I'd hoped to climb 11,500 ft/3,500 m Mt San Gorgonio that's 11 miles/18 km away from the Camp I work at as a prepcook on the second anniversary of my cardioäblation but my work schedule wouldn't allow that. I'd summitted it three times over the previous two years but I'd always driven to the trailhead which shortened the ascent by ~3 mi/5 km. Today, I walked from camp instead of driving to the trailhead and succeeded... 23.3 miles / 37.3 km / 60,500 steps in 13¼ hrs. Altitude change: 4,750 ft/1,450 m. Oh, we also had standing 10-15 mph / 15-23 km/hr winds with gusts to 50 mph/80 km/hr above the treeline. At least there wasn't any lightning this year.
On top of that, I took a 96 BPM NSR Kardia EKG on top of the peak as well as a picture to prove I was there which I'll send to my cardiologist and electro-physiologist to let them know that I'm putting their work to good use.
The reason I'm posting this is, yes, to brag a little but mainly to let athletic folks facing AFib know that there is hope. Three years ago I despaired at recovering my active lifestyle... thanks to a successful cardioäblation two years ago when meds didn't work, along with some more weightloss, and a serious whole-food vegan dietstyle I'm returned to my serious mountain hiking. I'll spare you the regimen I've adopted... if you're interested, I've posted it in earlier posts which you can search for. If you need more info, I'm glad to oblige.
But, bottom line, there is hope.
Peace, plants, love...