Fishing guide who rows 10,000 strokes

Hello all,
I am a healthy and very active (fly fishing guide) 52 yr old male who was blindsided with a pacer.
On 4.2 I had a pacer implanted as a result of a complete bundle branch block due to an ablation while treating a partial bilateral bundle branch block with out any underlying heart conditions or disease.
The complete block left me with two choices, a life time of meds or a pacer, so I took door number 2 the pacer, no looking back now!
As a full time fishing guide I row 8,000-10,000 strokes a day on the oars 200 days a year.
The season has started with out me and the fish are really happy but my clients are not.
My question is when I am off of restrictions on 5.2 I will be jumping in full time on the oars.
Any rehab suggestion or thoughts?
Cheers

4 Comments

Questions

by golden_snitch - 2014-04-08 03:04:37

Hi!

Just out of interest, may I ask two questions first?

1. How do you ablate a partial bilateral bundle branch block? Normally, catheter ablation is only used to treat fast arrhythmias (tachycardia). You can definitely cause a block with a catheter ablation, but that you can treat an existing block with it is something I have never ever heard before. And I have had 8 ablations myself. Not sure, but the only way to treat a bilateral bundle branch block, according to my knowledge, is a a bi-ventricular pacemaker (CRT device).

2. Who told you that meds were an option to treat a complete block? Again, never heard that before. You can treat fast arrhythmias with meds, but not the blocks or bradycardia (slow heart rates).

From my experience after eight pacer surgeries, I'd doubt that rowing 8,000-10,000 strokes per day will be no problem just four weeks after the pacer implant. It's quite a lot of exercise, and since the pacer is placed either on top of the chest muscle (subcutaeneous) below the collarbone or under the muscle (subpectoral) I'd expect the area to get pretty sore with this kind of exercise. Would it be possible for you to start part-time, at least for the first one or two weeks? You could also go to a gym and try out a rowing machine to see, if you feel comfortable rowing or not.

Best wishes

Inga

Remind me never to arm wrestle .....

by donr - 2014-04-08 08:04:54

any man who does 10,000 strokes per day...... Assuming that you spend 10 hrs on the lake, etc. that's 1000 strokes per hour; about 16 strokes per minute, all day long w/o a break.

Sounds more like you are trolling than fly-fishing.

Donr

If you start out downstream...

by donr - 2014-04-09 08:04:06

...you have to return upstream.

Having rowed a boat a time or two, I definitely would NOT arm wrestle you.

Donr

Well Don

by Troutfoot - 2014-04-09 11:04:28

Good to hear from you Don.
I work on Idaho's famous snake river shoveling water all day. My job is to put fish and smiles in the boat every day.
I like your math 16 strokes a minute is about right.
The higher the water the harder we work.
Looking forward to a great season with my new girlfriend Electra keeping me paced. Now all I need is for the fish to bite!
Tight Lines

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You have a shocking personality.

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I’m healthy as a horse because of the pacemaker.