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| World Masters – Cape Town 2006 | |
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World Masters – Cape Town 2006
Heart Break…a Personal Experience
Nick Topman (over 60’s) January 2007
In recent years I have unexpectedly run out of steam in ‘important’ championship matches and in Cape Town things came to a climax as I tried to close out a first round match. After feeling unwell at 2-0 up I decided to push on for the win a decision I lived to regret when I suffered premature fatigue, lack of breath and arrhythmia; eventually paramedics helped me off court and had to administer first aid. My blood pressure was too low and blood sugar too high and my pulse rate persisted at an alarming rate.
A week later and still feeling unwell my GP referred me to the cardiology department at Gloucester Hospital where an ECG test showed a potentially life threatening heart condition. I was told to prepare for more tests including an angiogram, an investigative procedure where a probe is inserted through the groin and fed up to the heart. The thought filled me with gloom.
Yet out of the blue, that same day, news came through of another explanation for the ECG result my heart was in fact strong and in perfectly good working order! I was ‘saved’ by the discovery of a little known benign medical state called athletic heart syndrome a condition that anyone reading this may have and that is almost certainly common in all long-term competitive squash players.
I have written this because just knowing about AHS can save someone from a similarly unpleasant experience.
Table Mountain
I lived an earlier part of my life in South Africa for 19 years and have flown into Cape Town on many occasions, but I never tire of the sight of Table Mountain. On this occasion as the plane drifted in to land, the cloud was low leaving the last 500 feet of the mountain exposed almost as if global warming had made the sea rise. It was spectacular.
I had booked a practice court for the next day at the impressive Kelvin Grove Club, played Chris and Peter Wilson just before lunch and later joined up with Malcolm Gilham for another session. At no time during this period was there any indication that anything was amiss with my health or that I wasn’t well prepared for my first round match due early afternoon the following day. I felt great and was looking forward to playing, albeit a little concerned that I had such a strong opponent in Dick Carter and a draw dominated by a clump of top English players.
Bishops
After a full English breakfast and a morning of mooching about, Malcolm and Sue drove me from our super B&B to the courts that were situated in the magnificent setting of Bishops School. I felt fine but was disappointed to learn that Dick had left a message to say he had been held up in traffic and may be late. I wasn’t hungry but it was a long time since I had eaten and I wanted to get going at the scheduled time. As it happened he was only a few minutes late but the incident unsettled me and I was anxious at the prospect of a long drawn out match.
I began well enough winning the first two games but felt distinctly unwell at the break between the second and third games. I remember chivvying myself up thinking that if I really went flat out to win the third quickly I would have enough time to recover for the second round match the next day. Big mistake! I felt listless, weak kneed and breathless and failed to win a rally let alone a game. I came out briefly at the start of the 4th game but left the court almost immediately with the grateful help of two duty paramedics.
Drained of energy it was all I could do to lift myself onto a makeshift couch and as the medics went about their business checking this and checking that I was transfixed by my rapid and persistent pulse rate. I found the whole thing most disturbing!
Sudden Unexpected Death (SUD)
In common with all competitive squash players I feel good after a hard game of squash and of course more particularly if I have won! I enjoy the challenge and I ‘push’ hard physically but I don’t believe I have taken liberties with my health and
I promised myself to stop if I come over all funny. If I haven’t always done that in the past, I have at least tapped off when I haven’t felt well…that was until Cape Town 2006.
Such was my predicament then that in the two or so hours I was lying on that couch, I have to admit to thinking about life without squash or something nearly as bad…like leaving this world altogether!
Back in the seventies and eighties it wasn’t uncommon to hear of players dying on court and these incidents, helped along massively by Jasper Carrott’s extremely funny crack during prime time TV about the dangers of playing squash, combined to damn the sport. Comments in those days like ‘Nick, you really should take it easy with this squash lark’ combined with ‘you’re not as young as you were, you know!’ were common and GP’s were generally hostile. I remember one saying, ‘do you really think that’s wise?’ when I told him I played and coached most days of the week. I was 40 at the time.
In more recent times a far better understanding of the need to get fit to play and a medical awareness of the causes of SUD which can occur during any physical activity, not just squash, have tempered the rhetoric against the game. Today’s GP’s are far more knowledgeable about squash and the benefits of regular hard exercise and incidents of people dying on court are thankfully rare.
Diagnosis
Both paramedics at Bishops were of the opinion that I lost energy because I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and that I had made myself really ill by trying to keep going when there simply wasn’t the fuel in the system. This turned out to be accurate. Had I simply stopped at the first signs everything wasn’t right, given 20 minutes to rest, eaten a half a can of beaked beans and drunk a cup of sweet tea, I would have been fine. But on the other hand I wouldn’t have found out about AHS or why I was losing energy on court and what’s more I wouldn’t have been having so much fun writing this!
Athletic Heart Syndrome
Briefly and in general terms AHS is a benign medical phenomena caused by the adaptation of an athlete’s heart in response to stresses of strenuous physical training. With exercise the heart gets stronger, enlarges and the walls get thicker resulting in a slow resting rate (35 to 60 beats per minute), irregular heartbeats (arrhythmia) and unusual electrical impulses that cause abnormal readings on an electrocardiogram (ECG). The condition may be harmless but as my experience has shown there are distinct advantages in knowing that you have it.
To find out more about AHS type in athletic heart syndrome (not AHS) into a search engine or log on to www.healthyme.com.
Baked Beans
For many years I have avoided eating three hours before a match believing that food needs that sort of time to fully digest. Now though, in view of my recent problems, I am encouraged to eat slow burn energy food, a little often, up to half an hour before I play and I am amazed at how well it works! For tennis player’s bananas do the job but for me it’s baked beans. Hot or cold they are delicious and immediately sustaining and despite negative press reports there are no side effects, honest.
However I am not entirely out of the woods and there have been two occasions recently when I have had to stop playing suggesting that baked beans alone may not be the whole answer and that further nutritional advice is needed if I am to knock this problem into touch for good.
I will be most interested to hear from anyone who has had a similar experience or who knows anything about AHS. Please email me at: nick.topman@virgin.net
Nick Topman
Masters Squash over 60’s
January 2007