Thanks, everyone, for the responses and encouragement. To patw: pain may be a factor; I have a lot of neck/shoulder/upper back tension, probably from the positioning on the table that led to the hand palsy. You were correct about fluid buildup. I went off Lasix when the visible swelling disappeared and immediately started gaining weight. Yesterday my cardiologist heard fluid sounds around (not in) one lung and she said to go back on Lasix and the potassium supplement. A real incentive to lick this problem is to avoid having my lung "tapped" (no idea what this involves but it sounds scary). I hope to do rehab but will not see my surgeon for 3 weeks and will have to wait for approval. Jake, getting to 4000 from my usual 750-900 would be awesome and I am glad to have your example. Superbob and Bina, it's good to hear of your IS aversion. I am wondering if you did any exercises or walking and found that your breathing improved without laboring with the IS? Yesterday was my first day out of the house since my homecoming 12 days ago and there was a very warm strong wind that I found extremely stressful. After having breathing problems on exertion for months pre-surgery I had hoped to have comfortable breathing magically restored but I see that this will take a lot of hard work. I was not able to do much in the way of "prior conditioning" as Greg mentioned because even my favorite refuge, a warm-water therapy pool, was impossible in the last month when the weight of the water on my body became unbearable.