I haven't updated this "blog" for over a month. Mostly it's been slow and steady improvement, in Cardiac Rehab. My "prescription" went from 1 mile (@16 minutes/mile) to 2, to 2.5 miles. At 2.5 miles, they gave me the option of doing 15 minutes of gentle wimpy bicycling on the level. All plus 5 minutes warmup and 5 minutes cool-down.
Recently I've been doing LOTS more bicycling than that, and not very wimpy, OR level. Mostly bicycling ~3 miles down to Lake Ontario, late to catch the boat to my sailing club, then biking ~3 miles back home uphill after sailing. It's felt pretty normal and "non-clinical", and my final heart rate's been pretty moderate after the ride uphill -- though I usually don't count the rate 'til after I turn off my lights, take off my helmet, and lock everything up.
For a month or more I've been trying to get my Rehab place to give me another stress test, now that (a) I'm off Metoprolol and (b) My CV fitness seems much more normal than it was in February when they did the first one. Three Tuesdays ago they were supposed to give me "telemetry" -- a Holter-like 12-lead monitor that transmits wirelessly on their walking track -- but one of the other RNs grabbed the gizmo before "my" RN came to get it, so it didn't happen. Two Tuesdays ago I discussed my "problem" with one of the other RNs, who said it seemed obvious that I should have another stress test, and I readily agreed. Soon after I got a phone message from "my" RN, telling me who to call to set up another stress test!
TODAY WAS THE DAY!! I got on the special bike, gas-analysis tube in my mouth, BP cuff on my right bicep, my cheap Chinese BP cuff on my left wrist. (I always put it on the right, but that's where THEIRS goes!). They wouldn't let me see the screen with my results, just the little screen that showed the bicycle's RPM, which I was supposed to keep between 60 and 65 -- though later they told me I could go 65-70 if I found it easier. (I didn't.) Of course, the resistance gradually increases as the minutes go by, as it does on the treadmill (which I've used more often).
In February (on Metoprolol), I pedaled for 10 minutes, which felt like it was going to kill me. Later I heard that my pulse only got up to 137, but by then my rhythm was getting weird and scary. As a result, my Cardio RN suggested that I not go over 127 in my exercises -- which seemed way too low, based on my monitoring while skiing at Whistler, even WITH the Metoprorol, and even more so since I've dropped it.
Today they kept me going for 12 minutes, apparently all sinus rhythm, and my HR got up to around 143 before they got bored and decided to quit and go home. (Yes, I was the last appointment of the day, at my request -- night owl!) At one point, the tech at the screen commented that my BP was 30 points lower than it had been at that point in my first test, in Feb. The two of them must have said "Good JOB!" about 6 times -- roughly the way you'd say it to a dog that finally learned a trick!
They mixed it up with a few "Great test!" comments, too. . .
Tomorrow I go to my weekly Cardio Rehab class, at the same place. My Cardio RN should have the results of the stress test by then, and it will be interesting to see how it changes my "exercise prescription". I'm guessing she'll at least give me permission to do what I've already been doing, on the bicycle!
BTW, my $20 Chinese wrist-based BP-&-HR monitor HATED working on my left wrist! I've used it maybe 150-200 times since the surgery, and it's given an error message on one occasion, maybe two, in the whole time. Today, it was determined to give repeated error messages instead of readings. After we were finished, I tried it on my right wrist, and it worked fine!! The numbers seemed plausible, too.
