Follow Your Exercise Program

The struggle for recovery from open heart surgery begins the day you get home from the hospital.

The currency of improvement is pain. Not in the " no pain, no gain" sense. It is just that everything you do hurts. It hurts to breathe. It hurts to move. God help you if you have to sneeze or cough. Everything you do hurts.

That is just the way it is. As time goes by things get easier, especially if you follow the exercise program laid out for you by your physiotherapist or doctor.

Within a month after surgery I was walking everyday and starting to take an interest in things outside of my own little sphere of misery.

Looking back from a few months down the road to recovery I realize that there are a few key areas that need to be balanced in order to find your feet and stride confidently forward into your new life.

The first is mental. Your attitude will dictate your reality. For example there is a huge difference in seeing yourself as "suffering from heart disease" versus "recovering from surgery to repair your blocked arteries".

See what I mean? one is a positive statement. I'm better, the problem has been fixed and I'm now moving forward. The other is negative. I am a victim of disease.I am suffering. I am stuck here.

I know this sounds like mumbo jumbo but depression or the blues is a big problem for us as we come to terms with what has just happened. Open heart surgery is a life-changing event. More importantly maybe is that it is a lifestyle-changing event.

The physical challenge is easier to deal with in some ways. Yes it will hurt as you start to move around but as a man I found the problems easier to understand. I do two small walks a day and soon I will be able to take bigger walks. Simple, linear, it makes sense and doesn't take any deep thinking.

I confess, those first efforts were pretty pathetic but it is eight months since my surgery and my target now is 10,000 steps a day - every day. Some days I only manage 7,000 or so but others I can get up to 12,000 steps, give or take.

The hardest struggle has been to beat the blues. I'm still working on that one but I think time is my Allie. The better I feel physically the easier it is to feel better mentally.

Steps today: 10,576.