It's official, I am now part of the cardiac rehab class. Let it be known that I am by far the youngest person in room. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad. I'll go with a good but it's really up to you to interpret. There was a little concern that my older brethren would initiate me with some sort of hazing ritual. Thankfully they accepted me with just a handshake and a smile. Having a bunch of 70 and 80 year old men and women run laps around me was punishment enough.....only half kidding.
The past two days I have been riding the stationary bike for 15 minutes and walked on the treadmill for 20 minutes, working my heart rate to about 110. I clicked the machine up a few notches today and got my heart up to 120 beats per minute but was quickly chastised by the rehab professionals....that damn EKG machine gets me caught every time. So I had to back my heart rate down to 110. That's OK I have been able to work up a sweat for the first time since pre-surgery(apparently night sweats don't count as exercise....who knew?) and it felt good.
The staff monitors each heartbeat through our individual EKG machines so they are able to share with us what our heart is doing. We looked at an EKG from before my surgery and you can already see a difference in the way my heart is behaving. Kathy(my cardiac councilor) explained it to me but I didn't really understand except that it is a good thing......something about it taking less time for my heart to do something. That's a pretty cool thing to see....the actually healing of your heart documented right in front of your face. I guess it was money well spent. So no skipped beats so far, no pounding heart and no lightheadedness. Right on.
Hope all is well with all of you.
Steve
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1 comment:
sounds like yet another classroom full of 'students' will be falling in love with you...yay for progress!
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