Heart and Sole: Bjorge bounces back
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
POLSON — Quiet, red-haired Jimmy Bjorge was a stalwart on Polson High School’s boys' cross country team this year. But he had a secret.
It wasn’t a secret from his coach, his teammates or his parents, but no one else knew Bjorge ran cross country this year with a reveal cardiac monitor inserted in his chest. The monitor is a small implantable device that continuously monitors heart rhythms and records them automatically.
Issues with Bjorge’s heart started a few years ago, although he didn’t know it was a cardiac problem. He’d get dizzy, then wait a few seconds and be okay.
Symptoms worsened last year when Bjorge wrestled for PHS, got a concussion and a broken nose in his second match and became dizzy and fell down. He also lost his balance at work and had to hang onto a counter to keep from falling.
During the first track meet, he felt weird and talked to Rob Alfiero, a physician’s assistant and father of two of the other track kids. Alfiero referred him to Dr. Dan Rausch, who hooked him up to a Holter monitor. Electrodes are stuck to a patient’s chest and attached to a small recording device. The device continuously reads the heart’s rhythms and is usually worn for 24 to 48 hours. Then Bjorge saw cardiologist Dr. Robert Mitchell in Kalispell.
On June 16, Mitchell inserted the reveal monitor in Bjorge, and the medical staff kept him in a hospital bed for a few hours to make sure he was okay. He walked to the middle of the recovery room and was talking to a nurse when he felt unbalanced. Bjorge turned to answer his nurse’s question, and the next thing he knew, he was coming to on the ground. After issues with the receiver printing out the record of Bjorge’s heart rhythms, Mitchell studied the readout and realized Bjorge had gone six seconds without a heartbeat.
Bjorge said Mitchell told him he would have to have a pacemaker installed the next morning. A pacemaker is a small device implanted just under the chest skin. It sends out electrical impulses to the heart muscle to maintain a suitable heart rate, according to webmd.com.
Bjorge’s heartbeat dropped to below 40 beats per minute during the night, he said. He woke up to worried nurses in his room and one on the phone in the hall. Bjorge’s doctor said this low heartbeat was because he was an athlete. Athletes’ hearts function more efficiently than non-athletes and sometimes beat slow.
“If I’d been a couch potato, they wouldn’t have known it happened,” Bjorge said.
Instead of surgery in Kalispell, Mitchell decided to fly Bjorge to Spokane, Wash., where Bjorge said his doctor decided instead of a pacemaker they would try the drug theophylline. The doctor also said Bjorge would probably grow out of the heart issue.
Bjorge could still run, but he had to take a few days off to let the incision for his reaction monitor heal. Bjorge “waited around for a few days and then “did five or six miles,” even though he still couldn’t move his sore left arm. Then he ran a half- marathon on July 22.
“Cross country was a challenge this year,” Bjorge said. “I was just trying to do my best.”
He ran three miles in 16:56 on the track, but then the next week in Cut Bank, his time was 17:15.
Bjorge said he was “a little bit upset” because his times were progressively slower, but he was still third on the cross country team. He ran 17:01 in the state meet.
Alex Nystrom and Bjorge’s other teammates were very supportive, and he hasn’t had any symptoms.
“I don’t think I would have been able to keep up if I hadn’t had such great coaches,” Bjorge explained.
Bjorge’s head coach returns the compliment.
“Jimmy’s a really great kid. He has been a huge part of the team for the three years he’s been on it,” said Matt Seeley, PHS cross country coach.
Seeley also noted Bjorge is always asking how he can improve and listens when his coaches give him ideas. Bjorge is generous, too, Seeley said. Bjorge works hard at The Cove every night, sometimes right after cross country practice. He spends some of his wages on an ice cream party for the team, Seeley said.
As a kid who exercises and is real healthy, Seeley said it was a struggle for Bjorge and his family to deal with his condition. It was scary at first. Then when Bjorge figured out he was going to be okay, he was anxious about whether he’d be considerably slower than he had been, Seeley explained. The medication worked as far as Seeley could see, and “Jimmy dealt with this well, as did his family.”
Bjorge just had the reaction monitor removed. He’s waiting for the incision to heal and not running this week, but he’s 12 weeks out from a half-marathon in Phoenix, Ariz.
Bjorge is a junior this year and started running in Dennis Johnson’s P.E. class in Polson Middle School. He’d never run a mile before and turned in a time of 6.38 for his first mile.
Cindy Templer, PMS P.E. teacher, said “You should go out for track if you can run that fast without being in training.”
PHS cross country standout Fritz Friesz and Larry Pitts from Bjorge’s church also encouraged him.
In the classroom, Bjorge likes Mr. Danley’s American History class, band and chemistry — “it’s a challenge.” He plans to join the Air National Guard, go to basic training and then to the University of Montana, running through it all. If he can shave off a little time, he’ll be running at the same pace as U of M runners and might run in college.
“Yeah, I’ll always be a runner,” Bjorge said, smiling.
