At the Hopman Cup behind the scenes Mardy Fish was irritable and demanded answers from his team as to what he could do to lift his level and find some form as his body seemed to refuse to do what he wanted.
Just a few months later word was that Fish was struggling with a serious health issue but there was not a lot of information about what the issue was. Good friend Andy Roddick jumped to his defense when it was suggested that the American players were avoiding the European clay.
Now it turns out in February during the Davis Cup tie in Switzerland Mardy first experiencing the sensation of a racing heart rate.
Again Mardy’s heart was racing in Miami in March and he has said, “I honestly felt in Miami like I was going to die.” Mardy was taken to hospital in an ambulance.
Mardy has since spent weeks with a Holter Monitor (portible heart monitor) attached to him after struggling with the symptoms in Houston.
With a fear of playing and flying Mardy elected to skip the clay court season and then underwent a catheter ablation in the week before the French Open.
Still dealing with the psychological repercussions of his health situation Mardy has brought the monitor with him to the UK.
“I still have it, and sometimes when I feel a little uneasy or feel like, in my mind maybe I’m going to convince myself to have a bad night or something, I’ll put it on and it makes me feel a lot more comfortable. Sometimes I won’t even turn it on. Sometimes I just put it on.”
“The hardest part is just trusting that everything is fine, because it is, and everything structurally is fine.”
Thank you for discussing how this felt. I too had SVT and an ablation. The first episode happened last September after running, then again while running a few weeks later, then randomly (at the grocery store, while sleeping,) Two ER visits, 3 different heart monitors, finally caught the irregular electrical rhythm, (AVNRT), and had the ablation in March. The fear of the SVT is very real, now I am trying to trust that it is fixed and I can go back to running. I felt like I was going to die, really, not just being over dramatic. When your heart suddenly goes very fast, you know instantly something is definitely wrong. So glad you are moving forward. I hope to get over my fear too!! It helps to hear your experience, makes me feel more “normal” with my experience and how it has affected me. Best of Luck!
I know how you feel I had thyroid cancer and now I’m on so much medication I get heart palpitations regularly… They were like oh it’s nothing just ventricular ectopic beats but it really feels very unsettling.
Holter monitor sucked. Pulled off half my skin and you can’t shower for however long it’s attached to you for.
I’m impressed he’s back on court.
Hope you’re doing well too!