Tag: atrial fibrillation

Ten years ago I signed up for the Canadian bone marrow registry. Seems like a no-brainer, especially since a nephew-in-law of mine has recently survived leukemia by means of a bone marrow transplant.

This morning I got a call saying I was a potential donor. But it seems that a bit of atrial fibrillation in my medical history may prove a deal-breaker. I offered to sign a waiver; I should have just lied…

Update: October 14: the transplant centre rejected me. They didn’t tell me the reason, so it was either the atrial fib or the malaria.

Saw another article about atrial fibrillation just now, saying men who were tall (not necessarily overweight!) in their 20’s are at a higher risk of atrial fibrillation in their 40’s.

I’ve been 6’4″ since I was twelve years old. I weighed 180 pounds when I was 20, and was skinny as a rail. I gained 50 pounds of solid muscle in the next five years by working out, doing martial arts, and not having much of a social life, and then I started having atrial fibrillation at 25. I was in the best shape of my life.

Not tolerating exercise very well in the 9 years after that, I’ve put on 50 more pounds of not so much muscle, but I haven’t had any atrial fib since I started using a CPAP. Go figure…

But I’m not in my 40’s yet, so I guess there’s still time.