QLD: Olympian asks for post-op pic

AAP General News (Australia)
04-03-2008
QLD: Olympian asks for post-op pic

By Daniel Pace

SUNSHINE COAST, Qld, April 3 AAP - As she woke from heart surgery, Lisa Curry Kenny's
first request was for a family member to take her photograph.

The 45-year-old former Olympian broke down in tears outside her Sunshine Coast home
today when she fronted the media to tell of her traumatic experience, just three days
after undergoing an operation in a Brisbane hospital to implant a cardio-defibrillator.

"I remember saying 'Does anyone have a camera? I want you to get a picture of me in
hospital'," Curry Kenny told reporters.

"It's not often you're in surgery getting your heart worked on.

"It's all happened so quickly. I'm probably still in a bit of shock about it."

Curry Kenny had been suffering from an irregular heartbeat, a potentially life-threatening
condition known as myocarditis.

She revealed she first started feeling sick about two months ago when she was training
for next month's world solo long distance canoe championship in Hawaii.

"The news was at first devastating because it's what I do, be active and go out and
paddle in the ocean for four hours," she said.

"I just love it. (Now) I'm like a kid with my toy being taken away.

"At first I was really devastated and angry and upset, but at the same time, when I
look back I'm actually relieved that they've found it."

Overcome with emotion and flanked by her husband Grant Kenny and daughter Jaimi, Curry
Kenny broke down in tears shortly into her interview before regaining her composure.

"It's just something I never thought would happen to me," said the mother of three.

"I felt like I was wasting ambulance officers' time."

Curry Kenny said she was struggling to come to grips with the fact she'll never be
able to compete again and must temper her hectic lifestyle.

She has been ordered to rest for the next three months and can only do light exercise
once fully recovered.

"That's been the hardest thing for me because it's been my life," she said about competing.

"I knew that if you train through a virus that it could go to your heart ... but I
just never thought it would happen to me.

"I think most people are shocked as much as I am.

"I just didn't want to be one of those statistics where some fit and healthy person
drops dead of a heart attack and people wonder why."

Asked if she had trained too hard, Curry Kenny replied: "I always have. As a mother
and an athlete and you're working, you burn the candle at both ends.

"You don't often sit back and take a few days off because you can't.

"I was supposed to speak at a conference on Saturday and I feel bad because I let down 500 women.

"I was going down to try to inspire and motivate, but in this state of mind I can't
be like that. I can't do my job."

The chances of having a cardiac arrest due to her condition were small, but Curry Kenny
wasn't prepared to take that risk.

"I never wanted the kids to come home and find me carked out on the floor," she said.

"It wouldn't be a nice thing. The decision then was quite easy."

Curry Kenny said she wasn't feeling any pain from the defibrillator in her chest, but
still had breathing difficulties, a fractured rib and "soreness which radiates from my
sternum right up to my neck".

"All that on top of each other just makes it difficult to comprehend," she said.

"I'll get over it. I just have to get my head around it."

But she still retains her sense of humour.

"The doctors have said absolutely without a doubt the best thing I have to do for three
whole months is not cook or clean," she joked.

Curry Kenny swam at three Olympics and won seven Commonwealth Games gold medals.

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KEYWORD: CURRY NIGHTLEAD (PIX AVAILABLE)

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