Johnny Stephens
Well-known member
Finally, 16 months after my surgery, I decide to get agressive about getting back into shape. I was in lousy shape before my surgery, had a very long recovery, and have been struggling with some irrational (or so I thought) fears of hard exercise ever since the operation. I have a completely sedentary office job, and that has made it even harder. I heard of an immer$ive, inten$e program that my employer would pay for if I stuck with a strict regimen of scheduled exercise, counseling, checkups, extremely structured. Part of the requirement is my doctor's approval.
He said not until I underwent a Stress Treadmill...which I did this morning, with disappointing results. My blood pressure dropped to 100/60 during the test, and I tired in about 5 - 6 minutes. He said he wasn't surprised that I wasn't able to make it for 10 minutes, given how out of shape I was, but the fact that my pressure dropped is "of concern." I'm now sheduled for a "stress Echo" at the big hospital downtown on Monday, so I get a whole weekend to fret about it (that's what I'm good at - fretting.)
He said he just wants to check out how well the pumping action is working, but the things I worry about are:
I was just thinking the other day how I hadn't really had any worries since my surgery. Silly me.
He said not until I underwent a Stress Treadmill...which I did this morning, with disappointing results. My blood pressure dropped to 100/60 during the test, and I tired in about 5 - 6 minutes. He said he wasn't surprised that I wasn't able to make it for 10 minutes, given how out of shape I was, but the fact that my pressure dropped is "of concern." I'm now sheduled for a "stress Echo" at the big hospital downtown on Monday, so I get a whole weekend to fret about it (that's what I'm good at - fretting.)
He said he just wants to check out how well the pumping action is working, but the things I worry about are:
- I was told to go ahead and take my Beta Blocker this morning - seems to me that this could have limited my performance
- I hope one or both of my valves aren't leaking (they looked fine in an echo last Sept) and I don't have SOB
- Did the radiation that damaged my native valves also take a toll on the hear muscle?
- Maybe I was dehydrated - I hit the diuretics pretty hard over the last week.
I was just thinking the other day how I hadn't really had any worries since my surgery. Silly me.