10 weeks post surgery

[mecretired]

I am 10 weeks post surgery now. I feel great. I just celebrated by first birthday post surgery (with a week in FL). My husband said it was the 1st birthday of my new life. I said it was my 1st birthday with my "after market" parts. I started cardiac rehab 2 weeks ago--3 days a week. They have great equipment and really take a lot of time with me doing weights and other equipment that is not normally used for cardiac rehab. I use my treadmill and air dyne 2 days a week. I just got some lab work back and was very pleasantly surprised with my total cholesterol of 144 with HDL of 66 and LDL of 61!! I still have occasional problems with waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to sleep. My doctor gave me some ambien to take--I don't take more than 1 or 2 a week. The only thing I am still not too sure about is the warfarin/INR thing. I am definitely going to the home testing (at about 3 months). I am so thankful to all of you for the advice/support/words of wisdom you give. This site has been an enormous help to me.:smile2:

 

[Freddie]

Congrats and don't you fret about the warfarin, that's wasted energy. Just eat and do what you would normally do and your dosage will be adjusted.
oh yea, a big high 5's for your cholesterol levels - you go girl.

 

[BarbJean]

I am so glad to hear you are doing so well!!! After my son has his surgery next week, do you think they will have him do rehab? I never even asked the surgeon about it. Does everyone do it?

 

[mecretired]

I don't think everyone does rehab. Frankly, I'm not sure why my surgeon, cardiologist and cardiac rehab guy at the hospital all insisted that I should do rehab. (I have a treadmill and an air dyne at home that I use.) They said it would help me get back my upper body strength. And, I know, exercise is good for everyone. Since I have already met the catastrophic limit on my insurance, basically the rehab is free. So I am approaching the rehab as a free gym membership with a personal trainer for 36 sessions. So I intend to take advantage of it and get in good shape. I would really recommend it to everyone.

 

[Bean Counter]

Congratulations! Sounds like things are progressing nicely.

BarbJean-I was an avid runner prior to my surgery. All 3 surgeons I met with said I would not need cardiac rehab unless I wanted it. They said it would be more frustrating than anything. The surgeon gave me instructions of exercise as tolerated. but told me I really needed to be careful the first few weeks. So far so good.

 

[sweetbanker]

Happy Birthday & keep up the good work your going in the right direction.