Trusting His Heart Again: How Ablation for Afib Helped Bob Get Back on His Bike

Bob Wright spent years cycling back and forth to his job, dreaming of riding across the country one day. The road he traveled in Blacksburg is part of a cross-country bicycle route. As an experienced endurance cyclist, that route called to him. But when Wright developed atrial fibrillation (afib), the dream seemed far away. A catheter ablation procedure for afib at UVA Health changed that.

A Struggle to the Top

Wright, 69, is a retired biomaterials researcher from Virginia Tech. These days, he does engineering work for a commercial hemp processor in Blacksburg. About five years ago, he began experiencing occasional symptoms — sometimes his heartbeat didn’t feel right to him. The feeling was usually short-lived.

Then one day, as he was riding up a challenging hill with friends, he felt a sudden change. “It was as if somebody had turned the ignition off in the car and the car was slowing down,” Wright remembers. His friends quickly passed him while he struggled to the top of the hill.

After some tests, Wright’s primary care doctor diagnosed him with afib. It’s a heart rhythm disorder that can make it feel like your heart is fluttering, skipping beats, or pounding in your chest. Wright says his heart felt “wiggy.”

During afib, the heart’s upper chambers (atria) beat slowly, too fast, or irregularly. They struggle to move blood into the lower chambers (ventricles). Afib often causes fatigue and shortness of breath, which can be mistaken for something else. It can also lead to blood clots and increase the risk for stroke, heart failure, and other conditions.

An athlete since high school, Wright struggled with his diagnosis. Exercise had become a way for him to manage depression, which he didn’t want to treat with medications because of side effects. As the arrhythmia episodes grew more frequent, Wright studied his condition. He read research showing high-endurance athletes can be vulnerable to heart problems. He worried that 45 years of hard training and bicycle racing had taken their toll.

Too Much of a Good Thing

An antiarrhythmic medication didn’t improve the symptoms. Wright’s cardiologist recommended he see UVA Health heart rhythm specialist Kenneth C. Bilchick, MD, about a procedure called an ablation. At UVA Health, the heart rhythm team uses a three-pronged approach to treat afib:

• Anticoagulant medication to prevent blood clots
• Rhythm control to prevent afib symptoms (typically ablation)
• Treatment of conditions that can contribute to afib, like obesity and obstructive sleep apnea

Bilchick prescribed an anticoagulant and recommended an ablation. He appealed to Wright’s engineering brain by showing him charts and heart models and discussing the technical aspects of an ablation. Bilchick agrees high-intensity exercise likely contributed to Wright’s afib.