What is cardio rehab??

[wnickles]

This may sound foolish, but I was wondering what is it? I will be having a mitral valve repair/ replacement..?? and was told I would need several weeks of cardio rehab. i am 34 years old. What is cardiac rehab???? What happens there???

 

[Ross]

Basically it's excercise boot camp complete with mean instructors that make you do things that you don't want to do.

Seriously, it is excercise class geared toward strengthening your heart and lungs and tonning you up. If you don't already go to a gym and work out, it's hard.
Some people do their own rehab for one reason or another, but you have to have the discipline to make yourself keep going. If not, that's where the instructors at boot camp come in.

Here is a great article from Mayo about Cardiac Rehab:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cardiac-rehabilitation/HB00017

 

[tommy]

My rehab consisted of stretching and gradual increases in activity on a stationary bike and treadmill. Visits 3x per week for 12 weeks. I was hooked up to a monitor. The nurses monitored my vitals by remote control on their computer. My heart rate had to get below 100 before I could leave. BP's before and after for charting progess.

I was out of shape and over weight at surgery. Classic couch potato! I started the treadmill at 2.0 MPH at zero incline for 20 minutes. Boring. Every second visit they incremented me. Voila! 12 weeks later I was 4.0 MPH at 4% incline for 20 minutes. Never sore. Never stiff. I highly recommend rehab.

 

[JimL]

I needed cardiac rehab very much to tell me one thing: how much to do. Otherwise, I would have done too much in order to speed recovery. Or I would have done too little, in order not to hurt anything. Cardiac rehab told me exactly how much to do. It was well worth it. Besides, the nurses were cute.

 

[temp69]

I just started it. Main thing is, when you frist start, you're BEING MONITORED by an RN, hooked up to ekg, so they can if you're going to have a meltdown or if your heart rate is too high.

It's basically a safety measure, and you get to meet some nice people, too.

 

[wnickles]

Thank you a lot all for the information. Am also a bit overweight although the cardiac catheter showed no blockage of any kind and I do usually walk the dogs for about 45 minutes per day. The cardiosurgeoon used the word deconditioned which in nice words probably means overweight. I was told that after a couple of weeks after the surgeyr that I would have cardiac rehab for I believe 8 weeks so I wanted to get a better idea what it was. Thanks again for the responses.

 

[labguides]

Our daughter (age 26) had cardiac rehab after her mitral valve repair. The main advantage to her cardiac rehab was --- RN's were great about reassuring her that everything was OK.

 

[Kate]

The other side benefit of cardiac rehab is the chance to talk to other people who have had heart surgery - sort of an informal support group. I highly recommend it! Kate

 

[Christine]

I liked it.. as the rest would atest.. it's geared for heart patients just out of surgery.. (2-3 weeks out) so the RNs monitor everything and help guide how much you s/b doing..

as far as meeting other heart patients.. yes, the support is great.. my only downfall - my group consisted of mostly elderly men with a few elderly women who had by-pass surgery.. I was the only "young" one there, let alone a young female.. (35 at the time) who had AVR. I did the 3x / wk for 12 weeks.. they also include educational classes on nutrition, healthy choices etc...needless to say, since I was the only young female there let alone AVR to boot - I kept the classes interesting without even trying..

serioulsy, I think they are worth it.. especially since my insurance paid for it.. although I could have done without the heart monitor constantly hitting my scar, the top part didn't heal as nicely as the rest due to that... oh well.. could be worse.

Chris

 

[901]

I'd recommend rehab for everyone! My rehab nurses identified my heartblock condition and got things started toward getting a pacer. W/o rehab, discovering the heartblock would have taken a long time and I would have been angry about my slow recovery for the wrong reason!