Heart Attack??

[Mark4124NH]

My father is 63yrs old. He has been a runner all his life, but I noticed his performance has dramatically worsened over the last year. Just last year he ran circles around me, but now this year when he came to visit me at Christmas he was far slower than I have ever seen, I had to wait for him several times on a 3mi run to catch up. He called me last week and told me that he had a sudden bout of extreme sweating, fatigue, nausea, and lightheadedness. He does also regularly give plasma and had done so that morning. I have heard that giving plasma can cause hypocalcemia but would this really cause someone to be come so sweaty that they would be "drenched." The next day he acted like it was nothing and he didn't want his plasma donation folks to know about it because he was concerned he wouldn't be allowed to give. (Trust me he does not need the money, but that's another story) Anyhow... I found the dramatic performance decline troubling and the incident he had almost sound like it could have been a minor heart attack. Thoughts?

[achillea]

"...he had a sudden bout of extreme sweating, fatigue, nausea, and lightheadedness."

You are describing the classic--classic--symptoms of a heart attack.

I don't know how stubborn your dad is, but if I were you, I'd drag him to the doc *right now* for an EKG to look for signs of a myocardial infarction.

[researcher09]

Sounds like afib given his age and the amount of running he has done.  He needs to see an electrophysiologist so that he can be monitored during his runs or whenever he has the episodes.  Best wishes for getting a handle on his sudden fatigue.