Season Recap, and Waiting

I guess I should probably do a recap of the 2011-12 season, huh?  If nothing else, so I'll remember how it all went...

In 2011-12, I:

• Got seven Personal Bests (my usual in the previous years was 2-4): a Milwaukee and a Roseville PB in each of the 500, 1000, and 3000, and a Milwaukee PB in the 5000.  Probably would have had a Milwaukee PB in the 1500, but I never skated a 1500 there this year.  Also didn't have any "altitude" PB's because I didn't race at altitude this year (Like most skaters, I track PB's in 3 different categories: outdoor--Roseville for me; sea-level indoor--Milwaukee, usually, for me; and high-altitude--Calgary and Salt Lake City.  So there are lots of opportunities to break one's own records.)
• Skated my first pack races in 5 years, at the US National Mass Start Championships, which I won for my age group.
• Skated with a Holter monitor again.
• Got new skates, custom Van Horns again, which I really like and which have some built-in pronation control to counter my "ankle flop."
• Got more compliments on my technique than I've had total in the 14 or so years I've been skating.  One skater even told me he'd vote for me for "most improved" for the year.  It felt really good to make a big improvement in my technique this year.
• Made MAT 1 (Masters Category 1, an honorary elite masters designation achieved by skating a race in 108% or less of the world record in one's age group) again, in the 3000 and 5000. I made it last year in all distances except the 500, but I really need to go to a high-altitude (i.e., fast ice) oval to make the time in the 1000 and 1500, and I didn't have any official races at altitude this year.  Making MAT 1 is nice because not only is it a way to gauge one's success as a masters skater--but US Speedskating gives MAT1 skaters a skinsuit (a fast one!), which is beyond cool.  
• Had fun skating with other masters skaters--actually skated more laps with other people (in a paceline) this season than I probably have in the last 5 seasons combined.
• Had another frustrating year due to health issues, this time what I am assuming is a heart arrhythmia, which brings me to the "waiting" part...

I heard back from a cardiologist from the Mayo yesterday.  Actually, to back up a bit, I had heard back from my old cardiologist at the Mayo (the one who did my ablation in 2005, and who evaluated me again in 2009 when I was trying to diagnose what turned out to be hypothyroidism) a week or two ago.  My Mayo doc called me back a couple days after I had had the Holter monitor, which was a bit of a surprise since I hadn't known that my GP was going to send him the results.  And I was kind of surprised when my Mayo doc said he hadn't really seen anything on the EKG.

"Other than the PVC's, of course," I said.

No, he said, he really hadn't seen any PVC's either.  I thought that was weird, since I had felt many (of what I've always been told are) PVC's during the warmup before races, and had a couple incidents of what felt like the arrhythmia I've been experiencing this season, during the races (although, since they were pack races, I was a little flustered and therefore had a hard time focusing on what I was feeling).  But anyway, he said he didn't see anything of concern. He also said he was leaving the Mayo for another job opportunity, but if I wanted to follow up further I should contact the Sports Cardiology department at the Mayo.  So I figured that was that.

Before I had a chance to blog about it, though, I got another call, the next day, from my GP. He had my Holter results, he (or actually his assistant) said.  OK, I said, but I've already heard from my cardiologist...

"Good, so then he's told you about the PVC's and the Second Degree AV Block, also called Mobitz 1."

Uh, that would be a "no."

After I got off the phone with my GP's assistant, the Hubster reminded me that I'd actually had TWO EKG monitors, and suggested that maybe my Mayo doc had gotten the results from the first one, which hadn't really captured anything because I couldn't push the button effectively when I felt arrhythmia symptoms.

So, a couple phone calls later I had determined that it was likely (although not certain) that my Mayo doc had indeed not seen the Holter results, and so I arranged for the Holter results to be faxed to the Mayo for review.

And then I waited.  And played phone tag.

And Googled.  

Never, as I believe I've mentioned before, Google your medical symptoms.  This time, I discovered that Mobitz 1 is fairly common in athletes.  It is usually seen when they're resting or asleep, and is benign (harmless) in these cases.  It can have more significance if it is triggered by exercise, though--and of course, I don't know whether my doctor saw mine during resting parts of the EKG, or when I was actually skating...

Finally, yesterday, a very nice cardiologist from the Mayo called me.  Unfortunately, he hadn't been given the Holter results, so he couldn't tell me anything.  I filled him in on what I'd been experiencing, and he said he'll track down the Holter stuff and get back to me later next week.

So now I wait...and try not to Google anymore...

...and start planning for the 2012-13 season.