Climber again

• by Rolf
• 2007-09-07 11:09:14
• Exercise & Sports
• 2088 views
• 3 comments

Thanks for your replies. I had my first post surgery meeting with my cardiologist who still felt I should quit climbing. He said it was the same as weight lifting and neither should be attempted because of the potential for lead dislodgment. Reading that other people still continue to weight lift I feel he may be too conservative. I posted a climbing with icd question on a climbing forum were a cardio physiologist responded that she felt she would be more concerned about an incident when climbing not lead dislodgment.
I finally contact Guidant who supplied the leads for my Atlas defibrillator. The authority there said once scar tissue had stabilized the leads , I could resume climbing. He stated that their data indicated continuous repetitive motion was the major cause for leads becoming dislodged.
I have decided to spend the next three months improving my cardio fitness then slowly and cautiously return to indoor climbing with the intent to return to outdoor sport climbing next year. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information from the medical field. I think there are many icd recipients who are not willing to settle for lawn bowling and like me will still try to pursue their passions.
Thanks Cathryn and Mike, hearing from both of you was a great moral boost. I climb in Squamish, Skaha, Smith Rock and occasionally in Washington. My home is in Vancouver Canada and I am always up for a day of indoor or outdoor climbing or hiking with visitors. Especially fellow icd recipients. Please keep in touch, hearing from real people on this forum has helped me get over the bad days. Thanks Rolf