Graduation Day

I completed my cardiac rehabilitation classes today. The nurses said I graduated.

Three days a week for the past three months I have dutifully trekked to Howard County General Hospital to rehabilitate my cardiac. I am proud to say that my cardiac is fully rehabilitated.

I’m glad to be done.

It wasn’t the exercise that bothered me. I have come to accept that my lot in life is to make exercise part of my regular regime at least five days a week. It was the other stuff I grew to dislike like strapping on the remote EKG monitor. Each time, after the class was finished, I’d defoliate my chest just a little more as I tore off those sticky EKG pads off my chest. My chest hair now resembles a rogue timbering operation.

I also hated having my blood pressure taken while I ran on the treadmill.

I’m going back to my old gym now. I haven’t worked out there since the treadmill incident. I’m looking forward to returning to that routine.

I will miss the people though. The nurses, Susan, Allyson, Beth, Ann, Cindy, Diana and Tricia (I probably missed a name or two) were terrific. Their humor and compassion made the inconveniences more than tolerable.

I’ll also miss my cardiac classmates. I met lots of great people over the three months. Some I posted about already, others I just met today, like Ed. Ed had a quintuple bypass. He was on vacation in Calgary when he came up short of breath.

“I really didn’t have any chest pains,” he told me.

I told him I didn’t either. Ed told me that he had actually been feeling fatigued for about a month before that fateful day in Calgary. “When I told that to my wife I thought she was going to kill me.”

If the heart disease don’t get ya, the angry spouse surely will!

When he got home and went to hospital he was admitted immediately. They told him he had two arteries that were 90% blocked and three that were 60% blocked.

Ed was just starting his cardiac rehab run. I told him that I clearly recall my first sessions. I felt like the new kid in school.

I’ll miss the women in my class too. They have made me think that perhaps I should start a new label entitled “Heart attack gals.” They have some pretty incredible stories too.

Still, I am glad to be finished. In my exit review with Beth she told me that I remain at high risk for another heart attack due to things I have no control over; my age and my family history. I guess it’s possible I could end up for some post grad cardiac rehab sometime down the road.

For now though I feel pretty good so I’ll just be happy with that.