I am so excited! It's been only four weeks and one day since my double valve repair open heart surgery, and this evening when Lynn and Connie took me on a walk around our neighborhood in the beautiful Sandia foothills, we walked for nine tenths of a mile. That's almost a mile, WOW!
I'm not saying that we burned up the track, but I'm both encouraged and proud of our accomplishment. Connie pushed the oxygen tank again today. She will have some muscles before all this is over.
Lynn reminded me that it was only a week ago that I'd struggled to walk up our drive and down to the next door neighbor's mailbox and back. Progress seems so slow to me, but I guess I'm doing a lot better than I think. The trick is to keep after it even if you're not feeling up to par.
I remember the days after surgery in the hospital when the nurses would have me walking the halls NO MATTER WHAT. There were indeed some days when I just thought that I couldn't do it, however, my experienced post operative nurses knew that the quickest way to a full recovery was to get me out of bed and walking around those long halls.
Today, I've been in quite a bit of pain from the fluid retention and pericarditis and I have felt totally exhausted all day. In fact, I almost called the walk off, but I didn't want to miss a day of exercise. Besides the benefit of gaining your strength back, walking and moving around also helps clear the fluid out of your chest.
I'm still sporting the Prednisone mask today. It seems to get fire red like a sunburn, but then gradually fades only to return with the next dose of the drug.
Recovery from open heart surgery is not a sprint, I'm finding that it is a jagged marathon. As in a marathon, you need to pace yourself, but you also need to keep doing the things you know to do that will help you cross the finish line.
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