Jiu-Jitsu / Jiu-Jitsu injuries

No Jiu-Jitsu

by Drew Anderson · Published February 19, 2020 · Updated May 14, 2020

Leaving it all on the mat

By the time I flew back home, I was feeling pretty run down. Two weeks of vacation in Europe and I needed a rest. I had caught a cold on the flight back across the Atlantic. I wasn’t going to take that into the gym with me. Not only that, I was so run down from going 100% with my friends in Europe, not to mention all the travel itself, my old shoulder injury had flared up and my shoulder was feeling pretty useless. There was no way I was going back into the gym like that.

Finally, my shoulder was feeling a little bit better, but nowhere near 100%. Regardless, five weeks had gone by without training at my gym. If I waited any longer, I might never get back.

The Return

I returned to the gym on Tuesday. And it was pretty rough. My shoulder was in sad shape, and so was my jiu-jitsu game generally. I went back to class on Thursday, and had a similar rough go of things. The following Tuesday was no different. That Thursday, I felt like I had shaken some of the rust off and things were starting to look up. It took a long time to feel like I was moving around the same way I was before I went on vacation. But what a vacation it was. I don’t know how to explain it, but I think if I hadn’t been training jiu-jitsu I probably would have had the courage to take two weeks off work at that time. This might seem like a minor point to most people. I’ll just leave it at that. If you work for a small company, perhaps you understand.

To be honest, my heart had started to bother me a little more before I had left for Europe. I was feeling sluggish and tired all the time, and I was having palpitations. I went to see my cardiologist and had another echo-cardiogram. She said everything looked fine. Just the same as before. She told me to keep doing what I had been doing, and to keep training jiu-jitsu as much as I wanted to. She really encouraged me to keep it up. She said that it was doing good things for me and my health.

Catch as catch can

If you really want the full picture, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, I would need to tell you about all this stuff that was going on years ago. But I will spare you the details of those events for now.

Dirty red mats

On one fine day on the dirty red mats of the jiu-jitsu gym, I was rolling strong, athletic blue-belt, and I felt something go “mush” in my chest. I thought it was my heart. I tapped out. I wasn’t in a submission, but I was on the bottom and I felt a mushing sensation in my heart and I tapped. What’s the matter? The blued belt asked. Sorry, man, I said. I just need to catch my breath.

Annihilation

I caught my breath and we eased back into the roll, in which I got annihilated some more. I finished class, and life went on the same as before.

I had some reasons why I didn’t really trust my cardiologist. Again, I will spare you the details, but I just didn’t have any answers as to why I was feeling so fatigued all the time.

I starting researching online as best I could and it looked like the best place to go for treatment for a bicuspid aortic valve is the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. I called and made an appointment.

Hello, Cleveland!

I made the drive up to Cleveland on January 15, 2020, two years after I had been diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic valve. I underwent another echo-cardiogram. This time the doctor told me some different news. Yes, I definitely had a bicuspid aortic valve, but I also had an aortic aneurysm. She explained that my ascending aorta was dilated to 5 centimeters. She further explained that at the Cleveland Clinic, 5 centimeters is the threshold for surgery for an aortic aneurysm. In other words, if your aorta is dilated to 5 centimeters, they are going to recommend surgery to fix it. And, she went on to explain, there is no minimally invasive procedure for this operation. This will be an open-heart surgery with a full sternotomy.

My cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic told me that the best tool for measuring the aorta is the MRI. So let’s have an MRI and then see what to do.

I called the hotel and booked a room for another night, and I called the rental car company and asked for another day. No problem. I went to the hotel, checked in, and went to the gym for a light work-out.

I was in the MRI machine at 7 am the next morning.

Don’t have the heart for it

After that, as we had discussed with my cardiologist, I was driving home. She called me at about 11:00 am. My aorta measured 4.7 x 4.9 cm on cross-section of the MRI. So she wants to wait and for me to come back in six months for another echo-cardiogram. So, Jiu-Jitsu tomorrow? I asked her. No. No Jiu-Jitsu. She told me for at least the 10th time in no uncertain terms.

To be continued…..

If you have been diagnosed with an aortic aneurysm, please let me know. I would like to connect with you. You can leave a comment below, or send me an e-mail and I will get back to you within 24 hours.

If you have been diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic valve, please let me know. I would like to connect with you. You can leave a comment below, or send me an e-mail and I will get back to you within 24 hours.

Drew Anderson

Drew is proud to be a white belt in Jiu-Jitsu. When he is not on the mat, he is practicing law or spending as much time outdoors as possible. He is also a self-described blue-belt-for-life at guitar.