Hi!
The author and his youngest grandson, Nolan, looking out over Mirror Lake, Lake Placid, NY, USA, after the 2011 Ironman race, where FitOldDog was the first in the world to complete an Ironman with an abdominal aortic aneurysm stent graft – click figure to watch the finish..
This blog has evolved since it was initiated in response to my abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery in August 2010. The discovery of my aneurysm, and the consequent aortic stent graft placement, scared me to death, so at that time I was focused on reaching out for someone to talk to about my situation. Those days are now, fortunately, behind me and I have overcome fear of stent failure with the help of a number of supportive people with similar issues, who I located through this blog. I am now converting athletewithstent.com into an information resource for anyone interested in developing their own program of safe exercise for better health. Emphasis is placed on endurance sports with special reference to health challenges that might cause people to give up the dream of being an athlete. It is never too late to train, and we can all be athletes in our own way, just for the joy of it. The trick is to develop a balanced exercise philosophy.
I am supporting these efforts by marketing a number of downloadable e-books or white papers, which provide a synthesis of subjects that interest me. Two such products are available, including guides to aortic surgery recovery and fixing plantar fasciitis.
Happy training, my friends, and whatever you do, don’t become a prisoner of your particular health challenge. Regular exercise helps with almost any problem in life.
Kevin Morgan aka FitOldDog
Important Note: These posts do not provide medical advice. You should always consult your physician before undertaking or significantly modifying an exercise program.
Copyright © 2010 Kevin T. Morgan aka FitOldDog, Old Dogs in Training, LLC.
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I had just finished a brutal 25 km trail run and had never been as tired. Having been an endurance runner for 25 years with a marathon pb of 2:49 and a 17:14 5km, I should not have been that tired, despite being a 52 year old female. A week or 2 later I finally checked out the pulse in my abdomen I had noticed a few months previously during yoga, and it was discovered to be an AAA. It has been monitored for almost 4 years now, currently 4.5-4.6 cm. I have low blood pressure and have never smoked (and am female!) so the consensus it that it is likely genetic. I have continued to train; no more marathons or brutal trail runs, and I try to keep the effort below 80%, stay near Class 1 hospitals and run with a buddy. This will be fixed eventually, but if there are other athletes out there with similar issues, I too would be interested.
I’m amazed that they don’t fix something like that immediately! Especially with your kind of active lifestyle.
p.s. You and I share the same marathon PR (me, Boston, 1978).
Good pb, especially at Boston. Mine was in Huntsville, Alabama in 1986 – which qualified me for the US Olympic marathon trials – too bad I’m Canadian! They won’t fix the AAA until the risk of it rupturing equals the risk of dying during surgery. I don’t seem to be a candidate for a stent at the moment, either due to my youthful age, or the tortuous nature.
Too bad you have to live with such a loaded risk-risk tradeoff.
So did you run the Canadian Olympic trials?
Hi! Pauline,
Sorry to hear that you have an AAA, however, after about five months of blogging you are the first AAA case to reply to my blog. I have had plenty of spam, was hacked once, and now I don’t feel completely alone in the AAA universe. If you ever want to make a post/write an article on this blog, please let me know. If enough people turn up I was planning to create a forum, or chat room, or we could use the forum already being run for us at angioplasty.org at http://www.ptca.org/forumtopics/topic_AAA_stent_graft.html.
I often wonder about the arbitrary 5 cm cut-off for surgical intervention versus watching and waiting when we come in all different sizes, and surely our aortas do too! I guess it is important to do a careful risk benefit analysis. I think that we are both very lucky to have spotted that abdominal pulse and that we are endurance athletes and not sprinters or weight lifters.
So! Thanks again very much for writing. I am new to blogging, but I find it very therapeutic. I still have my eye set on Kona, how about you?
Cheers,
Kevin
I agree that finding the pulse was fortuitous. I found mine during yoga, and the fact that I was pretty lean helped. As far as screening goes, there’s no cost in Canada, but not a lot of awareness. I’d never heard of AAA until my doctor diagnosed it; my subsequent research led to a fair bit of anxiety, which has been really helped by staying active. Unfortunately, early diagnosis isn’t much use unless there is something that can be done to slow or stop the growth rate.
Hey Kevin,
This is Gail from Dr Hokes office. I asked you about core strengthening exercises that would help my bladder issues. I couldnt find anything on your site, or maybe I over looked it. I need your help.
You are an incredible guy, you are an inspiration. Keep up the awesome work. : )
Hi! Gail,
Just go to the tag cloud and click on ‘core’ and it will take you to several posts that contain links to core exercises. The set I use right now can be found at the URL below, and it is linked in one of my posts on training whilst traveling:
http://www.coachr.org/core_stabilisation_training_for.htm
Let me know if that works. I had to make your post public to reply. If you want me to keep it private I can ‘unapprove’ it. I do like having these kind of things on my blog, however, as it will slowly lead to people talking.
Thanks for the encouragement, by the way, and keep up the training. If you need to reach me, my e-mail address is kevin.t.morgan@earthlink.net.
Cheers
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
I’m a 34 year old trail runner, diagnosed with AAA yesterday, still in shock I think. A physiotherapist picked it up during an unrelated treatment. I had CT scans done last night and turns out I have 3.6mm AAA. They’ll monitor it on a 3 month cycle and operate if it goes over 5mm.
Naturally one of the first questions I asked was, “can I still run?”, they said aerobic activity was a great idea, but not anaerobic. However, I think I’ll abandon my plans on a 100km debut next year. I’ve been running about 4 years, and am in the best shape of my life. I’m both saddened and extremely grateful that it was found.
Cheers
Jon
*cm’s not mm’s.
I spotted that, as you sure wouldn’t be a runner with an aortic stenosis of that severity! I’m a pathologist by training, btw. -k
Hi Jon, sorry to hear your news, but glad you contacted me. My first question was, “Can I still do my Ironman training.” I had to work it out for myself, they had no idea. Yes! It is a shock. Took me ages to find anyone to talk to. Pauline, in Canada, continued to run with a 4.9, which recently increased in size and she is off for surgery in a few months. You should talk to her, for starters.
Rule #1: don’t become a prisoner of your aneurysm.
I wonder how it was diagnosed at only 3.6. I found mine, at 6.9, and I could have easily missed it if I hadn’t been in such lean condition. I completed the Lake Placid Ironman with the thing, only 10 days before I worked out what was going on. I’m lucky to be alive.
In your case, however, I wonder what your baseline aortic diameter was, and you have no idea if it is very recent or has been there for years.
If it was me would I run that race? I think the answer would be yes. Endurance sports are ideal, as long as you avoid activities that shock that region of your body. You could actually pay for more frequent scans using ultrasound, which is not that expensive. However, for my own protection, I must say that I don’t dispense medical advice (disclaimer! Excuse the interruption).
I’m pretty tired right now, long evening with Deb’s kids for her autistic older son’s birthday, which went well. Let’s communicate further, and maybe you could tell me more and I might be able to provide you with ideas on how to approach continuing with your sport. I would hate to see you miss your race for a non-risk. It would be good to see the scan – is it tortuous and thin walled or just a small bulge, is it near or involving the renal arteries, and so forth.
We each have to do our own risk-benefit analysis. You’ll get over the shock, don’t worry, and you’ll find that it contributes to your life in positive ways, surprisingly enough.
Ask questions and I’ll try to help you get the answers you need. I’m in training for the Los Cabos Ironman, March 17th 2013. Do I worry about my stent breaking? Sure. Do I plan to stop training? No way! Low impact endurance sports are perfect for our condition.
You are not alone, just give it time. My life has changed for the better in many ways, but at first it sucked, big time, and now it seems like a blip in my life that improved the way I think.
Hang in there.
Kind Regards,
Kevin
Hi Kevin,
Yes let’s keep in touch please. I’ve written a blog post about it here
http://jknztracks.wordpress.com/
I’ll write back to you soon in more depth.
Thanks,
Jon