Speaker A
Well, welcome back, everybody.
Garrett Clark shares his personal journey with serious heart health issues, including arrhythmias and challenges with diagnosis and treatment.
Key Takeaways
- Heart arrhythmias can be difficult to diagnose and may be mistaken for anxiety.
- Persistent symptoms require thorough investigation and sometimes a second medical opinion.
- Portable heart monitors can help capture irregular heart rhythms during episodes.
- AFib is a serious condition that increases stroke risk, while SVT is generally less harmful but still requires treatment.
- Catheter ablation is an effective treatment option for certain arrhythmias.
Summary
- Garrett Clark discusses his ongoing heart health problems starting from childhood with unexplained episodes during sports.
- Initial medical tests showed a healthy heart, but symptoms worsened in his early 20s, including episodes of very high heart rate and faintness.
- He was initially misdiagnosed with anxiety and prescribed anti-anxiety medication, which worsened his symptoms.
- Garrett describes the emotional and physical struggle with his condition, including fear and difficulty performing daily tasks.
- He later consulted a new cardiologist who provided a portable EKG device to monitor his heart rhythm during episodes.
- Atrial fibrillation (AFib) was detected during one episode, a serious condition that increases stroke risk, but the cardiologist suggested it might be supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), a less dangerous arrhythmia.
- Garrett explains the differences between AFib and SVT and the typical treatment involving catheter ablation.
- He was prescribed Metoprolol, a beta blocker, as part of his treatment plan.
- The video highlights the importance of seeking multiple medical opinions and advocating for oneself in health matters.
- Garrett shares his hope and determination to manage his heart condition while continuing his life and work.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
Uh, this is going to be, it's going to be a little bit of a different video.
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Apologize for my bed not being made.
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Looks disgusting.
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I, uh, I just woke up and I decided I'd film this, uh, I honestly have been thinking about making this video for a few days.
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And I obviously am just now filming it, so by the title of the video, you guys know.
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I guess this is probably going to be more of a serious video just by reading the title, been dealing with some, you know, health problems that I wanted to kind of discuss with you.
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Because and I think the reason I wanted to shed some light on this is for multiple reasons, you know, if anybody else struggles with the same things.
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Would obviously like, you know, opinions, advice on how you deal with things like this.
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Hopefully, nobody watching does struggle with the same thing.
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So, I'm just going to rewind it back to when I was a kid.
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Call it anywhere from the 11 to 13 range, every once in a while, would be playing sports with my friends.
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And I would catch a pass and I'll get to the end zone.
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And all of a sudden, I would just be brought to my knees.
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And I'm like, I was always so confused.
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As to what my heart was doing, right?
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Told my parents and decided, let's go get this looked at.
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Ran some quick tests when I was younger, you know, did some scans.
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Everything came back normal, your heart is healthy.
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Everything's good.
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And I was like, well, in my brain, I'm like, this doesn't explain to me like why all of a sudden my heart is being normal.
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And then out of the out of nowhere, it's like, you know, like fireworks are going off in my chest.
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And I feel like I'm going to die.
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It got better throughout the years and I didn't really notice it until I turned 20.
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Shortly after moving down to Dallas, I actually would have been 21 at the time.
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Apologies.
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I was in a Planet Fitness in the evening and I just drank a little bit of an energy drink.
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And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, it's like, your heart's call it, you know, you're on the treadmill, it's beating 140, 150 beats a minute.
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To all of a sudden, feels like at the time, like, whoa, this is like out of nowhere, over 200 beats a minute.
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Like, all over the place.
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Feel like it's skipping beats.
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I feel like I'm going to faint.
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After this, uh, lasted for about probably four minutes, it went away.
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And I remember texting my family, I'm like, guys, I think there is something seriously wrong with my heart.
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I don't know what it is, but.
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I got to get this looked at.
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Kind of didn't get it looked at for a little bit.
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Went to a Callaway, uh, when we signed with Callaway, I had to speak in front of a bunch of executives.
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And people high up in the company and I was on stage for 45 minutes and it was on and off happening for all 45 minutes.
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I was very nervous.
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My heart rate was up.
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And then all of a sudden, I'm like, I feel like I'm going to puke.
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I feel like I'm going to faint.
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It's going everywhere.
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And I'm like, what in the what is going on?
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That's when I was like, I got to take this seriously.
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I something's wrong with my heart and I got to figure it out.
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So I started talking to some cardiologist.
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Whoopty do, this is a few years ago, I get prescribed an anti-anxiety medication.
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Perfect, right?
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That's very classic.
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Um, hey, just take this, man.
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Everything's going to be fine.
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You're just anxious.
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You're just a little nervous, right?
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A little anxiety.
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Okay.
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Sure, I'll I'll believe you even though I feel like I'm dying.
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I'll take that.
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And I took that.
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And if anything, it made it worse.
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I felt like my heart rate was more regular.
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I was getting some wild blood pressure readings like 170 over like 100 or something crazy.
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I can't remember the exact numbers.
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But it was like blood pressure readings that you should never experience.
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And I felt like it made it worse.
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And this was a few years ago, so bad to the point where I legitimately was like struggling to get out of bed and do anything.
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Anything YouTube related, anything life related.
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Going to pick up Chipotle was hard because I was scared.
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So, I finally like, I said a prayer, I remember it like it was yesterday.
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Lord, if you want to take me, you got me, you know.
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Like, I had to accept the fact that there was maybe something wrong.
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And I got to quit being scared, right?
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Maybe it was just anxiety.
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Either way, I just had to accept that worst case scenario could happen.
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And you got to be okay with that.
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And after that, I was good.
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No more anxiety.
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I could get out of bed.
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I was still having the same issues with the heart, but I was just like ignoring it.
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And I was trusting the first cardiologist that I saw that said, it's probably just anxiety.
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You're good.
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And this guy, by the way, I wore a heart monitor for two weeks.
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I had a couple episodes recorded those two weeks.
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And he still told me it was anxiety.
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So, I trusted him.
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Said that prayer.
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Move along.
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Well, as of recent, it's gotten a little bit worse.
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To the point where I decided, I'm going to see a new cardiologist.
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Take a sip of water.
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See this new cardiologist and he gives me this thing called a cardia strip.
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It's a portable EKG that you can take with you.
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When you start having a quote unquote episode with your heart, where it's beating out of rhythm.
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Put your two fingers on both sides, record the episode.
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And it tells you what kind of rhythm you're in.
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Well, a couple months back, maybe three months back, I had the flu.
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And I was having a really bad episode playing video games.
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I'm like, this is weird.
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So, I I'm like really struggling to even like stay conscious.
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I feel like I'm like really lightheaded.
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Dizzy.
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I'm like, what's going on?
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So I read it and it says, AFib detected.
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That's short for like atrial fibrillation, something.
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Oh, maybe put it on the screen.
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That.
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AFib.
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I had in the last four years done plenty of research about any heart arrhythmia issues.
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And I knew that AFib was not good.
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So, took it into a new cardiologist.
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He looks at it, he said, you know what?
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This looks more like SVT.
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Probably just a misreading.
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When you get those portable monitors, often times, they like to assume the worst.
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So, they're obviously not liable.
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Which I was like, yeah, that's fair.
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Now, for those of you that don't know what SVT is.
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It's often times very harmless at a guy my age.
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It's a rhythm issue in your heart where all of a sudden, out of nowhere, your heart starts misfiring.
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And it can go upwards of 200 beats a minute for a fairly long period of time.
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And then it just clicks back into place.
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And everything's good.
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So I was like, okay.
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Please be SVT.
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Because it's not as harmful as something like AFib.
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For those of you that don't know what AFib is.
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It increases your risk for having a stroke and is a lot more serious.
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So, I was very hopeful that it was not AFib.
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And it was SVT.
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And those were the two main rhythm problems in a heart that I knew about.
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I didn't really know about anything else.
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Either way, my cardiologist to be safe was like, hey, wear this monitor for two weeks.
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And just, you know, we're going to we're going to see what happens.
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I was like, okay.
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This is perfect.
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I'm about to go skiing.
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Probably going to have a few episodes.
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Hopefully, can record some of these episodes.
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And get this figured out.
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And I was assuming that all these episodes that I ended up recording in the next two weeks were just going to be SVT.
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The procedure that you would do for an SVT situation or AFib would be what they call an ablation.
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They go through your leg up to the top part of your heart.
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I think it's the upper atrium or whatever.
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Where it's misfiring, they find the spot that's basically misfiring in your heart.
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And they burn it.
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It's like a 90% chance of working.
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Once you do that, everything's good.
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Where it gets a little tricky is I gave my.
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My readings back, the heart monitor.
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And I had missed a couple messages in the last three weeks from my cardiologist.
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At the time when he saw that strip of SVT or AFib.
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Prescribed me something called Metoprolol.
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It's a beta blocker that helps the rhythm of your heart.
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Essentially.
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I in my app had missed this.
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But they had messaged me a couple times, hey, we did detect some extra beats in your heart.
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We need you to start taking your Metoprolol.
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And they messaged me.
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And I didn't see it.
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But I had an appointment scheduled at the time for three weeks later on March 23rd.
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So, in my mind at the time, I was just like, I'm going to see my cardiologist on March 23rd.
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And we'll go over everything.
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So I didn't think to check my app.
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They then sent me a letter, which I also missed, that was saying, hey, you need to take the Metoprolol.
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Insinuates that something serious is going on.
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And I didn't, you know, see that.
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But anyways, I went back on March 23rd.
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He goes over a few things and he's like, this right here is SVT.
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He said, this is one of your strips.
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You're at 270 beats a minute for eight and a half minutes straight.
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And I was like, whoa.
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Did I hear that right?
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Like 270 beats.
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What are you talking about?
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Is it?
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Did you say 217?
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He said, no, I'm showing you right here, 270 beats a minute.
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And the range was from 240 to 270.
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And I was like, okay.
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And I do remember having that episode on the mountain while I was in Breckenridge.
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Thanks, surprisingly, that's SVT.
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And that's fine.
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Like.
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Not anything serious.
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You can get an ablation done.
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Take your Metoprolol.
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Whatever, like, that's not like super harmful at this age.
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I was like, great.
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He said, this is what we call atrial flutter.
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Shows me another one.
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He said, hopefully, this is just a misread, you know, he was expecting that.
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That was probably a misread and I didn't actually have atrial flutter.
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The last one he showed me, which was quite a wake up call, was a thing called VT.
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Now, I know if there's a doctor watching this right now.
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You just open your eyes a little bit.
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And you're like, whoa.
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It stands for ventricular tachycardia.
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SVT stands for supraventricular tachycardia.
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VT is in the lower part of the heart and a little more sporadic and it's hard to determine which which part of the heart is actually misfiring.
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With the thing called SVT, the way my cardiologist described it to me.
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Is there's something called like a stop a stop light, essentially.
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So when it's misfiring, there's something in your heart that's going to tell that SVT.
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Hey, you're not supposed to be doing that.
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Well, with VT, you don't have that.
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So, there are things with SVT called vagal maneuvers that you can do to help get your heart rhythm back into place.
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You can hunch over, flex your abs, hold your breath.
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You can blow through a coffee straw and a few other different things.
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To help get your heart back in rhythm.
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VT, there isn't that.
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And he described me, he said, if you have a a VT, a ventricular tachycardia episode.
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Over 30 seconds at over 200 beats a minute, it can be serious.
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And he's like, this is scary.
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This concerns me.
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So, my nosy self was like, I need to know why this is serious.
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After, you know, at that point, he had just told me, I need you to take your Metoprolol.
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Beta blocker until you can see what they call is an electrophysiologist.
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A heart rhythm doctor specifically for that.
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And I was like, well, I need to know why because I'm trying to stay off medication.
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I don't want to take a beta blocker if I don't have to.
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He's like, well, I'll show you this strip.
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That he had recorded while I was in Breckenridge.
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He said, you know, you were in VT for 36 seconds at 230 beats a minute.
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And I was like, okay.
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Well, why is that bad?
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You know, just out of curiosity.
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Because everything else you've told me.
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SVT, you're fine.
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Whatever.
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He's like, well, there is no stop sign.
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And if that continues, you can pass out and someone would have to give you CPR.
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And, you know, use a defibrillator.
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To get you back.
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And from the research that I did.
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Any episode in VT for over 30 seconds is considered, uh, you know.
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Can be life threatening.
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So, it's quite a, uh.
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Quite a crazy quite a crazy thing to hear from your doctor.
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Or him essentially, you know.
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Two plus two equals four.
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I looked up the facts.
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Like, I could have died there.
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Right.
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Like.
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If I didn't snap out of it.
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And so.
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Kind of a crazy thing to hear.
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Uh, that was the diagnosis.
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After all these years, finally figuring out what it is.
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Is a beautiful thing.
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Uh, it's scary, obviously.
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But talk about the the time that you have to and like now is the time that I I seriously have to.
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Say a prayer of like, Lord, you know.
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At any point in time, if this is, you know.
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If if you want to take me home.
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Like, I'm here.
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Like, that's the only way to not be anxious about something like that.
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So.
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From the research I've done, there's various treatments you can do, but it seems like something you're probably going to have to live with for the rest of your life.
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Because it's not as easy as SVT where they do an ablation.
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This, if they were to try and do an ablation, he said they have to go like all the way through your heart to the other side.
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Put a catheter in like your heart, I think.
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Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.
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Or if I misheard my cardiologist.
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And he said it's a lot more invasive than like an SVT ablation.
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And then they have to go to the other side and they have to find which spot is misfiring.
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Which could be any number of places in the lower part of your heart.
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That is why.
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It's a little harder to cure.
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I know there's other things where you have to have a defibrillator inside of your chest.
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You know.
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Essentially attached, you know, somewhere to your heart.
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That if it ever goes out of rhythm, like, you get defibrillated.
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Every time.
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I don't want to live like that.
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Like, that's not something I obviously want to do.
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I'm going to wait to talk to the electrophysiologist on more.
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On, you know, precautions.
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And things that I need to do.
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For now, I I want to say a few things.
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Like, I have a vlog that's going to be going live.
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At some point of me in Vegas.
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In that vlog, I was drinking.
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And we had a lot of fun.
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It's safe to say that I will not be drinking anymore.
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Not that I ever had an issue with alcohol, I really didn't drink that much.
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Like, on some occasions, I would drink.
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For example, being in Vegas.
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But at least for the foreseeable future, that's something that's going to be completely out of my life.
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Only one small cup of coffee every day in the morning.
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Try not to do any more than that.
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What's up, Asher?
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Uh, how did you get back in here?
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And go out the other door, dude, if you came in, you can get out the door.
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What are you doing?
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But yeah, I've been taking my Metoprolol every day as well.
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And just waiting to hear from the electrophysiologist.
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Obviously, wanted to tell you about that Vegas vlog because it is coming out.
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Probably next of me playing a poker tournament and I definitely got a little bit saucy, Rossy.
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And didn't want you guys thinking, hey, this guy's like playing with his life or whatever.
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Well, I guess technically speaking, every day I am.
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But, sick, dude.
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The last reason I wanted to make this video is I did want you guys to know that I'm going to be staying in Dallas.
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Not traveling for a while.
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I've made everybody a good good aware of the situation.
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Trying to stay either close to family or close to home.
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Minimize stress as much as I can.
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I'm still going to be uploading.
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Going to be doing golf content here in Texas and ideally film good good videos here in Texas as well.
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It seems like the guys are willing to like cooperate with this.
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Obviously.
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And I appreciate them for that.
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Uh, and then yeah, just wanted you guys to be, you know, in the loop.
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Of like, just, you know, there there are certain situations.
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For example, like when I got on the first tee and I was super nervous.
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And I hit the guy with a golf ball, like my heart was completely out of place at that time.
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Something I haven't said on camera.
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But I I think I wanted to wait until I knew exactly what was going on with myself before I'm just like.
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Oh yeah, guys, like, dude, the reason I was like, I hit him with a golf ball.
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It was because I was like blacking out over the ball and struggling to like stay conscious.
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And like having this heart rhythm problem.
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Because then I knew everyone was going to be like, oh, bro.
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It's anxiety, dude.
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Like, you were just anxious.
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I know the difference.
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I have been taking this beta blocker.
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And I worked out two days ago, I was working out with the boys.
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And I was like, I feel amazing.
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And they're like, what?
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Like, why do you feel amazing?
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I was like, from this beta blocker, dude, I I think I feel normal.
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Like, I feel like you guys.
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Like, my heart was getting, you know, up and it was going fast.
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But it wasn't beating out of place.
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So.
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If I could ask one thing.
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Obviously, if you're not a Christian watching this.
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Any support, like positive vibes from you guys.
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I appreciate.
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Um, if you are Christian, any prayers for this was obviously very welcome.
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And appreciative, appreciated, appreciated.
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So, thank you guys for, you know, the support and watching.
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Uh, going to try and not read any comments that make me overthink this more.
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I am going to be reading the comments though.
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If anybody else struggles with something similar.
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And has suggestions over, you know, what I should do.
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Or how to minimize this.
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Or, you know, anything.
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Like, it's all welcome.
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Uh, would love the advice.
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And also, you know, yeah.
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Support.
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I you guys have my support.
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If anybody else is struggling with the same thing.
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You guys have my endless support because I do understand.
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You know.
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It's something hard to understand when you haven't felt it, but for anybody who has felt it.
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Uh, dude, my heart goes out to you.
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And I, you know, love you guys.
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So.
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Um, I'll see you guys in the next one.
Topics:heart healtharrhythmiaatrial fibrillationsupraventricular tachycardiacardiologyheart monitorMetoprololanxiety misdiagnosiscatheter ablationGarrett Clark
