Industrial Sized Swings and Roundabouts

So..... the last time I posted here it was bad news... let's do a quick run down….

Since last time I've had two more rounds of heart surgery to get me fixed from Wolf Parkinson White (WPW) Syndrome. The first was mostly successful with the next essentially crossing the 'T's and dotting the 'I's. And this has all been about repairing my heart back to normal by eliminating the slim possibility of picking up an irregular electrical pathway and sending my heart into overdrive (with not a good outcome!).

After the last Op (which gave me the ok) on the Friday, I had raced my bike by the Wednesday! I raced at Hillingdon getting a 5th place after a whole race in the break………….then flew to Malta and won the first stage! The team managed to win every stage and the overall race, with two clean sweeps of the podium along the way. A brilliant thing to be a part of. Twists and turns elsewhere…coming home to hear my brother had ended up in hospital on intravenous drips with glandular fever which was scary for everyone and took the attention off my recent trials and tribulations.

I then raced the BUCS 25 mile Time Trial up North, the BUCS Road Race and a Crit over the next two weekends, enjoying them all but knowing my fitness still had some way to go before getting back to full health and competitiveness.

All was settling into place. I started summer term at Uni, loving it. Still training hard.

And then ……………on Wednesday just gone, I had my planned six week check up. Wolf Parkinson White syndrome had come back! I was and am absolutely shocked and a quite emotional, more than I had been for any other part of this journey. I am becoming a smaller percentage of a very small percentage of cases where repairing WPW takes so many ops. For context if after the op procedure, if the irregular pattern doesn't reappear after 20 mins it only has a 3% chance of coming back and then it is an almost certainty of being clear if still a regular pattern after a week. Mine had come back after 5 weeks! Not a record I am looking to hold.

I'm now back to where I was about 3 months ago. No intensity on the bike, light cross training and hockey until the season completely finishes. I have the next procedure booked for 24th June. Then back on a bike properly by July! That's the plan for the moment anyway.

Cheers to everyone around me supporting me especially my family and my parents who seem to know exactly what needs to be said regardless of whether or not it’s what I want to hear.