starting cardiac rehab tomorrow, and checking in.....

[JennNIN]

has anyone else had cardiac rehab and did it help? I'll be going 3x a week for 1 hour a day. I also will be meeting with a nutritionist when I go too. (I've been gaining a few lbs due to FOOD as opposed to just water.)

I go for another echo at the end of May and I'm hoping to have made some progress by then. My last Echo the end of February was at 38%. =)

In other news, I've been back at work full time now for almost a month, hence my disappearing act. It's great but a bit stressful. I feel ok, with no palps and rare shortness of breath. The only thing that seems to not decrease is my edema. It's not awful but it's there and gets worse at night. Even with the 40mg, 2x a day, I still get swelling. I've got to get control of my eating, I know that's a part of it.

Well, just wanted to pop in and say hi and get some imput on the rehab. Hope all of you are well!

[marissar]

I went the first time with an ef off 40 and got very sick, body couldn't handle it. A few months later with an ef of 50 I did it again and done wonderful. Though the first few days are hard. But it builds your strength over time.

[SusanD]

Hope your cardiac rehab goes well, Jenn ! I used to work in cardiac rehab and I also did cardiac rehab myself after I was so sick. My 1st day I could barely walk on the treadmill for 5 minutes....but each week I improved was eventually up to running for 20 minutes !

Some of my younger patients complain about being the youngest there and how it feels weird, but the older people are just going to love having you there, will be *so* perplexed as to why you are there (no amount of explaining on your part will convince them that you don't have blockages , LOL !) and they will watch out for you and encourage you as well. You will have the reassurance that someone is watching you on the monitor and that you are save.

Let us know how it goes.

[amyls]

YES..ME!!! My EF was just below 40% when I started too. I was 2.5 yrs out and YES! It helped, I think it was the rehab!! I went for 3 months, then my next ECHO which was 4 months later my EF went up to 42%..not a huge jump, but it went up! Then the next yr, it was up even more, but I also lost some weight as well. So GOOD LUCK! I'll be 5 yrs out in July, hopefully I'll be completely recovered!!
amy

[melissamph]

My cardiologist wouldn't prescribe me cardiac rehab! I wanted it so badly. He asked me if I would walk daily and do various other excercises and I said yes then he said as long as I did it at home that there is no need for me to go somewhere to do it so that I could be at home with my baby and then one year old and 6 yr old too. It worked as I am now at 65% 2.7 yrs out from diagnosis at 30%. I think rehab is a wonderful thing! I havn't experienced it though myself. Good luck!

[SerenaWelsh]

My doctor kept telling me I wasn't ready for rehab, but I pushed the issue, and he finally let me go.
It kicked my butt, and I became very ill. For me, breathing and edema wasn't an issue. I used up all my energy and literally could not function.

It's as if every morning I'm given a cup of energy, and I get to decide how I use it. I can pace myself and make it last all day, or I can jump on a treadmill and stationary bike and be completely used up before noon. I think it also didn't help that I had some kind of crappy PEs who didn't know an awful lot about CHF.

I do want to go back and try again - especially now that I've seen an increase in EF!

[dawn]

Great, Jenn...let us know how it goes. You do have a lot going on with work, cute kid and rehab. Hope it gives you some more energy!

dawn

[christyh]

Yes I went to! I think its recommended for you to have an ef of at least 40, but I'm not sure on that. It did seem to help, but it did tire me out alot at first. They will build you up over time, I think the first day I only went 5 minutes on the treadmill then slowly worked up to 20 min. I also got to see the nutritionist, she gave me alot of great pointers. I had to keep a food journal, which I hated, but I did loose some weight. It was a good program and I would say it was worth it.

Christy H

[JennNIN]

Thank you all for responding to my other post! I am a bit exhausted now but WHAT A RUSH it was.

I did fairly well on my stress test so they started me out on 3 machines, a stationary bike for 10 minutes, a nu-step thing for 10 minutes and the treadmill at 3.0 mph for 20 minutes. The highest my bp went was 144/82. I apparently did pretty good. I did get a bit winded but got over it. It felt great to move, felt great to be around people that are all doing this to live longer. Yes I was the youngest there but it didn't bother me. This place is great, they give everyone their own pace to work at at their own level. There was even a woman there running on the treadmill. I wanted to be her so badly, lol...

All and all, very empowering, considering before I had Chelsea I was worried about dying and couldn't walk up my driveway without getting short of breath. I almost can't wait for my next echo! =)

[melissamph]

What a terrific attitude and great effort!!! Way to go!!! Keep it up and you will blow the Echo machine to pieces with that heart "workin it baby"! You go girl!!!

[momoftwoboys]

I see you are steadily improving. Way to keep yourself motivated! It's always nice to see someone with such great motivation and determination. I was never able to make cardiac rehab because of my work schedule. So, you'll have to do a few extra minutes for me next time you go, LOL ;) .

[JennNIN]

I'm beyond exhausted this morning, couldn't get out of bed to save my life but I'm sure I'm on the road to recovery. =) I'm going to ace my echo, I feel it. =)

All for my little bean Chelsea.

[momofthree]

Hey. I did a bit of cardiac rehab while I was still in Portsmouth. It was good for me. I was only at 10-15% but they still wanted me to go. I could barely walk at first. I had been in the hospital for a month and had major deconditioning of my entire body. I was too skinny and totally tired all the time. But I did improve quickly. It was amazing actually how our body will respond. Anyway, what made all the difference was the totally cool and supportive cardiac rehab nurse. She was light in my life.

I continued and did continue to improve but started walking the dog at my friend's house rather than going into that sterile environment when the weather started to get nice. I needed my sunshine. By the way, the dog was a chihuahua so this was not a major thing...hahaha :)

I am to start cardiac rehab here too. I have a stress test at the end of May to see how it goes. The neat thing was that I could walk and talk and really listened to my body. I gained quite a bit of confidence as I learned that I was not going to keel over by pushing myself a bit. There was some uncertainty there due to my lack of knowledge. I learned how much energy it took for various activities and that helped, too.

Hope this helps. It really increases confidence and it does help our bodies.

Keep us posted.
Sincerely and Healed as I go,
Alison

[Anny311]

Hi

Glad your first day went so well. I loved cardiac rehab. Although I did get a lot of questions from the "old people" some of whom were not much older than me!

When my doc told me he was sending me I burst into tears and said "I have to exercise with old people!?!" Such a drama queen. He said that exercise would not help my EF (?) but that it was good for my heart and he was prescribing it so I wouldn't be afraid to exercise. I went 2x a week for about 6 months and it was great! I've been meaning to stop by and say hi to all of them and show off the babies. I must have started about 2 years ago!

Anny311