The Heart Walk

Did you ever wish your body had an instruction manual? Well I got one. It's a bright red folder with the words Cardiac Health and Rehab stamped on the front. Inside is my new life. On one side is a list of all of my medications and before and after pictures of my heart. Instructions on dosage and a pretty grim list of warnings and side effects make for some interesting reading. On the other side is my new manual. I have a new diet. It's not very different from the old. I have a list of no no's. No smoking, no activity, no sex. Sigh. My new goal in life is to have one so I'll do as I'm told. So what is a cardiac patient allowed to do? There's a page for that to. It's my exercise schedule. My walks are my new chocolate. I look forward to them everyday and count down till my next one. My page has a schedule that looks like this...

Week 1 - Walk 4-5 minutes 3-4 times a day
Week 2 - Walk 6-8 minutes 3-4 times a day
Weeks 3 - 4 Walk 10-15 minutes 2-3 times a day

Ultimate Goal is to be walking 30-45 minutes 4-5 times a week.

I will agree to all of this but the ultimate goal. Mine is quite a bit higher then that. My goal is to be running again. Maybe even run in that 5K I've been dreaming about. I don't see why I can't just because I have a stent in my heart.

My first week home was hard. My leg is very sore and I quickly figure out that walking helps. Unfortunately, I want to walk further then my new body does. I figure out why I have the list. 4-5 minutes means just that. No more. I set goals for myself and work towards them. Today I'm going to walk to that oak tree. Tomorrow I want to make it to the beach. Next week I want to go to the far side of the marina where the shipyard and shrimpboats are. Eventually I want to walk out of the marina and down Seacliff Drive. This may not seem very ambitious but right now Seacliff Drive may as well be the moon.

Because I love to and I need to I will walk no matter what. Rain or shine I'm out there. Quite often lately that's rain. You have to love the south. A few times I have gotten dizzy while walking and had to sit down. The trick is not to panic and to just rest for a bit. Don't get up and the feeling will pass. Last week right when my butt hit the dock it started to pour. All you can do is look up and say "Really? Are you kidding me?!" I sat there getting soaked and when I felt better I walked home. I toweled off and felt great. I met my goal that day by making it to the beach. Yesterday I got stuck in one of those steady drizzles. The first thing people do in the rain is run through it. I'm not allowed to do that right now so I just continued on my way. Lo and behold it was enjoyable! I walked through the marina, the only one out, in a misty rain and thought about how I'd never done this before. I was lucky to be alive so I was lucky to walk through the rain.

Before you worry, I have some walking rules. I didn't make all of them but I'm responsible enough to follow them. I always carry my phone when I'm out by myself. If I'm going to a new goal I call my husband and let him know where I'm going. One of my prescriptions is Nitroglycerin. It's the stuff you see old guys on TV slipping under their tongue right after they grab their arms and keel over. Luckily for me it's never that dramatic. Nitro stops chest pain. It's an emergency back up and will buy me enough time to get to a phone. I have to carry it with me at all times. It's just a tiny ampule that holds 25 tiny pills. I tied a string around the little ampule and keep it tucked in my shirt. As the nurse in the hospital said, " You don't got nothin' I'd call cleavage but you can still hide stuff in it." I have to agree! Lastly, if I get dizzy, I sit. God forbid I survive a heart attack just to fall off the dock and drown. Now wouldn't that be ironic?