Since my surgery almost two months ago, I have struggled with the fitness regime assigned by the Heart Institute. It’s boring!
I didn’t mind when I had to do short walks and that took all my energy. But once I hit two half-hour walks a day, I lost all enthusiasm. After all, that was a 15 minute walk from my house, then 15 minutes to get home, twice a day. I have lived in my house for more than 35 years and know every nearby garden and most of the dogs. I need variety!
On top of that, the rest I was supposed to get wasn’t very restful, which just made me crankier.
So I did what every bad patient does and started making up my own exercise routines. First it was short bike rides, then an hour-long jazz class (so tired after but also so energized by seeing friends!). I added in swimming as soon as my incisions were closed. Most recently, I have returned to ballet class.
I have an appointment with the hospital physiotherapist to talk about my cardiac rehab program in a couple of weeks. She has already been warned that I would be pushing the limits of the normal recommendations, and said it would probably be okay as long as I listened to my body.
So I’m listening: early to bed, sleeping up to 10 hours a night, napping when I need to, lots of protein, fruits and vegetables.
Hopefully I’m doing well enough on the cardio goals that I won’t get lectures and I’ll end up with an approved exercise regime built around the things I enjoy.
If you have ever done rehab following illness or surgery, did you follow instructions exactly, or were you tempted to do more or less? How did that work out for you? Let me know in the comments.
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