Janice's Posts

I started cardiac rehab last week. Today was my 5th day and I am 7 weeks post op. I am trying hard to get better. To not get back to where I was, but better. Does anyone else ever feel like others are getting in your way of getting better? At home people are doing things for me that I can do for myself, which is nice, but I don’t need to be treated with kid gloves anymore. I went from being a very independent and adventure loving person to a dependent scared and cautious person and I don’t like the new me. I was excited to start cardiac rehab because I knew being monitored would take the fear away and I would be able to figure out what I could do on my own outside of rehab. Today was so frustrating at rehab as have been the other days because I feel like they won’t let me work to my potential. Today I started with the same speed and incline (a whopping 1%) on the treadmill as I did on Monday. Within 5 minutes they told me to take the incline to 0 and a few minutes later told me to slow the speed down. After 20 minutes I moved on to the bike and the same thing. They said they didn’t want my heart rate over 150 and it had gone to 156. I was working hard but not excessively. I could have carried on a conversation while I was going which is how I judge how hard something is. Isn’t my heart supposed to be better than it has been in a while? Isn’t it actually healed now? I had OHS AVR with a tissue valve. I have no idea how hard or easy to walk at home and feel like I can’t progress if I keep being told to slow down. I love the people at rehab and the program, too. I’m just frustrated. Anyone else have a similar situation?