should be expanded to say everyone should advocate for themselves. I’ve seen several cases where people were misdiagnosed and sent home only to be sicker on return to the hospital. Btw, you really are in a different box because my wife says kidney stones rate with child birth on the pain scale!
I’m still waiting for that kidney stone pain to hit. Everyone says how painful they are. Hopefully I get to skip that part cause I certainly got enough feeling bad this last month to even it all out. 😳🤞
The opposite is also true. If you regularly run super low BP they will do unnecessary work ups. The trick is to have your primary involved always so he/she can explain the circumstance to the ED providers.
Hi Chris, really appreciate the story. I'm an avid cyclist and a junior doctor, so this story resonates to me in multiple ways. Thanks for your experience and perspective!
I can relate. I became septic from Listeriosis. On that morning a doctor commented that my heart rate of 65 was good. I was secretly worried because my normal resting heart rate is around 42. By that afternoon I was in kidney failure. On another occasion the nurse anesthetist didn’t want to proceed with the colonoscopy because my heart rate was 40 so she pulled the doctor aside and expressed her concern. The doctor knows me well and laughed. He told her that I was a cyclist and that’s my normal resting heart rate. When I woke up I looked at the monitor my heart rate was 78! I said to the nurse anesthetist “you gave me Atropine didn’t you?”. She said “yes, you made me nervous”.
Thanks so much for sharing Chris. As a 65 year old I too have seen that, as we get older, those of us who have been athletic our whole lives don’t fall in the standard categories, and just as with your experience doctors don’t know how to handle us. Being your own advocate is critical, and it’s not easy to do when you’re not feeling well, and the medical experts are assessing you based on average health parameters. So glad you are recovering and thanks again for sharing.
Great & important story. Amazing that your ultra fit body effectively hid this condition from the Docs. Glad you made it through long enough for them to correctly diagnose the issue. Good luck w the treatment and getting back to your “normal” 120% !!
Thanks for a very important message Chris. I had a similar but less dramatic experience. I'm a weekend warrior and a bit older than you. I kept being told that I was fine for my age. Luckily my doctor persisted and eventually a diagnosis was made. Message is, I don't want to be measured against the average of my age - I have seen what they look like:)
Concur with previous comments. I just turned 70. My resting heart rate is around 48. Ever since I had an appendicitis 24 years ago, I've been very careful to tell the medical staff who don't know me that I 'exercise a lot' and 48 is normal. About 5 years ago they gave me 2 EKGs before proceeding with a simple colonoscopy.
When doctors run tests as long you are in the "normal range" they will dismiss your health issues. For ex. Normal range for adult male resting heart rate is 60-100. Most doctors and health professionals have simply never examined elite endurance athletes so most test results will just confuse them.
I had a very similar problem. I kept having dizzy spells and I would get very nauseous. Same thing. My right kidney had shut down because of kidney stones and they found a tumor in my right kidney. I started to pass large amounts of blood in my urine which sent me into the ER. I spent a couple weeks in the hospital and lost part of my left kidney.
Why not go on a 4 day boat trip in warm weather. Breath in warm sea air for several days. Decades ago, bad cold i had had for two months after 12 hrs on a boat in south pacific all congestion gone.
That is a very scary story and I hope that everything goes smoothly with the kidney stone procedure. One thing that I'd like to add is that athletes are very in tune with their bodies, constantly checking heart rates and times for segments on strava. As you were stating, you knew that something was off. We need to trust what our bodies are telling us. Stay healthy and I hope for a quick recovery.
On behalf of those doctors Chris thank you for your measured comments! One Friday running a clinic I developed renal colic, the nurses took me to the ER and I was given morphine. My heart rate dropped to 35 (from 45) and there was mass panic…I guess it can happen to anyone…
My mom go from fine to septic shock in a half hour, led to a day and a half in the ICU. Not a fun time. She was in for having her colon removed. Separately she says the worst pain she ever had was kidney stones, so that tops giving birth! Glad your still kicking 🤛🦋
Wow, glad your ok, thanks for sharing....hopefully all is figured out. I can tell with my RHR if there is a sickness or recovery needed etc. The human body is amazing!
Timely. I spent the last year in and out of the hospital. A real shit year, literally. Big ER abdominal surgery, aspiration into lungs during surgery. Right lung all messed up. While in they kept flagging me for tachycardia. It'd be like 110-120. I'm 53 and my max HR is still over 200. Sent to Cardiologist for look-see. Stress test on the incline treadmill target HR is 140 and you can stop or keep going. I was at 180 and the time on the test expired. I'm a lot better now, some permanent changes, but I've lost my trust in the docs. It seems they miss a lot.
@@ChrisHornerCycling I'm glad you got things figured out. It's heavy on you, and the family when things aren't what they should be and you don't know what's up!
Got a new primary care doc last year. In my mid 60's and ride 6,500 miles a year. Doc was surprised I had normal BP, and blood work. Sent me to a cardiologist who told me I have a great heart for a 45 year old. Keep riding.
The docs that understand athletes are orthopedic ones. They deal more w athletes. I have found discussing non-ortho issues w my ortho surgeon to be v helpful. They can tell you which gi dr to go to. They can tell you which qs to ask. They can tell you what they wd do if they had your internal organ prob. They seem to be the only medical people who really understand an athlete.
Interesting story! I've run into the same thing - back in December I had a serious viral infection and my HR was "racing", in the mid 70s while in bed - for me it should've been mid 40s. I had to explain to the doctors and nurses multiple times that a mid 70s HR was not normal for me!
Great piece, glad you're feeling better. I suspect pain management is another area where athletes are a bit different. Even as a relatively casual rider I'll think, "well, it's not as bad as my last set of intervals...". You pros seem to be on another level altogether.
Sepsis can be fatal. It is serious matter. Lucky that nothing worse happened to you. Please consider full work up of internal organs. W mri and cat scans and ultra sound of pancreas, kidneys, liver, gall bladder, lungs, colon. Full blood tests. And full stool tests If you have had sepsis gall bladder may be infected. That will show up on mri. But you wd know also b c of the intense stomach pain. But you don’t recite rt side stomach pain or any gut pain so gall bladder must be ok.
Thanks for posting about this. It’s real. I’m not pro or elite but I am extremely fit 60y.o. female. Drs definitely don’t understand. They’ve missed a couple of infections with me b/c of exactly what u talk about here - Normally I have an unusually low resting HR rate, excellent blood pressure and bloodwork stats. They tend to only look at the current test and compare to ‘normal’ woman my age when I go in for something acute. They need to look at current vs MY normal healthy stats to understand I am having a problem. Its super important to know this so we can let the Dr know. Please keep posting about stuff that aging athletes deal with.
Thanks for sharing this! Although I am not a pro cyclist, I experienced the same thing when dealing with afib. My normal average heart rate was about 35-40% higher than normal after getting covid. the problem is that having a 42-45 heart rate isn't what the doctors are taught is in the normal range. When they see 60-75 they look at you as if you're crazy when you say something is wrong. I struggled for 8 months before I actually found a doctor who took the time to review my case properly and diagnose my problem.
Wow ! So much to digest on this one. I just realize with your sharing where and when I told my unconscious body in stress, to put up and shut up and not tell me (Intuition) that something is seriously wrong with me other than the pain or bad symptoms. The mission of course (Winning) being more important...Once a pro always a pro.
very worthy points made. I’m 10 years ahead of you, and experienced similar even at my recreational level, which is better than most my age, noticed my decline, but doctors said I’m fine, but when my body started turning off three or four years into it then they said you have a problem, then they figured it out...
Chris, I can't believe a similar situation happened to me. I used to be a bike racer as well. One day, when I was 48 years old, I started vomiting uncontrollably and experienced unbearable pain in my abdominal area. My wife rushed me to the emergency room, but on the way, we had to stop three times because I couldn't stop throwing up. After four hours at the emergency room, they were finally able to alleviate my pain. They performed a gastric lavage to wash out my stomach, and the pain subsided, and I stopped vomiting. They told me I was okay, diagnosing it as a case of food poisoning, and sent me home.
However, two months later, I found myself in the same situation, with intense pain and vomiting. This time, I didn't go to the emergency room. I had a friend who was a doctor, so I called him and went straight to his office. He immediately recognized the problem-I had an infected gallbladder that needed to be removed urgently.
I've had a similar situation with a Cat Scan last year. I have about 60 kidney stones from being dehydrated over the last 40 plus years competing in running and cycling events. I have yearly exams to make sure the stones aren't getting to big to pass. Last year they did a cat scan on me for a better picture of the stones. Shortly after I was contacted by my family doctor telling me I needed to see a specialist because I have several aneurysms. I was afraid my days of endurance sports were over. The specialist took a better look at the cat scan and found that my arteries are 2-3 times the size of the average human being. They told me to keep doing what I do. I was never so happy to come out of a doctors office. I'm 56 years old with a resting heart rate around 37-38. I run about 1,600 miles a year and cycle about 4,000 a year. I can still run a 16:10(5k) on the track.
It's fascinating that Doctors can't make the sort of mental leap to understand that Pro cyclists are in an entirely different category than almost any other athlete. Training like crazy and then riding high mountains like the Hors category climbs during races, and doing so for years makes you (and other pros) an entirely different animal. Maybe there should be Doctors who specialize in treating cyclists exclusively! Thanks for sharing your story Chris!
Thank you Chris. And also, kudos for not calling any of those doctors “knuckleheads”.
Hehehe. 👊👊
Here, we just call them ‘quacks’🦆🦆🦆
🤣
Great story time on this one! I had a buddy (top level marathon runner) who had to take the silly Air Force stationary bike test to measure fitness. The crank up the resistance and watch your heart rate. The resistance got high, his heart rate didn't go up much. He failed. The chubby, mostly out of shape, never works out to any extent guy on the bike next to him passed with flying colors.
I took the same test - I was a bit older and somewhat out of shape. Many years experience riding bicycles, including some casual racing. I hopped on, spun my legs up to 95 rpm or so, and the person administering the test asked "what are you doing." I said, "it's a bike, and I'm riding it." Answer - "no, no, you have to pedal at exactly 50 rpm." That is glacially slow and it was very awkward to do it. I passed, but I realized the whole test was flawed from the very beginnning.
Great story! So glad that you are addressing this. I'm 56 never a CAT rider but I train hard and have been an Indoor Cycling instructor for 10 of the last 30 years. Recently I had a physical with a new Primary Care Physician. Typical routine ECG BP HR CR/Prostate. Everything was wonky! I'm told that one issue was my resting HR was 51. (Like that's a problem?) I say No. I'm athletic, practice meditation and yoga, and am an avid cyclist. I do not eat a lot of meat or shrimp. They rerun the tests. HR on the second run was still 51. The last full-on physical I had was at age 50. My resting HR was 41 but, the PCP at the time had known me for years, and they knew that was normal. If I'd got proper sleep, trained steadily, and stop consuming mass amounts of fine ales ... I could have easily dropped to a 40-45 HR this year. The results of my CR and prostrate were also so good that the nurse who contacted me with the results, made me confirm that I was 56. I don't need to be checked again till I'm 60! Cycling Saves Lives! Thanks Chris! This vid was really important for all serious endurance athletes.
I’m assuming you had a PSA (prostate specific antigen) Interesting your number was low, as bicycle and motorcycle seats are associated with higher numbers, just because of the pressure.
Chris, you're spot on about informing MDs what your normal vital signs are (which are not what an average 50 y/o American male's are). I bump into this a lot...having a 58 bpm heart rate at an annual physical (I'm not an elite cyclist, but definitely more fit than an average male my age−72 y/o) and staff gets concerned. You have to explain what YOUR normal is, and be adamant about its importance.
Another good example of MDs not being aware of elite athletes' issues...I remember when you suffered a serious concussion at the TDF (year?) and had to abandon even though you finished the stage. The medical professionals who put you on a plane back to the US (a LONG flight) completely did not consider that you were high risk for developing a pulmonary embolism, and isn't that exactly what happened? I thought they were stupid for missing that one, and put your life at risk to boot. So yes, elite athletes have their own norms that have to be respected, and it's up to the athlete to be a self-advocate and educate healthcare professionals about what 'box' they're in.
I got hit by a car while riding on Christmas Eve 2018. Spent a bit of time in hospital. I was woken up by a nurse in the middle of the night. She was concerned that my heart rate was thirty beats a minute. Freaked her right out.
So glad you are better Chris and they finally figured out what was wrong with you.
Thanks Molly 👊
I was only ever a weekend warrior, but I learned to tell my nurses and doctors upfront that I was a cyclist. Otherwise, they would start to panic when they saw my HR in the 48-52 range at rest. I agree, Chris, this is good advice, particularly for endurance athletes.
I lived in CO for 21 years at about 8300 elev. and I moved back to MN and went in for a check-up. The nurse is flipping out wondering what drugs I was on I said none your HR is 38! I told I do a lot of cycling and hiking at altitude she grabs the DR., and he tells her you've never did a physical on someone's who's in shape before.
😂👊
I always tell the doc my resting HR 1st thing & in this day & age in American medicine, it's wise to educate your self as much as possible, especially if you running a body fat around 6% or lower.
My wife is an amateur ultra runner. By no means, elite. But, definitely an avid amateur. She had full-blown Graves disease - her thyroid was destroying her body. She could not get doctors to acknowledge she was sick because she was still running 20 mile days on the weekend. She would tell them she was feeling awful and they would just tell her she obviously wasn't feeling that awful or she wouldn't be running. It took months to diagnose and the only reason she finally got taken seriously was they checked her Vitamin B levels. They were non-existent. She had the Vitamin B of someone who was severely anemic because her body couldn't absorb any nutrients and what it could absorb her thyroid was burning through immediately. She now has a doctor that understands she needs to be diagnosed from a certain perspective.
Hi Chris,
I was I was friend with Danilo Hondo and Petacchi and living in Lake Como when you were riding with Lampre. I remember your accident there and the people talking about the guy that hit you and drove off. So bad what that did to your career.
The physiological wonder of Chris Huge Hands Horner continues to baffle doctors around the country. Great to see you're alive and well, Chris Horner. You are the only person on earth who can make a bike race sound exciting with 188 km's remaining, and I have no clue why you aren't the go-to top broadcaster in cycling. Keep well.
😂 thanks Matt 👊👊
I hope this vid makes the rounds and more Doctors see it. They don't usually see endurance athletes too often, and can dismiss something that appears normal but often isn't. We are also way more in tune with what our body is doing and familiar it's normal operating conditions. So even if you've seen Olympic athletes before that doesn't mean what im telling you isn't true. Great message 👍 Experienced similar problems myself Nurse always asking me if i am on drugs due to low HR and other bazaar comments and attitudes 🙄
X years back I had some issues with my right knee after a sport related incident. It took me awhile to get sorted out and finally I had a minor operation done. During the procedure I was under for less than 30 minutes in the hospital. At the time of surgery I hadn't been training properly for an entire year. When I woke from surgery my rest heartrate was 34 bpm. I have always had a lower than usual heartrate but at this time I am in my thirties and also out of my usual amateur shape.
So glad you are on the mend. I have had an issue that plays out in the middle of the season away from the bike with quad pain. 4 years now. 6 specialists later and no answers.
Important story to recount, Chris. Alarming that you were misdiagnosed so many times. Kudos to the female physician who made the correct diagnosis.
Someone not nearly as fit and conditioned as you may not have survived. If a healthcare professional does not follow cycling, he or she would be clearly unaware that the elite cyclist is an outlier among professional athletes.
You’re looking good! Expecting a full recovery. All the best!
I remember your team mate Rui Costa also DNF'ed the 2014 TDF because of persistent cough and lung disease
doctors don't listen to regular/average people either. glad to hear you're okay!
👊👊
A buddy of mine went to the doc for a regular checkup. She sent him to the cardiologist to get a pacemaker just because he's 53 with a resting heart rate of 45bpm.
Oh man. 😳😬
I have 36 bpm and I am 43.
Doctors freak out.
Also had to explain to a new doctor.... I'm not "average".. 61 years old with a resting HR of 50. Told him that I train 5 to 6 days a week for sprint triathlons... I'm not your average patient.
This is really worrying!
I’ve gone through the same thing. I’ve had a resting pulse in the 40s all my life and they doctors want to put a pace maker in me. They just want to compare you in a cohort group that doesn’t fit your life long fitness.
I went through the same frustrating with a lung doctor.
The tests parameter are not designed for athletes. Getting proper treatment is impossible if they conclude that everything is better than ok.
They can't seem to understand that not only your condition is way above normal but so are your expectations in terms of performances. They don't trust your knowledge of your own body.
I had lung test and popped the balloon on the lung volume machine...
When my friend went to see a doc about getting feeling better so he could get back out on his bike and ride 100 miles again, the doctor told him that maybe he should just act his age (my friend was 60) and live with his problems. My friend got up and walked out the door and found a new doctor, rides big miles still ten years later.
Exactly the same for me. Have been an endurance rider for over 40 years. Have had some issues in the last year but because I blow the tests away “for a man of my age” doctors discount what I’m telling them. Lol. Maybe it’s because I’m part of the Scripps system in SD where you were seen. Frustrating!
Hi Chris, I'm not a pro cyclist but ride a lot. Here in Italy we must have an annual check up and have a certificate to do local races. The doctor told me after the tests that my blood pressure was too high, my resting heart rate was really low and I should visit my doctor immediately! Your post was extremely interesting! Thanks.
Super scary story Chris. As a mediocre at best weekend warrior here, I also got misdiagnosed twice at the urgent care and got sent home and told to rest and hydrate to get my fever down. It was not until I ended up in the ER that I was coached by nurse sister in law to insist that I get an xray. Lo and behold my lung was full of pneumonia and could have easily sat at home and drowned in my lungs at the advice of the doctor. We have to be assertive with our health sometimes especially since we are the ones who know our bodies the best.
I'm not a pro but I've been an endurance athlete most of my adult life. In 2013 I had a similar experience with a stress test. It's on a treadmill as your heart is being monitored. The attempt if I remember correctly was to get my heartbeat/rate above 140 (I believe). Most people walk it, then if needed the speed is increased and the elevation. My heartbeat/rate stayed relatively low. The speed and elevation was increased until I literally was jogging. Now this was in hospital socks and a robe. I viewed it as a small workout. 😁 Eventually my heartbeat/rate got to where the medical staff was satisfied. I actually had a sweat going. The tech said he never saw that before. I then told him I was an endurance athlete...he said "oh, that's why". I was 48 at the time. Great video Chris, thanks for sharing!! 😎🤙
LOL per my comment a few minutes ago - I learned early on to always tell them first! 😃👍
Haha I've had almost the same stress treadmill experience for a weird arrythmia (nothing major thankfully). I had to get over 150bpm (for me just entering tempo, I'm 52 then, raced cat1 till 40, still train well) for it to kick in, and I told the nurse "You're going to have to crank this thing" cause it was meant for walking. She set the incline at max and I started taking giant strides, holding my breath and pushing the treadmill belt faster than it could go until she yelled at me to stop "wrecking the machine". Eventually I broke 150bpm and the nurse started yelling for the Dr when the arrythmia kicked in. I thought I was going to drop dead from her reaction, but she just said "No. He's just never around when I need him". Everything was ok with me, hopefully for you as well Christian.
Chris, thanks for posting this video. Endurance athletes put weird stresses on our bodies, it's really important we express our baseline values to doctors and our sensations in these moments. It doesn't come across as condescending to them when you're informed. If they take offense for some reason, find another doctor.
👊👍
Yeah, my first time in my employer's "executive physical" program they had me do the treadmill stress test, increasing the speed and elevation every three minutes. I was cranked pretty well to the max when they shut it down and said I'd made it to the end and I was only the second person they'd seen do that. The doctor's response as he laughed was, "the goal isn't to break the machine." He was a doctor who understood how to correctly assess baseline for the individual, and not just the average. I have 40 years of medical test result history loaded into Excel. For the last couple of years my RBC and hematocrit have been right at the low edge of the "normal" range, which for me is noticeably low and it coincided with about a +15bps heart rate for a given effort. Lots of doctor visits, lots of "you're not sick, why are you here." In November I stopped taking sulfasalazine (which I started for gut and RA issues, you guessed it, 2 years ago) and last week, guess what, my RBC and hematocrit are where they were 10 years ago. My rheumatologist understands me and my physical condition, but he was in total denial about a connection between sulfasalazine and hemolysis, and his response is still, "well, that's not a terrible result so the tradeoff should be worth it." Uh, no thanks, not satisfied with that answer!
Honestly, I don't think it is just professional athletes. I am a young guy with some very odd genetics. The doctors don't care and don't really understand the body. I have some really weird issues with weird labs. The issue is, when I switch jobs / insurance, the doctors have never once looked at the charts / labs, and they look at you as if you are the same as everyone even though I am way younger than the people with these issues, and the only thing they do is prescribe tons and tons of drugs to treat "symptoms" while being completely uninterested in the why.
They also judge on things that don't matter in my case. When I am in perfect shape and skinny, they find my numbers really weird, but when I gain weight, they will suddenly blame it on weight even though I have had the issues since High School. Also, I can self monitor and know my situation and numbers better than any doctor but the second I am on a new insurer / doctor, they will immediately freak out and recommend I see a cardiologist, a nephrologist and endocrinologist, etc. It is like, look, I came only for a prescription, I have done your ring around since High School and I have no interest. You didn't even care when I came in.
Oh and one more part to the rant. I have had doctors tell me to cease taking a prescription before doing a lab test, but then when I mention my numbers, they immediately are like, wait, don't stop the prescription. And to me it is insane, how can a doctor say one thing without even knowing the situation, only to say the opposite once I tell them one detail. It is like, are you even a doctor. Anyway, I know this is rambly ranty, but I just don't think doctors really evaluate people. They just make guesses off the norms they see and everything that isn't normal, they write off.
Exactly. I have seen that same thing since 2014 when my lung issue first started. I stopped even going to see a doctor for my lung issue now for all those exact reason. I would rather have the free time to do something fun during the day then spend another day wasting hours plus money at the doctors office. It’s so frustrating.
Great video Chris. I recently ended up in the hospital due to a bike accident. I had multiple rib fractures and it took over a day for them to find the collapsed lung, because I wasn't presenting as having a collapsed lung. It took about 36 hours and me walking around the hospital for my O2 levels to crash enough for them to think there was an issue. The medical team told me, my cycling kept me out of ICU but also masked some of the injuries. I spent 8 days in the hospital. At 57 I would not be mistaken for a pro cyclist, but I manage to get in 6,000 miles a year in on the bike.
I had almost that exact same thing happen to with a collapsed lung. I went for an X-ray because something felt wrong. Later the same afternoon I got the call from the doc office while I was walking around Target, Come Back Here Right NOW, you got a collapsed lung. 😳👍
@@ChrisHornerCycling the chest tube getting put in was the worst. I told the guy who put it in he was off my Christmas card list🤣
When I had meningitis, it was the same thing at the ER. Show up at 105 degrees, no waiting!
Yeah, this is a real problem. Recent EKG freaked out my newish doctor, "This waveform indicates you have an enlarged heart and we need to medicate you right now!" Now wait a second doc, I've been an endurance athlete for 50+ years, so yeah, I certainly expect to have an enlarged heart. Plus, I didn't finish in the top 50 of 12500 runners to win my age group at a recent half marathon with a /diseased/ heart.
😂😂😂 I had the very same thing happen. 👊
Wow!!! Glad you’re on the mend
Good to hear from you, Chris, and so thankful you are doing better. I'm so sorry for what you had to go through but I'm a big believer in everything happens for a reason. This happened to you not only to educate you, but also so you could share it with other athletes. We HAVE TO BE our own advocates when it comes to our health. No one else will be. This is especially true when we don't fit in those boxes you mentioned.
I'll preface what I'm about to say by saying I am not an athlete. I watch your channel because my husband is a road cyclist and we follow the season, and you, every year. You do not have to be an athlete to be misdiagnosed. So all of you athletes here who are married or partnered with someone who is not one, understand this; DOCTORS ARE NOT INFALLIBLE AND ARE OFTEN OVERWORKED. Or they're just lazy to be quite honest. I was misdiagnosed with endometriosis and was told over and over this was what I had and I knew damn well I didn't. Something was definitely wrong but that wasn't it.
It took me hiring and firing several specialists and doing my own research on my signs and symptoms and talking with others to finally discover I had tissue from a previous surgery that had attached itself to my abdominal wall and was wrapping around my sigmoid colon. Had I not fought for myself I would have eventually ended up in emergency surgery and with a colostomy bag the rest of my life. Or I possibly would have died. As it is, I found the doctor who finally listened to me and I had the life saving surgery from a surgeon who knew what he was doing and 5+ years later have had no issues.
You know yourself better than any doctor because no one spends more time with you than you do. Don't be afraid to voice your concerns. I had to tell a doctor, "I've known myself 45 years and you've known me for 5 minutes." Their expertise doesn't always trump your life experience with yourself and your health. Stay frosty folks.
That's awful what you have dealt with! Yeah I think you should ALWAYS advocate for yourself and NOT trust the Dr's. My mom was diagnosed with cancer and they missed several markers from tests and my dad and family were too shy to say something and as a result the Dr's gave my mom the WRONG concoction and strength of radiation and chemo, and she became very ill, unconscious for 4 months, and then developed MERSA from having to be in the hospital so long. During this time, they were unable to treat her cancer which continued to spread, and eventually she passed away due to lack of treatment. :( Dr's are like other professionals.. overworked and they can miss things so I always recommend arming yourself with your own research, trusting your 'gut' with your own health and how you feel, and making sure to communicate with Dr's and RN's when you just know something isn't right! They're no longer experts, but YOU ARE. You live in YOUR body and know what feels right and what doesn't so trust yourself when it comes to that and don't be afraid to advocate for yourself in front of the medical 'experts'.
Spot on! Great advice. Don't be afraid to speak up. Advocate on your behalf and trust your instincts. Don't be afraid to say "I know my body. Something is not right." A doctor who is listening will continue to dig trying to figure it out.
Bocca luppo with your upcoming surgery. BTW, 105 temp is insane. Usually associated with fungal infection or something worse. You had a strong immune response. Again elite athlete stuff. Tough to diagnose kidney stones without flank pain/abd pain, bloody urine, or urinary symptoms.
Thanks 👊👊
Chris I feel you buddy. I'm a retired professional strongman that's taken up cycling/triathlon as a hobby. I got rhabdomyolysis last summer from heat exhaustion. I was admitted to the ER with a CK value beyond detection limits. They told me I could go home when the test came back below 1000, which should take 2-3 days. It ended up taking 7 days before I got a measurable value of 20,000 and they let me go after 10 days with my values still at 8,000. Normal range is 150-350. 20 years of adaptation caused my mitochondria to significantly increase the amount of Creatine Kinase being produced and when the cells popped it all got dumped into my system. I got a fist bump from the specialist because he had never seen values so high in his life haha
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Glad you are feeling better. I’m seven weeks post surgery on my foot/Achilles. Actually my third surgery during last six years. I’ve got six anchors in my heel holding everything together. I’m 67 years old with an endurance history- Ironman, 20 marathons, 2021 Race Across America with my team, 2022 Race Across the West with my team. (2020 with 9,000 bike miles, 2021 with 9,400 miles, and 7000 miles in 2022 with a lot of pain 🤦🏽♂️). I’m also a fortunate cancer survivor. When I was in pre-op, the nurse looks at me strangely saying ahh, your pulse is 52 but your blood pressures is really high. I replied that I’m an endurance athlete and I’m scared as shit. 😂 Good news is that I got off crutches two weeks ago and I am back on my trainer trying to be patient. I’ve got a flat pedal on the right side with a stool to help get on and off the bike. There’s no way to go but forward. Keep your videos coming. Outstanding job you to do. Thanks.
Good luck healing up Craig. Exactly,no way but forward. 👊👍
I really appreciate this story. I am neither an elite, amateur, or possibly even a weekend warrior athlete. But I am a mid 50's veteran who takes care of himself and still exercises regularly. When I get my care at the VA, I often feel that the doctors and nurses are so used to dealing with vets much older and in much worse shape than myself, that they tend to dismiss or overlook my health concerns. Client population bias. Love all of your videos!
So happy you, fingers crossed have got it figured out, and keep getting better 🤞…The season is about to start, and “We” need Chris back at 100%, and full of Knuckle Heads for the Up and Coming Races…I’m 66, and when I go to the Doctor with a concern…99% of most Doctors keep Say’n … Well you know your getting older, and maybe you should Stop doing what you’re doing, and just get Old 😳…Never the Answer we’re looking for 🤔😢🚴♂️🚴♀️🚴♂️👍
I got friend and his doc said the same thing to him. So he said, I guess we are done here, then got up and left. Found a new doctor and is back at. That was ten years ago. 👊
I've experience these same sort of issues when I was much younger. I can remember going to the ER for some lacerations and the ER nurses thought I was in shock because my HR was so low. I was stopped one night and being interrogated for a DUI. I was in my early 40's at the time and the DUI investigator thought I was on crystal meth because I was jacking with my HR and blood pressure while they were taking the measurements. Totally blew his mind. I've come out of anesthesia 3x times in the middle of surgeries. The last time I even told the anesthesiologist to not leave the room and to be cautious. He laughed at me before surgery. In the recovery room afterwards he wasn't laughing anymore. thanks for sharing your personal experience Chris. Brings back memories.
Chris - thanks for the advice and best of luck in your recovery 🙏
Thanks 👍
The theme here is real. Everytime I go to the dentist, they check my pulse and BP. My pulse is always low 40s, my BP is slightly low. They say this thing must be off, and they manual check my pulse. I tell them every single time I'm a lifetime endurance athlete I'm good.
You'd think they'd update the chart at this point....
I remember exercise stress testing a bunch of middle managers when I was a newly qualified physio. One guy’s HR hardly budged, even with the resistance on max. Turned out he was a recently retired Commonwealth cyclist and, like you say, testing him under normal parameters was pointless.
You have the best stories. That's why I love your channel.
Hope your recovery goes well. Take it easy.
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Sorry you went through this Chris and glad you are recovering. If I remember correctly you had pulmonary embolisms at one point in your life. Would sure like to hear your story about that. I had them on two separate occasions and was never the same on the bike after.
Thanks for the video Chris. I am almost 60 and went out mountain biking in Oct. 2022. Two weeks later I went to the same place and I could tell something was wrong. Over the next 2 months I didn't feel well, would go into the doctor and they would do blood pressure 134 over 84 and pulse 65 and say it was great. I would tell them that was high for me. Know one seemed to listen. In January after some blood tests they realized I had a bacterial infection from a tick bite. I am just an avid biker but because I am older, the medical staff only looked at what a normal 60 year old guy might get. It has been a will be a long recovery. I am happy you brought this up because people are more active these days and there needs to be a shift in medical thinking of what a older person can be.
Good advice! Glad they found out what was wrong and you're now on the mend :) Last time I went to hospital after a bad crash, even with a punctured collapsed lung my O2 saturation was still 98% which surprised the Drs. At least they wrote "athlete low heart rate" on my chart so they knew I didn't have bradycardia. As even with all my injuries, broken ribs etc etc my HR was still in the mid 40's. Up from my usual 40.
Thanks for this Chris, really interesting story. I'm a professor at a medical school - infectious disease MD - and one of your "weekend warrior" athletes. Like the other commentators, I've also had my vital signs and lab values misinterpreted by other MDs. Your story is a great cautionary tale - what we'd call an "exemplar" in teaching. Your message to advocate for yourself is spot on. Most doctors will (or should) listen when told, but none of them can yet read minds, so it is really, really important to speak up, otherwise they will put you in whatever box they think you belong in. The challenge, which your story tells, is that most doctors have a "normal range" boxes for patient that they see, and at National Jewish, you were outside their normal boxes, which threw them for a loop, and your first visit to Bend urgent care, you looked just like their normal box, and both interpretations were misses, as you describe. On the MD training side, of course we emphasize the importance of getting a patient history, as some of your other commentators have said, and if you're not satisfied that they have the history right, you should always try to set the record straight. So yeah, they're doctors, but you're the patient, and you know the patient better than the doctors do! Thanks again for this one!
I doubt he had a stone that whole time as well. Stones are painful and are rarely ever missed. If anything, we may attribute someones presentation to kidney stones (if you have a history of such) and miss a new/similar diagnosis. If he had urosepsis from a kidney stone he didn’t go home for 3 days, ride his bike, then represent septic again. Diarrhea also isn’t a symptom of kidney stones! There’s more to this story than meets the eye. As a fellow doc you should appreciate that as well!
With that said, I did laugh a bit at the pulmonary work up. I’m frequently over 10k feet doing training rides and think I would do just fine with a sat in the 80s. Hell, I practice medicine at 8k feet and we see people in the 80s all the time without pulmonary complaints.
@@ColoradoBiker Thanks for that. I don't think we need to torture Chris with our differential diagnoses for his various issues as the main point remains throughout his story that it's good to advocate for your unique self, esp when you sense something is being missed by MDs.
“Am I just getting slow or is it just age?” great point. Need to think it through as you notice the drop off in performance.
My brother in law just went through this, serious stuff.
If I get a fever after chemo, that's what they're looking for. I now know why they take the slightest fever so seriously. Sepsis is no joke, good to see you recovering well.
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I hope u get better 💓
Best wishes for a healthy recovery, Chris.
Here is a cautionary tale to add to yours. I am not an elite athlete, but I still have a slow resting pulse (I've been thoroughly checked out and it's definitely not pathological.) One time, I needed surgery for a broken collarbone. It was early in the morning, and you know how it is: you can't eat or drink anything, so no coffee. I walked to the hospital, which got me going a bit, but after they had me prepped and connected to monitors I had to wait a while, flat on my back, in a dimly lit area, so my pulse steadily dropped. The HR monitor had a low HR alarm, but it couldn't be set below 35. Fortunately, I was conscious and able to explain that this was expected; otherwise, they probably would have taken action to speed it up. Instead they just disabled the alarm. So it's worth warning medical people in advance in this situation.
Make sure your primary doc understands your level of fitness. Then if you are remote, make sure the attending doc consults with your primary. Glad to hear you are on the mend.
So glad you are doing better. I think some of your doctors would have figured out you were septic long before they did had they listened to you and realized that an “elite athlete” would not present like the “normal” patient would. Good info to share. I enjoy your channel very much. 😊
Thanks Irene 👊
Get well soon Chris, thnx for the cautionary tale, very valuable as we (amateur) athletes also like to downplay our symptoms until they’re become unbearable.
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Thank you for putting out this video. You are absolutely right that young athletes need to understand this. I had to go to an ex-cycling team doctor (Max Testa) to get my heart problem diagnosed. Normal doctors couldn't understand why someone as fit as I was could possibly think there was anything wrong.
I love max. Tell him I said hi. And good luck 👊
Thanks for posting this video Chris. This really hits close to home for me. When I was younger, I was what you call an "elite weekend warrior". I was one of Eddy B's juniors at the original Colorado Springs OTC.
During my final year as a junior, I developed a weird respiratory condition where I had a hard time breathing, almost asthma-like. I remember throwing up chunks of stuff in the parking lot of the velodrome during the district championships (still won 5 medals though!). My doctor checked my breathing and heart rate, and said I was fine, yet I knew it wasn't right. They couldn't figure it out and simply said "just take it easy" which doesn't work when you're racing Cat 1/2/Pro races. Finally, they just ruled it as "Sinusitis" which I later learned is the ubiquitous term for when they couldn't truly identify it. I never got back to the same level of fitness partly due to it, and quit racing a year later. I still suffer from respiratory issue when doing moderate to harder workouts (now as an old man!) and have been using an inhaler, though I technically don't have asthma.
Broke 6 ribs and, most importantly, punctured a lung. Paramedics didn't think anything was wrong with me because my vitals were "normal."
In the ER it took a while before a nurse actually listened to me tell her that I could feel that nothing was happening in my left lung when I inhaled. X-ray then CT and my left lung is 90% collapsed. They never deal with elite level endurance athletes whose cardiac an pulmonary systems are simply not the same as almost everyone else.
I had some issue my strange breathing feeling and told the doc they better do an x-ray. They let me leave and then called me while I was out shopping and said to come back immediately. I asked if I could grab lunch before hand and they said NO, you got a collapsed lung. I was 65 heart rate and walking around shopping still. 😂😬😳
Hi Chris. You make a couple good points, but as a cyclist and physician, I want to comment from my perspective. I hope you don't mind the length.
First, quantitative testing relies on "normals". Most individuals have a resting heart rate around 60 or so. However, you're correct in that endurance athletes often condition themselves, such that their resting heartrate is slower than typically measured. Similarly, what may be a normal heartrate for the average person (such as 77 or certainly 95) could be fast for highly conditioned athletes. It is important for you to emphasize to your doctors and nurses that you are an elite endurance athlete. I think this point is very reasonable to make to your subscribers.
Second, you ask how long you've dealt with sepsis and kidney stones? In regards to sepsis, it is likely that you developed sepsis on January 15th, which was the day you had a very high fever. By your description, that is the first time you mentioned having a fever. Sepsis is a clinical diagnosis. Sepsis is caused by a systemic infection, often with high fever, high pulse and low blood pressure along with laboratory data such as an elevated white blood cell count. It is possible that you have an underlying and perhaps recurring infection from your kidney stones intermittently leading up to January 15th, but by your description, it is not obvious that you had sepsis.
It's impossible to know how long you'd had kidney stones. The size of the stone(s) might be helpful in guessing. Keep in mind that kidney stones can present only with infection, but perhaps more commonly with pain and blood in the urine. Interesting, the Mayo Clinic lists nausea and vomiting as a manifestation of kidney stones. I would expect that vomiting as the sole symptom of kidney stones would be much less common than blood in the urine or pain. For you, nausea and vomiting may be your main symptom of kidney stones, so if those symptoms recur by themselves, you should point that out to your doctors. For the average person though, if they complained of nausea and vomiting, kidney stones would be really low on my list of what to be concerned about. I would like to know if professional cyclists have a greater incidence of kidney stones? It seems like intermittent dehydration during a ride could play a role? What about nutrition and hydration playing a role in forming kidney stones in professional cyclists? What kind of kidney stone did you have and what recommendations did the urologist recommend to try to prevent more?
Your description of your adaption to low oxygen is very interesting, reminding me of a Sherpa. This video came to my attention on a ride with a friend when he asked me how to CONTROL HIS BREATHING like you do. My suspicion is, like a Sherpa, your ability to tolerate low oxygen is part conditioning and partly genetic. For one or both of those reasons, the vast majority of people cannot safely tolerate such oxygen levels. I imagine the technician was rightly a little freaked out. I would like to have you educate us more on how we can control our breathing and adapt to low oxygen. Is there an exercise to "control breathing"? Perhaps one of your lung doctors could help explain? I'd love to have an oxygen saturation monitor of some of the Tour riders as they go up the major climbs. That would be fascinating. In regards to using the term "flat lining", it is an unfortunate description. In medicine, "flat lining" typically means that the EKG is flat, meaning no active heart activity, death. I realize your doctor used that term with you. Again, it would be helpful for a doctor to explain that unfortunate choice of words.
Finally, I would encourage a bit of empathy for your doctors, nurses and techs. Jym Tym has the most liked comment on this video, in which he uses the term "knuckleheads". The doctors and nurses who cared for you cannot reply to your video. To do so would be to risk violating the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, risking termination and tens of thousands of dollars in fines. You, as is every patient, are a unique individual and I believe your presentation was out of the ordinary. My experience is that the vast majority of doctors, nurses and technicians work very hard to try to be elite caregivers. They may crash or bonk at times, but I hope you don't want to insult them. It is the art of medicine and it takes practice. Thanks for your entertaining video.
Glad they found and resolved your issue. This is such a frustrating story that I’ve experienced too many times myself. The medical profession need to know they are failing these clients. I’m not a professional but have been an endurance athlete my whole life. The doctors don’t listen. Lots of stories including one like yours. At age 61 my concern was dismissed when my resting HR went from 32/34 to 66-70. “Now you are normal!” So frustrating.
Thanks for the insights. I was elite in my sport and geez it was hard to explain things to doctors who didn't "get" what athletes at that level do, and what they deal with. I used to start every visit with an explanation of what I did for training, what I ate, etc. Tedious. Having the right people/ good team is so crucial!
Very 👊
The most important video you ever did. Your strong heart and lungs most probably kept you alive after coming in with 105 f . No regular person could have survived that high fever. Wish you all the best with your surgery and recovery after that. Remember we need you out there for tour de france and such to get us trough knucklehead stages .💪
Thanks 👍🦋
Your pain threshold is much higher, too.
Your cautionary tale should be expanded to say everyone should advocate for themselves. I’ve seen several cases where people were misdiagnosed and sent home only to be sicker on return to the hospital. Btw, you really are in a different box because my wife says kidney stones rate with child birth on the pain scale!
I’m still waiting for that kidney stone pain to hit. Everyone says how painful they are. Hopefully I get to skip that part cause I certainly got enough feeling bad this last month to even it all out. 😳🤞
The opposite is also true. If you regularly run super low BP they will do unnecessary work ups. The trick is to have your primary involved always so he/she can explain the circumstance to the ED providers.
Hi Chris, really appreciate the story. I'm an avid cyclist and a junior doctor, so this story resonates to me in multiple ways. Thanks for your experience and perspective!
I can relate. I became septic from Listeriosis. On that morning a doctor commented that my heart rate of 65 was good. I was secretly worried because my normal resting heart rate is around 42. By that afternoon I was in kidney failure.
On another occasion the nurse anesthetist didn’t want to proceed with the colonoscopy because my heart rate was 40 so she pulled the doctor aside and expressed her concern. The doctor knows me well and laughed. He told her that I was a cyclist and that’s my normal resting heart rate. When I woke up I looked at the monitor my heart rate was 78! I said to the nurse anesthetist “you gave me Atropine didn’t you?”. She said “yes, you made me nervous”.
I'm glad they figured it out, Chris! I miss seeing you hammering the local roads here in SD, especially the 52 climb in Santee!
52 ! 👊👊
Thanks so much for sharing Chris. As a 65 year old I too have seen that, as we get older, those of us who have been athletic our whole lives don’t fall in the standard categories, and just as with your experience doctors don’t know how to handle us. Being your own advocate is critical, and it’s not easy to do when you’re not feeling well, and the medical experts are assessing you based on average health parameters. So glad you are recovering and thanks again for sharing.
Great & important story. Amazing that your ultra fit body effectively hid this condition from the Docs. Glad you made it through long enough for them to correctly diagnose the issue. Good luck w the treatment and getting back to your “normal” 120% !!
Thanks for a very important message Chris. I had a similar but less dramatic experience. I'm a weekend warrior and a bit older than you. I kept being told that I was fine for my age. Luckily my doctor persisted and eventually a diagnosis was made. Message is, I don't want to be measured against the average of my age - I have seen what they look like:)
You poor bugger. Thanks for sharing and pulling through. Scary.
Concur with previous comments. I just turned 70. My resting heart rate is around 48. Ever since I had an appendicitis 24 years ago, I've been very careful to tell the medical staff who don't know me that I 'exercise a lot' and 48 is normal. About 5 years ago they gave me 2 EKGs before proceeding with a simple colonoscopy.
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Take it easy Chris. I'm sure your body will recover fast, best of luck.
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Interesting. "You never stop learning. You learn something every day " Thanks Chris.
Love the stories - an entire channel of C.H. stories would be amazing.
When doctors run tests as long you are in the "normal range" they will dismiss your health issues. For ex. Normal range for adult male resting heart rate is 60-100. Most doctors and health professionals have simply never examined elite endurance athletes so most test results will just confuse them.
Dude, even you couldn't deal with complete organ failure! The fact that you rode it for so long is phenomenal. Get well soon
glad you're better Chris.
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I had a very similar problem. I kept having dizzy spells and I would get very nauseous. Same thing. My right kidney had shut down because of kidney stones and they found a tumor in my right kidney. I started to pass large amounts of blood in my urine which sent me into the ER. I spent a couple weeks in the hospital and lost part of my left kidney.
Why not go on a 4 day boat trip in warm weather. Breath in warm sea air for several days.
Decades ago, bad cold i had had for two months after 12 hrs on a boat in south pacific all congestion gone.
That is a very scary story and I hope that everything goes smoothly with the kidney stone procedure. One thing that I'd like to add is that athletes are very in tune with their bodies, constantly checking heart rates and times for segments on strava. As you were stating, you knew that something was off. We need to trust what our bodies are telling us. Stay healthy and I hope for a quick recovery.
On behalf of those doctors Chris thank you for your measured comments! One Friday running a clinic I developed renal colic, the nurses took me to the ER and I was given morphine. My heart rate dropped to 35 (from 45) and there was mass panic…I guess it can happen to anyone…
My mom go from fine to septic shock in a half hour, led to a day and a half in the ICU. Not a fun time. She was in for having her colon removed. Separately she says the worst pain she ever had was kidney stones, so that tops giving birth!
Glad your still kicking 🤛🦋
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Wow, glad your ok, thanks for sharing....hopefully all is figured out. I can tell with my RHR if there is a sickness or recovery needed etc. The human body is amazing!
Timely. I spent the last year in and out of the hospital. A real shit year, literally. Big ER abdominal surgery, aspiration into lungs during surgery. Right lung all messed up. While in they kept flagging me for tachycardia. It'd be like 110-120. I'm 53 and my max HR is still over 200. Sent to Cardiologist for look-see. Stress test on the incline treadmill target HR is 140 and you can stop or keep going. I was at 180 and the time on the test expired. I'm a lot better now, some permanent changes, but I've lost my trust in the docs. It seems they miss a lot.
Yep. Lots. They all got to many patients. Double check their work when things still seem a bit off. 👍
@@ChrisHornerCycling I'm glad you got things figured out. It's heavy on you, and the family when things aren't what they should be and you don't know what's up!
Got a new primary care doc last year. In my mid 60's and ride 6,500 miles a year. Doc was surprised I had normal BP, and blood work. Sent me to a cardiologist who told me I have a great heart for a 45 year old. Keep riding.
The docs that understand athletes are orthopedic ones. They deal more w athletes.
I have found discussing non-ortho issues w my ortho surgeon to be v helpful.
They can tell you which gi dr to go to. They can tell you which qs to ask. They can tell you what they wd do if they had your internal organ prob. They seem to be the only medical people who really understand an athlete.
Interesting story! I've run into the same thing - back in December I had a serious viral infection and my HR was "racing", in the mid 70s while in bed - for me it should've been mid 40s. I had to explain to the doctors and nurses multiple times that a mid 70s HR was not normal for me!
Great piece, glad you're feeling better. I suspect pain management is another area where athletes are a bit different. Even as a relatively casual rider I'll think, "well, it's not as bad as my last set of intervals...". You pros seem to be on another level altogether.
Glad to see you are on the mend.
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Sepsis can be fatal. It is serious matter. Lucky that nothing worse happened to you.
Please consider full work up of internal organs. W mri and cat scans and ultra sound of pancreas, kidneys, liver, gall bladder, lungs, colon.
Full blood tests. And full stool tests
If you have had sepsis gall bladder may be infected. That will show up on mri. But you wd know also b c of the intense stomach pain. But you don’t recite rt side stomach pain or any gut pain so gall bladder must be ok.
Thanks for posting about this. It’s real. I’m not pro or elite but I am extremely fit 60y.o. female. Drs definitely don’t understand. They’ve missed a couple of infections with me b/c of exactly what u talk about here - Normally I have an unusually low resting HR rate, excellent blood pressure and bloodwork stats. They tend to only look at the current test and compare to ‘normal’ woman my age when I go in for something acute. They need to look at current vs MY normal healthy stats to understand I am having a problem. Its super important to know this so we can let the Dr know. Please keep posting about stuff that aging athletes deal with.
Get well soon! 😊
Glad you finally identified the problem. Sorry for the pain you went thru.
Thanks for sharing this! Although I am not a pro cyclist, I experienced the same thing when dealing with afib. My normal average heart rate was about 35-40% higher than normal after getting covid. the problem is that having a 42-45 heart rate isn't what the doctors are taught is in the normal range. When they see 60-75 they look at you as if you're crazy when you say something is wrong. I struggled for 8 months before I actually found a doctor who took the time to review my case properly and diagnose my problem.
When I went in for my surgeries last year I made sure I told the anesthesiologist that if my HR drop into the 40's I am not "CODING" lol
Wow ! So much to digest on this one. I just realize with your sharing where and when I told my unconscious body in stress, to put up and shut up and not tell me (Intuition) that something is seriously wrong with me other than the pain or bad symptoms. The mission of course (Winning) being more important...Once a pro always a pro.
very worthy points made. I’m 10 years ahead of you, and experienced similar even at my recreational level, which is better than most my age, noticed my decline, but doctors said I’m fine, but when my body started turning off three or four years into it then they said you have a problem, then they figured it out...
Wow! Sounds like you had a close call, Chris. Stay well.
It was a hard week and half. 👍
Chris, thanks a lot this was a really good segment for anyone dealing with the medical community. Glad you are doing better!
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